Dear friends of Haiti –
Many of you have no doubt read the news of the devastation in Haiti after the three recent hurricanes in just as many weeks. Parts of the country are still inundated. Thousands of houses have been destroyed, there are still people waiting out the flood-waters on roof tops. Food stores have been destroyed. In a country where people are struggling to find enough to eat, the struggle just got harder.
The orphanage in Port-au-Prince where we were working and staying during our last trip had water in the yard and trees down. Fortunately, the house seems to have survived. But all the children were moved to higher ground in Petionville to stay with families there until the upcoming storms have also passed.
The dry toilets up in the mountains in and around Duchity have survived well. One advantage of the dry toilets is that they are above ground and hopefully the contents will also stay dry! We do not worry about them contaminating the surrounding areas at all.
I have not heard about the status of the Arborloos that were just built however. Those are shallow holes in the ground, and could easily have filled up with water. We will have to wait until things really dry out a bit to see.
Our partners in Haiti continue to plan some exciting projects, despite the weather. They are now working with an Agronomist who is volunteering his time to help them develop experimental gardens at everyone’s home – using different dilutions of urine on different plants. And developing the tree nursery as well, so that we will have trees to give to people when their Arborloos are full. The Agronomist has plans to develop experimental gardens at 3 different altitudes – sea level, mid-way up the mountain and at the top (Duchity is near the top). Hopefully we will have some data that we can share with others! They are talking to groups in other communities who are interested in building public dry toilets as well.
It amazes me, that despite the devastation, they hold onto their hope for a better future.
At this critical time, your help is needed more than ever! I hope you will continue to support YOUTHAITI, so we can continue to help the young people of Haiti. Please make your check payable to YOUTHAITI and send it to me, Gigi Pomerantz, at 6973 N Range Line Rd, Glendale, WI 53209.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Gigi
