Our Mission is to raise awareness for Clean Water for Haiti (CWH), a charity working to provide clean water in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Labadee is a port located on the northern coast of Haiti. It’s a private resort leased to Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Many of the very large cruise ships such as M/S Oasis of the Seas (as seen above) stop there, however only a very small group of Haitian merchants are allowed to sell their merchandise and establish their businesses in the resort while the rest of the population struggles to survive due to a severe lack of sanitation, disease outbreaks and access to clean drinking water.

The inspiration for this project occurred one day in 2015 when one of our web designers used a Glacier Filtration Water Machine at his neighborhood Publix Supermarket. It sparked his curiosity to learn if poor people in the Caribbean had access to this type of advanced UV-treating reverse osmosis water filtration technology for as little as 35 cents per a gallon.

Little did he know that his curiosity would start a Mission in response to a humanitarian crisis…

Support CWH with your Amazon Purchase today — Purchase Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here for?” and 100% of our Amazon affiliate proceeds will be donated to Clean Water for Haiti (CWH), a 501(c)3 charitable organization to provide clean drinking water for the Haitian people.

He learned that just a few hundred miles away from Miami on the impoverished island nation of Haiti, people were dying from waterborne diseases such as cholera at an alarming rate because they lacked access to clean water. Most of Haiti’s water is contaminated and many families battle severe illnesses and face even death each and every day simply because they lack access to clean water.

For many people in the remote areas of Haiti, the main source of water is silty and muddy brown canal water. About 30 years ago, a water cleaning system called the bio-sand filter that’s made out of cement, gravel and sand was first developed by Dr. David Manz. It removes 99.99% of the pathogens with the remaining safely processed by our immune system.  Clean Water for Haiti has been very successful in reducing the death rate from cholera and other waterborne diseases in Haiti by installing thousands of bio-sand filters in Haitian households all across the impoverished island, especially where people live in extreme poverty and lack basic sanitation services. Once the bio-sand filter is installed in a home, you can only imagine the smiling faces of the small children when the first few ounces of water comes flowing out of their Bio-Sand Filter; clear and fresh-tasting for the very first time. The bio-sand filter uses a multi-stage bio-layer, sand and gravel bed design to slowly remove disease-causing microbes and pathogens.

After several years of Clean Water for Haiti (CWH) working in Haiti, they realized that most Haitian people have access to water, however disease outbreaks are a major problem because the water is contaminated. After the 2010 earthquake, there was a major outbreak of cholera that claimed the lives of over 10,000 people, mostly in the rural and remote parts of the island nation. The death rate has subsided, however when the heavy rain season starts, the island suffers from a major spike in the number of cholera cases. Only 30 percent of the people in Haiti have access to a toilet. The Haitian government depends heavily on external financial assistance from organizations such as the World Bank Group to prevent cholera and other waterborne diseases in the high prevalence zones of Haiti. The Clean Water for Haiti charitable organization addresses the problem by building and installing the Bio-Sand Filter which is made of cement, sand and gravel and “mimics” the Earth’s organic cleansing processes of flowing streams, aquifers, limestone caves and other naturally occurring water cleansing systems. Haiti suffers from a massive deforestation problem which further exacerbates the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera.

The government estimates that the death toll from the 2010 earthquake was a 1/4 of a million people!

What is cholera and how did it take the lives of over 10,000 people in Haiti? According to an article by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the first documented case of cholera in a century in Haiti was in October, 2010. Cholera is an infectious disease that causes severe, watery diarrhea and can lead to death in just a few hours, if left untreated. After January 12th, 2010 when the earthquake hit the island with a magnitude of 7.0 and displaced about 1.5 Million people, the nation experienced two more aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 causing even more devastation and destruction. A panel of experts was assigned by the U.N. to investigate the cholera outbreak in Haiti and found that their deadly strain was a perfect “match” to the strain found in Nepal. A Nepalese team was staying at the U.N. camp in Haiti and poor sanitation sent raw sewage from the U.N. camp into the local waterways and within a few months of their arrival after the earthquake, the first case of cholera  was reported in a hospital near the U.N. camps. The Haitian population had no immunity to cholera and the crisis is analogous to how the colonists brought smallpox to the Americas which decimated the indigenous people. Cholera hit Haiti with an explosive force.

It took the U.N six years to acknowledge its role in the outbreak that left over 10,000 people dead in Haiti. When the United Nations admitted it’s role in the deaths of thousands of people in Haiti from cholera, it delayed any kind of remedy or corrective action to prevent more infections in fear that it would demnify the U.N. and expose the organization to serious liability and lawsuits from similar catastrophes worldwide from their peacekeeping efforts. A class action lawsuit was brought before an international court, but it was dismissed as the judges ruled that the U.N. was granted immunity by international treaties. The disease is endemic with thousands of people sickened every year as Haiti continues to struggle with water and sanitation. To further exacerbate the cholera outbreak, Hurricane Matthew hit Les Anglais near southwestern Haiti on October 4, 2016 and it wiped out small villages such as Rendel (as seen below) and contaminated the rivers with runoff sewage from the hillside tops that increased the death toll from cholera to over 10,000 people and made hundreds of thousands of people sick after the hurricane landfall.  A worldwide Crisis Response Effort was able to save countless lives from the perils of the earthquake and Hurricane Matthew but so much more work has to be done. The Haitian population struggles with water and basic sanitation. It lacks a national sanitation system and needs your help.

