Leslie Rolling | Clean Water for Haiti

About Leslie Rolling

Leslie has been with Clean Water for Haiti full time since 2005. After 17 years living in Haiti full-time she now serves as our Executive Director for Canada and the US, supporting our team in Haiti and making it possible for them to continue getting filters to families who need them most.

Just Keep Juggling

Aug 30, 2018

It’s been a long time since we’ve posted anything here on the blog. So sorry about that! I feel like what we do is always a fine balance of juggling a lot of different balls all at once. It all revolves around getting filters out to families and households, but there’s a lot that goes into that, and the work doesn’t always look like we think it might.

For example, writing blog posts. It’s not just about updating everyone on what’s going on here, it’s about telling stories. It’s about bringing you into things here and allowing you to be part of it from where you sit reading this. You might not be able to travel to Haiti (though we would love it if you did) but you can be here in other ways seeing how important the work we’re doing is. When we get a chance to share here, or through social media, we’re expanding our reach and allowing others to join us on this journey.

In the every day stuff, some of those “balls” that we keep in the air are things like making sure all our vehicles are working well and reliably. It’s making sure the finances are all up to date so we know where we stand with things. It’s having the right staff in place, and having them trained well to do their jobs. It’s working with our Board of Directors, volunteers and people who are doing various jobs to make this whole thing work. It’s communicating with donors and supporters. It’s building relationships within our community. It’s trying to work in a way that is truly helping Haiti rather than doing more long term damage.

In any given day you’ll see all of the following happening…

Trucks getting repaired and out for installs…
Washing sand and gravel for installs…
Doing facility maintenance…
Finishing some projects on the guest house…
Unmolding filters, prepping molds for the next pour later in the day, and painting.

Along with everything that goes on out in the work yard, there’s everything that happens in the office, doing errands, hosting guests… it can be a long list some weeks.

So how do we get to the point where things run like a well oiled machine, even with so many “balls” in the air?

The short answer is that we build up an amazing team of people.

The team that we have here at Clean Water for Haiti is truly amazing. There is no other word for it. But, that hasn’t come without a lot of hard work from all sides.

When you work cross-culturally it can take a very long time to get to a point beyond just being friendly with people. There can be huge miscommunications. There can be a lot of frustration. There can be a lot of everything, and sometimes it feels overwhelming.

We have gone through times in the mission’s history, where things were really hard with our staff. We’ve all had to learn a lot, and a big part of that has come with being vulnerable and working to trust each other. Our staff have seen countless numbers of foreigners come into the country, do what they want, and then leave. We’ve had to not only show that we’re here for the long term, but also that we truly value the people that our staff are, and that their ideas and input are not only needed, but wanted. When you live and work in a country with a past drenched in slavery and colonialism, these are really difficult things to overcome.

In the past 5-6 years we have seen a huge shift in our staff. We’ve set a high bar for them to reach, and they have not only done that, but shot past it in so many ways. Part of that has been us telling them over and over that we know they could do it. Part of it has been setting an example by maintaining those standards. If you say, “This is the bar,” but don’t consistently hold people to that, you won’t ever reach the bar. Over time, we’ve developed a standard of what it means to be a CWH employee, and now, it’s our staff that hold each other to that standard.

A perfect example of this is Evens, our Foreman. He’s been with us since 2005, when he was still going to school for part of each work day so he could finish his secondary education. Over the years we’ve seen him grow into a man of character that we very much respect. Recently, while doing an interview with a potential employee, Chris had to step out for a minute so Evens continued on with the interview. The very first words out of his mouth were, “At Clean Water for Haiti we’re a family…” He then went on to explain that in our family we don’t accept theft, lying, etc. I smiled to myself as I worked at my desk because I loved that our staff tell other people this about working here. We’ve worked so hard to get here!

At other times I’ve seen our staff get frustrated with something that an employee does that results in them getting fired, because in their minds it’s foolish. We have had employees go through disciplinary action from us as Directors for something that maybe didn’t warrant needing to be fired, but a bit of time to think about things and choose a better path. The other staff have their own discipline that happens in those moments too, because as they’ve told me – CWH is like a chain, and when one member of the chain does something they shouldn’t, it breaks the chain and they need to earn their way back in.

