Hi everyone,
I’m writing to share a brief overview on what we are expecting from our fall trip to Haiti.
- What we plan to do:
Just wanted to get a quick note out to everyone and let you know/remind you all that Mercy League Haiti has a Fall trip to Haiti to work in Mme Paul’s orphanage, (specifically me and Larry and my brother Matt). As you remember, we started a project in July (composting latrines) but we were cut short due to time constraints and some other issues. However, we are going back in just a few days on November the 1st to finish up, at long last. The situation there at Mme. Paul’s place has always been really ugly in regards to septic facilities and such. In reality, all their bathroom facilities amount to little more than a few holes dug in the ground. The kids all wander in unsupervised and use the facilities but a lot of the fecal matter winds up on the ground because some of the kids are so small and the toilets so crudely formed. Additionally, the latrines are located about 20 or so feet away from the cistern that holds the water for the orphanage. This posed a serious health risk so we relocated the new facilities to the other side of the orphanage grounds and we converted to a composting system so that the soil is not being contaminated by feces-born pathogens.
- The Cholera Ourbreak
As a side note, some of you may have heard the news about the sickness in Haiti in the form of Cholera. We’re still proceeding with our trip as planned because we don’t believe that this health threat will in any way affect us but we do appreciate all your prayers that God would keeps us from being infected with this sickness. This, ironically, is a disease which is contracted by the ingestion of contaminated water and this is exactly the need that we are going to work at meeting. This outbreak brings to light the importance of our project so please pray all the more for us that God would give us good health and great focus for accomplishing this job.
- Funds
As ever, our funding is tight for this trip so we ask that anyone who might feel the a burden for this project to please feel welcome to make use of our “donate” link on our home page of the Mercy League Haiti website at mercyleaguehaiti.org. We are so grateful to receive any gift no matter how small.
Thanks all and stand by for follow-up reports
Luke
