Solving the sanitation situation in Haiti

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Haiti (MNN) — Few things are easier to take for granted than toilet paper, but what about people who don’t have bathrooms in the first place?

According to Eva DeHart of For Haiti With Love, sanitation is virtually unheard of in the streets of Haiti.

“If, in the capital of Port-au-Prince, they have a flushing toilet, you can know that they’re catching water on the roof, and anything that goes into those toilets is going straight out onto the streets,” she says.

And that’s a best-case scenario. “If you’re lucky, it goes into canals or rivers and ends up in the ocean,” DeHart says. Everyone else defecates somewhere outside. Sometimes, but not always, they’ll go into bags, but even that only goes so far when they simply throw the bags as far as they’ll fly.

“When you have entire communities who have no sanitary system at all, and most of them have no outside latrine, they’re defecating on the ground,” DeHart says. “This is a very unhealthy situation.”

That’s why For Haiti With Love is building latrines.

Photo Courtesy For Haiti With Love

For $3,500, they can help set up a community latrine to help provide sanitation needs for indigenous people. So far, their projects have been met with great success, and interest is quickly growing.

“The people were so excited about the last one we built that they wanted to know if they could have a three-hole rather than just a two-hole community latrine, and they were willing to forfeit what we would pay them in labor to help build it.”

As more latrines go up, more villages are asking for help.

“We’ve got a long list of communities now who are willing to set aside enough land to make this happen because they really, really want these projects,” DeHart says. ”We’ve got the land, the workers, the time- all we need is money, materials, and expertise.”

And it’s not just about sanitation. These latrine projects give missions workers a chance to share the hope of Christ during construction.

“They understand who they work for,” DeHart says. “Jesus will get the glory.”

Want to help? Consider giving your time, resources, and prayer to one of the latrine projects.

“Jesus uses his people. We need his people to listen to the problem, come forth, and be touched.”

By: Alex Anhalt | Mission Network News | March 30, 2018

 

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