Our staff really set the tone for how things are here at CWH. When we have visitors, especially those that speak Creole and understand a bit about Haiti, who go out with our team for some reason, it brings us so much joy and satisfaction when they tell us what an amazing job our team do out in the field. To hear that the communities they go into respect them and very much value the work they do, as well as the organization as a whole. Our team have built up a reputation that reaches farther than we know.

Yes, running all of this sometimes feels overwhelming, but when things are running well, it’s the best kind of overwhelming, and right now, it’s the best kind of overwhelming.

In the past few months our team has done an incredible amount of work, and Chris and I sit here just feeling blown away by all of it. When we started developing plans for the new facilities, we knew we wanted to double our capacity, which meant building things so we can build and install 400 filters per month. We’ve been pushing toward that goal for several years, but still thought it was out of reach. This summer our staff have proved that it wasn’t as far off as we thought.

In the month of July our team installed 441 filters. As of the end of the work day yesterday (Wednesday) our team has installed 391 filters. They’re out on a delivery today, and another one is scheduled for tomorrow. If all of those filters get installed we’ll end up doing over 450 filters this month. What has been the most surprising is that we’ve done this with a broken down truck that needs a motor rebuild, and another truck that was down for several days for repairs, too. We’ve also managed to keep up with all of the follow up and repairs that have needed to be done.

We’re ecstatic to see this happening, and we know that our part in this is to just keep all the balls in the air and keep this well oiled machine running.

~Leslie

A Long & Winding Road

Feb 15, 2018

Last week I had the opportunity to go out on a delivery day with our guys. You might think that we do this all the time, but we actually don’t. In fact, I hadn’t been on a delivery in several years simply because my work load and schedule back at the mission didn’t allow for it.

When I do get to go out I love it. I feel like it grounds me back to why we do what we do. When we only see the front end and production side of things, then rest becomes theory and it’s easy to feel a bit disconnected from it. When I get to go out on the truck I not only get to see the end game while filters are being installed, and meet our new filter owners in their homes, but I get to spend time with our staff in a different context. A context where they’re in charge, not me.

Our days start early here at Clean Water for Haiti. 6 am to be exact. For part of the year the sun is just barely starting to make things light when we circle up and pray for the day. The delivery truck has to leave right after that, especially if it’s heading to the Artibonite Valley, because the police shut down the cities to large trucks from about 6:45-8:30 am for school and work traffic. It’s just a way of easing some of the congestion, but it means we have to be on our toes and get through fast.

This past week we had a board member and her family visiting, so there were 11 of us on the truck. I always try to sit in the back on top of the filters with the guys if I can. I love the view from back there as we head out in the wee hours. I get to see people getting their day started and Haiti coming to life. There are very few times where things still feel quiet and kind of still here, and it only happens in the early morning.

Driving down into the Artibonite Valley is one of my favorite things. At one point you come around a corner after cresting a hill, and the whole valley is there before you. In the early morning as the sun is coming up you can see the haze that happens when warm air starts to meet the chill of the night. The air is still cool, and you can see charcoal fires letting up their puffs of smoke. A certain times of the year when the flamboyant trees are blooming there are bursts of orange dotted through the valley of rice fields and crops. It’s really breathtaking.

As we came down that hill I looked back at the guys, all lost in their own thoughts and only occasionally trying to talk over the roar of the road noise. The sun was coming up and I kept thinking of the day ahead and what it would hold. We were heading out past Ti Riviere, a place I hadn’t been to since my first year in Haiti, so at least 11 years.

After a quick stop in Pont Sonde to get some food, we turned off the national highway. Eventually we drove through Ti Riviere, which was much more developed than the last time I had visited. I’m always excited to see progress in Haiti, because it’s easy to feel like not much changes. Slow change is good though.

About 5 minutes out of town, as we were driving down a dusty road, there was a pop! Then a hiss as the outside back tire of the truck quickly lost all of it’s air. Richard quickly pulled over and we had not one, but two flat tires. We hadn’t even installed a single filter yet. The guys quickly took the tires off and one of them hopped on a moto taxi back into town to take the tires to the repair boss.

Two hours later the tires were back, they were mounted back on the truck and we all loaded back on. When I asked how far out we were going the guys told me it was far, really far. It was going to be a long day, tires aside.

