Water for Life is Raising Money to Provide Clean Water Filters for Haiti After Hurricane Matthew

At Water For Life, we see a lot of difficult circumstances in our quest to relieve the suffering circumstances of our fellow humans in the world, however, what we are seeing in Haiti in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew is truly saddening. While the country of Haiti is a resilient country and group of people, one has to ask ourselves, “how are they going to survive this tragic disaster?” It was just under 6 years ago the people of Haiti suffered through a 7.0 magnitude earthquake and were still in the process of rebuilding. They are now suffering through a massive CAT 4 hurricane that devastated entire cities, left kids without clean water, families without homes, and a nation with a humanitarian crisis. The United Nations is estimating over 1.4million will need aid.

Just like with Nepal, the Philippians, and other areas struck with natural disasters, at Water For Life Charity we are aggressively pitching in to be a part of the solution and relief. Just a 3 days ago we launched a campaign to raise $50,000 to send as many possible water filters to our support groups on the ground in Haiti.

After just 3 days of promoting our GoFundMe campaign for Haiti, we have raised over $4000, with other committed donations coming. We have placed our first order for 500 filters and will be delivered next week. 500 filters have the capacity to purify over 75,000 gallons of water per day (150 gallons per day x 500).

One of our humanitarian partners “Hope for Haiti” has already designated their plan for receiving our filters and assisting with other forms of humanitarian aid. Our contact Joshawa Hodges outlines the details of that plan below:

Here are some bullet points of what we are working on and currently seeing in the Southern Peninsula:

• We are on the ground leading aid relief to the hardest hit areas and coordinating relief and distribution efforts with hundreds of partner organizations
  • Working in conjunction with USAID, World Food Programme, Samaritans Purse, the US Military, and many more…
  • Have mobilized over 1.5 million meals to the Southern Peninsula, as well as bottled water and medical supplies
• We are providing aid via helicopters, barges, and trucks
• There are still many UNREACHED areas with people who have gone a week now with no food, water, or shelter
• Cholera is spreading in areas
  • Currently setting up cholera treatment facilities in multiple points between Jeremie and Les Cayes
• We are concerned the fatalities from starvation and cholera could greatly surpass the number killed in the storm
• Needs:  FOOD, AIR SUPPORT FOR DROPS, AQUATABS AND WATER FILTERS, MEDICAL SUPPLIES FOR CHOLERA AND MALARIA, AND LUMBER
• Long-term food supply sustainability is a concern. 90% of crops and chickens have been destroyed along coastal areas. We need partners and donors to help create sustainability in the food supply, and we are working hard on finding a solution for this!
• We are praying for continued favor in our relief efforts and that logistics line up in a way that we can get to the areas that haven’t received any relief yet!

Excited to hear about the first 500 filters coming to Haiti. They will be a huge component of the ongoing cholera prevention plan.

As Joshawa notes above, Cholera is one of the deadliest possibilities in the wake of a hurricane with this kind of infrastructure devastation. With our water filters, so much of these deadly diseases can be avoided.

Please consider donating to help us prevent the loss of life for the families in Haiti by donating to our GoFundMe campaign at: https://www.gofundme.com/waterforlife-haiti

The Water For Life Charity Team