Living Water!

 

Therefore with joy you shall draw water out of the wells of salvation.       Isaiah 12:3

In Bo Lise, Haiti where EHM does the feeding program, the life of a mother is to say the least, difficult. Imagine not being able to wash your dishes, do your laundry, bathe yourself or your  children or even brush your teeth the way that you'd LIKE to, let along NEED to. In our community there are 2 local wells that are not easily accessible, very far away and filled with salt water. Laundry, which takes the most amount of time and water, is a day or two worth of her time. Located near this community is a beach with a "fresh" water stream where everyone goes to do laundry and unfortunately this is also where they bathe. Same water stream. The moms gather their family's laundry in a wash basin, put it on their heads and walk 10 minutes to wash it and lay it to dry on the trash covered rocky "beach front".

The children can not come with them, leaving them to tend to themselves or leaving the neighbors or older children responsible. During the mornings the older children haul water to their homes providing the mothers a way to cook and clean for meals. The children must wait in line at the well, hand pump  enough or haul a bucket up from the bottom, to walk home hoping you save more than you lose. The children from 5-10 years old carry gallon sized jugs and the older children, if lucky enough, have 5 gallon buckets to fill.

 

Putting a well in this area means making water accessible to many.

 

·  Clean Kids; Keeping the children clean would cut down the risks and problems of disease. In 2013 we treated 14 children for 6 weeks for "gray spot" which is a fungus on their heads caused by lack of cleanliness. We have treated many children for stomach parasites as well due to unclean water and not being able to wash food before cooking.

·  Clean homes; The children all sleep on dirt infested floors causing horrible respiratory issues keeping them sick. With access to water the moms will be able to keep the floors a little more dust free! Washing plates, cups and silverware will be a sure way to keep cross contamination from happening helping everyone keep healthier.

·  Watering a Garden; We have tested our agriculture plan and planting a garden in this area will provide fruits, vegetables and spices to give better nutrition to the families and feeding program while also giving jobs to locals.

Thanks to a friend of EHM, Sandi Turner who applied for a grant from Ershel Franklin Foundation, we have begun a well! Hiring Komsu, the husband of one of our moms we are on our way to accessible water. In the photos shown here you can see how the men partner together to dig by hand and haul up the dirt to dig 125 feet until we reach water! We began on 1/18 and within 2 days the men were already 8 feet down! Fritznel says he expects these hard working and eager for water men to have the well finished by the end of Feb! We were able to put the well in the yard of our granny Magge who just recently turned 84. This yard is a 2 minute walk from our feeding program and we are SO excited to enjoy the blessings that God has provided! Please join us in prayer for this adventure and project. Safety, joy and strength for the men and for everyone to see God's faithfulness!