We drove up and down hills for over an hour into a part of Haiti I had never seen before called Savanne nan Roche (savannah in the rocks). I found it hard to describe to Chris later because it was green in places, and dry in others. There were a lot of natural water sources, and I lost count of the number of times we crossed them. At least 20, but probably closer to 30. We would be driving down into a little valley and all of the sudden there would be a clear spring of water next to the road with people bathing or washing their motorcycles. Then we would be climbing up again heading over the next peak.

The thing that amazed me when we did finally get to our general destination is the number of people that actually lived out there. Remember, we’re at least an hours drive away from the nearest town, over roads that will definitely wash out and be almost impassible during the summer rainy season. And yet there were always more people.

We started to let guys off at intervals to deliver and install filters. I was looking forward to this part because it meant being able to just observe them as they did their jobs. The interaction that our staff have with the filter owners is one of the most important parts of their job, and we’ve got newer technicians out in the field now.

Typically, back at the mission, I’m “Madamn Direk” – Mrs. Director :) Some of the guys that have been here longer call me Les, which I like, but they do it with respect, knowing that there are still employer/employee boundaries. They defer decisions to me or Chris because we’re responsible for everything and we need to have last call on most things. Out in the field though, things are a bit different. I’m still Madamn Direk/Les but I don’t wear the hat as blatantly simply because installing filters isn’t my area of expertise – it’s theirs.

I loved being able to watch almost all of the guys do an installation. I liked that as they were doing them we were having conversation back and forth about their process, not in the sense that they felt like I was checking up on them, but as co-partners in work. When the filters were flowing too fast we threw around ideas about why that was. When we were pressed for time Richard threw the clipboard at me and asked me to fill out the installation form so Oberto could focus on the installation. I was given the marker to write the number on the filter lid, or asked to time the flow rate while the guys held their container under the spout. I got to work alongside them, and let them be the experts.

This is really my favorite part about delivery days. Yes, I love seeing how families are excited about their new filter, and having the chance to talk with them and take pictures, but more than that I love being able to just be with the guys. We get a chance to do and talk about things we don’t normally get to do and talk about at the mission, simply because we have different jobs there. The best part for me is that I see how encouraging it is for them to have me seeing how they do their jobs. I know they’re proud of the work they do, and having the chance to show that off just makes them prouder. And let me tell you, our guys are worth being proud of. They’re an amazing team that are so dedicated to what we do here. I really don’t even have the words to describe it in a way that will do it justice. You really just need to come on a Vision Trip so you can see for yourself.

The guys were right, it was very, very far. And it was a really, really long day. We installed our last filter as the sun was setting, then had to drive at least two hours home, arriving at around 8:30 pm. I would love to say that this is abnormal, but it’s really not. Delivery days are typically at least a 12 hour day. Our guys work SO hard, and I respect them so much because of it.

I have a ton more to write about the whole experience, but I think breaking it up in bite sized pieces is a better option than dumping it all right here, right now. I’ll look forward to sharing more with you next time.

~Leslie

All In A Day’s Work

Feb 7, 2018

Do you have those days where you think there’s no possible way that all of the things you want to get done can be accomplished? I’m pretty sure we all do. We actually have those days quite often here in Haiti, and Haiti itself likes to throw wrenches in the wheel, so to speak.

We recently had one of “those” crazy days where we went did that just happen?!?! when it was all over. I need to back up though…

Back in mid-January our XTerra broke down. What we hoped was a small overheating problem ended up being a big the motor just blew problem. Our Santa Fe has gotten to the point where we can’t take it out of the local area, so we’re essentially down to a single vehicle that we can’t do much with. On the same day that the XTerra went down, the white truck broke down and needed about a week of down time for repairs. Yeah, we like to do things big around here.

We talked about all options for the XTerra, and realized that unless we were going to completely replace the motor in it, there wasn’t much sense in putting money into it. We couldn’t get a motor in Haiti that we would trust, so we moved on to plan B, which was looking at shipping in a new to us car. Please know that this wasn’t something we just pulled out of our hats, we had actually already been planning on doing this to replace the Santa Fe so we could have two reliable cars and had been working on it with a board member in Florida, who would have bought the car and dropped it off at the shipping company for us.

