Coming Soon ---- Clean water at the Good Shepherd School! Thanks to a team from Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Orlando, FL and some faithful supporters ..... Read all about it below or view a short video on the project here! As always, thanks for your support! Together we are making a difference in Haiti!
From our board member, Jack Couch:
After a visit to the school in 2012, Grace Covenant Presbyterian of Orlando made a commitment to improve the supply of drinking water for the children, and it has turned into quite a saga. At that time, local water trucks made a delivery about every two weeks. Children were given one cup per day during lunch or had to purchase a "packet" of water outside the schoolyard. The church team hoped to improve the quality and amount of water for the students.
First they sponsored the digging of a well, but despite everyone's best efforts both the water and the flow were inadequate, and they were forced to look at other options. But they didn't give up. With the leadership of Tom Eyerly and Trudy Phelps they researched alternatives until they finally settled on a system to provide "drinking fountains" for the children to use at their leisure.
But there were still two problems; first, the water is vulnerable to contamination, and second, how would the children get access? In June of this year Trudy led a group down to look into delivery systems. They settled on a simple arrangement of purification in an elevated tank feeding down through a pipe array to water fountain type bubblers. In September a team went down to construct it, but even as they were putting the fittings together they discovered that the cistern they planned to use was in such bad shape it had to be replaced. Fortunately they were able to meet with a contractor and reach agreement on how everything could be accomplished by local workers. They then returned home to begin the fundraising process while final plans were drawn. To date, the response has been very positive and we hope to begin building soon.
As always, nothing is simple in Haiti, but true progress can be and has been made through faith and perseverance. Soon the students will have a good supply of the water so essential to good hygiene and cognitive development. Thank you for your ongoing support. - Jack
Gratefully,
Charlie and Mary Scott, Founders Haiti Child Sponsorship
Chedrick Caneus, Good Shepherd School Director
Julie Scott, Christy Howard, U.S. Program Coordinators