By the end of 2011, there were 283,362 cases reported with thousands of deaths reported. The mortality rate was about 18/1,000 persons but it’s believed to be much higher (“double”) because of under reporting and lack of case studies and reporting in the most remote parts of Haiti. The main causes of death from cholera are diarrhea and respiratory tract infection.

For people living in the United States, it is hard to comprehend how so many Haitian people died from diarrhea and dehydration. When young American children suffer from diarrhea and deplete their electrolytes, their mothers can rush to a local Wal-Mart and get a bottle of Pedialyte in under 5 minutes for as little as $5. For the most part, Haitian people didn’t have access to this type of electrolyte-infused water to fight the debilitating effects of diarrhea and dehydration which contributed to their deaths from cholera. Pedialyte is also a well known elixir among young American millennials to remedy a night of binge drinking with friends!

Most people in the United States of America take for granted the basic necessities of life such as access to clean water, a toilet and basic sanitation services. According to the World Bank, Haiti has a population of over 10 million people with only about 30% of the population having access to a toilet.  Many impoverished nations suffer from similar circumstances; India has a population of 1.34 Billion where less than 28% of the population has access to a toilet and cholera claims thousands of lives there every year. For many of us living in the United States, it’s hard for us to make the connection with having “access to a toilet” and the difference it could make in the life of a young Haitian girl and whether or not she receives an education and independence or she is locked down by poverty and subjugation. For women, the gravity of contaminated water is even more severe because polluted water leads to women and children dying from child birth related infections in Haiti at an alarming rate every year, a health crisis that’s uncommon in wealthy developing countries like the United States of America.  The lack of clean water is the main factor in the spread of cholera. You can make a difference in the life of a young Haitian girl.

CWH invests net proceeds back into Haiti through the development of these bio-sand filters which are built and manufactured on the island of Haiti and provides training programs to educate the citizens of Haiti about the benefits of clean water and the use of bio-sand water filtration. All of the materials such as cement, sand and gravel are purchased on the island. With the exception of the tubing and diffuser basin (Step 2 below) which can be difficult to find, the materials used to build each unit are purchased in Haiti.

In each bio-sand filter unit, contaminated water enters the diffuser basin (Illustration: Step 2) at the top then flows down through a bio-layer (Illustration: Step 3) and then into a sand bed (Illustration: Step 4).  The perforated diffuser basin is used to protect the bio-layer (“good microbes”) from disturbance when water is poured into the bio-sand filter. By slowing down the flow of the water, the bio-layer is able to efficiently remove pathogens and suspended solids from the water. As the water filters through the sand bed, it migrates to the gravel bed (Illustration: Step 5) and then the clean water is pushed to the top through tubing at the side of the unit that dispenses clean water for each family. The bio-sand technology in each unit “mimics” the naturally occurring water cleansing process of a limestone cave or aquifer very efficiently. Clean water is produced with simple materials such as cement, sand and gravel and CWH produces JOBS to help build the Haitian economy. Access to clean drinking water is so vital to our health. Just one bio-sand water filter unit can affect the lives of 10 people on any given day in Haiti.

Over 25,000 bio-sand filters have been built since 2001 when the charitable program was first initiated with 95% of the bio-sand filters still in use from the first year in homes throughout the island nation of Haiti. Each family pays $5 USD or the equivalent of 315 Haitian Gourdes to receive a Bio-Sand Filter in their home so the unit is perceived as something of value. They receive training on how to maintain it. Haiti is one of the most water impoverished nations in the world. We can help ease the problem of disease and death in Haiti through the installation of these bio-sand filters to help the Haitian people gain access to clean water, a liberty most people in Florida and the rest of the United States take for granted every day. Please help us reach our goal of assisting CWH build 60 Bio-sand filters this year; one per a Haitian family and provide clean water for 600 people.

The brunt of the burden to find clean water is often bestowed on the young children and the women of Haiti who have to walk 5 – 10 miles each day to a well. Water is the essence of Life. Give the gift of Life with your donation today!

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Compassion is the true wealth and currency here on Earth. Jesus and his parents fled Judea to Egypt to escape King Herod’s mass killing of male children (Matthew 2: 13-15) . In 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama escaped Tibet after the Chinese invasion and occupation, for fear of being killed. Both men were driven into exile and became refugees. Their teachings represent the true nature of kindness and compassion.

Anything you can spare will stretch very far in Haiti…$5 …$10.  You can make a difference today!

The current exchange rate for $5 USD is equivalent to about 315 Gourdes HTG.

According to Haiti Outreach, a local grassroots charity that works to improve the quality of life in Haiti, where 37% of Haitians consume only about 1,900 calories a day (87% of the minimum). As you can see, your participation in the Organic Resume Project will have huge impact on the lives of countless people there who live way below the poverty line. The situation is a desperate daily struggle in Haiti. 80% of the residents live in poverty and two and a half million Haitians live in extreme poverty with the richest 1% of Haitians owning the same wealth as 45% of the poorest segment of the population. Haiti is in dire straits and lacks basis services such as access to clean water and sanitation.

Please show your compassion for the Haitian people. Will you join us in the fight? Donate!

Clean Water for Haiti is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works in partnership with the Canadian registered charity, the CWH Foundation to provide Haitians with access to clean water.

Click here to go to Clean Water for Haiti directly and donate via PayPal: Clean Water for Haiti.

Please donate to Clean Water for Haiti. You can make a difference today!

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You can sponsor a link to our Mission Page on your website. By spreading the word, we will help save many lives this year from the perils of cholera and waterborne diseases. Your visitors will be able to learn more about Clean Water for Haiti.

Please email us if you have any questions.

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