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News and upcoming events from Believe in Haiti
March 2020
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Believe in Haiti is devoted to keeping Haitian families together through love, education, and service, while empowering individuals to rise above their current poverty level.
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The Journey of Water
Water is a simple, easy thing many of us take for granted. Unfortunately, that is not the story in St. Rock. Acquiring water requires quite a bit more effort than taking a few steps to the nearest sink. Here are a few ways the people of St. Rock access water.
Personal Water-There is a spring in St. Rock with an access point for the people to gather water. This specific point is controlled and owned by another organization and usually open to all the people to access water. It is no easy feat to collect water here, though. Depending on the location of a person's home, it is anywhere from one-half mile to a full mile to get to this spring, which is a hike up (and down) a steep mountainside. The person who gathers water brings along a bucket to fill, trying to collect as much as possible, while still being able to carry the water back home. This is an all day job that is vital to survival.
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Water for Hygiene- Outside of the school is a handwashing station, where water has to be brought in and stored in a large container. We hope to soon put a handwashing station similar to this outside of the Hope Center.
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Water for Cooking- Cooking over 1200 meals per week requires a lot of water. It is impossible that we could hike down to the spring and collect the necessary amount of water. Luckily, there is another option. Believe in Haiti is able to purchase water for a nominal fee from a locally owned spring source. As simple as it sounds, this takes a few hours each time. First, we seek out the owner of the source of the spring. He holds a key to turn the source on and off. After we find him, he has to travel to the bottom where the source is to turn it on. Then, we go up to the main source where there are many spouts to collect water. We fill as many containers as we can (usually around 75 gallons or so) and finally load them into a vehicle to transfer them to the Hope Center. At the Hope center, the food is prepared and then stored in buckets, where all the water is used just for that one day of meals. We can then deliver the food to our feeding program at the schools. When it's time to prep the next meal, the whole process begins again.
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Water for Farming- Farming requires a lot of water. During rainy season, it's pretty easy! But Haiti experiences a very dry season and now we have a solution to get thru. Recently, the impluvium was completed. This was dug out, cemented, and completed by many of the men in St. Rock alongside a professional. This project was a ton of work, and will see big payoff. The impluvium can hold up to 30,000 gallons of water. For $100, Believe in Haiti is able to truck in 3,000 gallons of water. We do this once a month in order to start building the water supply. The impluvium is then used to supply a simple and effective irrigation system. Each post holds a bucket filled with water, which then feeds gravity-led tubes along the rows on the farmland.
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The impluvium; A Believe in Haiti member constructing one of the new irrigation systems
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Click below to watch a 5 minute video and learn about how Believe in Haiti got started.
This video was created 4 years ago, when Believe in Haiti was serving 500 meals a week. Now we are able to serve over 1,200! We couldn't have done it without YOU!
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We have now planted cabbage, peppers, tomatoes and spinach on the farmland. The seeds begin in the "nursery" area. They are protected and grown closer together for strength and water conservation. As they mature, they are transplanted to another section and the nursery is used to start new seeds.
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One of the nearby orphanages recently shut down, displacing many children into another orphanage. We loved getting to visit all these sweet children in their new home last month.
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How to Help This Month
- Support MAD (Make a Difference) week at a local-Colorado High School! Use this link to go to Village Book Builders MAD webpage. Scroll down and choose the option to donate to a library for Haiti! ENDING SOON!
Village Book Builders is a 501(c)3 organization that builds libraries around the world!
- A monetary donation is always helpful. We know sometimes it's not always possible though. Sharing Believe in Haiti on Facebook, asking a friend to join our newsletter, or even adding Believe in Haiti as your AmazonSmile recipient is ALWAYS helpful!
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Sometimes you have to stop thinking so much and just go where your heart takes you. We must be the voice of those who have none.
- Mother Theresa
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The Gift of Student Sponsorship
Your help will provide these students with an education, supplies, and meals.
Sponsor a student today, change a life forever.
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Upcoming Events
Visit our vision trip page for the most up-to-date info on vision trips and to learn more about this life-changing opportunity!
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Thank you!
Everything Believe in Haiti does is only possible because of your help.
Want to learn more about different ways to help? Whether it's a monetary donation, service project, or attending one of our vision trips, we'd love to see how you BELIEVE IN HAITI too!
Click HERE to learn more!
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