It just so happened that the following week we were already schedule to fly to Florida for our annual Board Retreat. The wheels started turning and a plan started hatching. And then Plan B, and Plan C. Then there was Plan D, just as another option. Yes, we were wondering if we could actually manage to land, buy a car, and deliver it to the shipping company in the same 5 day period that we were supposed to be across the state at our Board Retreat…

Chris did some research with Drew, our Florida board member that was helping us. They found some good options for another XTerra. Chris had print offs and addresses. In the course of looking at car listings on Craigslist he found a listing for motors with low milage that were in perfect condition, but had been shipped from Japan where they have stringent laws on emissions and motors and all that stuff. He quickly realized that we COULD replace the motor in the XTerra here in Haiti, for less than $1000, if we could just get it here. If only we had something we could ship it in… ;)

Were we totally crazy for attempting all of this? Probably. Was just thinking about all of it stressful? Um, yes. But, if you don’t try you won’t know if you can make it work, so we tried.

On the last Thursday of January Alexandre sent his driver out from Port au Prince at 3:30 in the morning so he could be here early to pick us up to go to the airport. Since we didn’t have a reliable passenger vehicle this was the only option. We left the mission at 6 am after getting the work day started (yeah, that’s early, but that’s what we do here). We got to Port and went to pick up Alexandre at his house, then headed to the airport. We checked in, passed through Immigration, got something to eat, then boarded our flight for Fort Lauderdale. While we were in the boarding line Chris was on the phone to the US talking to the guy with the motors, and then to the various owners of the cars for sale to see where we should start when we landed.

Two hours later we landed and hit the Immigration lines. We had no idea what to expect because this was Alexandre’s first time going through this process. He’d travelled to the US before, but it was always for police training and on military planes. We knew we just needed to be flexible and wait where we needed to. Chris and I assumed we would go through the speedy line but I ended up getting flagged for some reason, so we all ended up going through the special lines together, and Alexandre only ended up taking a couple extra minutes. With that out of the way we headed out to the rental car shuttle.

We arrived at the rental car place, did all the paperwork, got our car, loaded up our bags, plugged the address for the first and best option on our short list of cars, and hit GO! We arrived at the dealership selling the car and while Chris took it for a test drive I walked across the street and got us some lunch. Before our food was ready Chris was back from his test drive and had made a deal. We gulped down our lunch, then headed to the bank to get the cash for the car. Back at the dealership I sat down to start working on paperwork and Chris hopped in the car with one of the guys from the dealership and a dealer plate to drive over to the business selling the motors. Two hours later Chris was back with not only the new to us car, but a motor for the broken down one in the back, all wrapped and ready for shipping to Haiti.

We left the car there, and hopped in the rental, set the address for our Board Retreat, then hit the road. About 3 hours later we arrived in Cape Coral, and found a place for a late supper before heading to the house.

We spent the weekend with our Board of Directors and had a great time working through things that needed attention and setting goals for 2018. The weekend wrapped up and Monday we packed up, then got back in our rental car to head back to Fort Lauderdale. We had the car, we had the motor, but we still needed to get it to the shipping company. Again, we had a few ideas, but needed to wait until we got back to the dealership to make any firm decisions.

When we arrived the best plan worked out really fast, and within about 30 minutes a flatbed tow truck showed up. Jason loaded the car, tied it down, then we caravanned over to the shipping company, about an hour and a half away.

We arrived, Jason unloaded the car, parked it, waved good-bye and we started on the paperwork. We had been told to expect the process to take a couple of hours, but we were done in about 45 minutes and on our way.

Let’s just say it was a CRAZY 5 days, but we did it! We have a car, we have a motor, and hopefully in about 5-6 weeks we’ll have two reliable vehicles again!

~Leslie

A Year In Review

Jan 11, 2018

I feel like we get to the end of the year and we’re always kind of crossing our fingers and hoping that things will end well. We know we’ve worked hard and done everything we can, but we’re also in the midst of holiday giving and seeing how that will affect how we set direction for the coming year. It’s like holding your breath to wait and see where everything will land.

I’m sure there are people out there that are scratching their heads and wondering why we would be wondering what the coming year will look like and waiting on funding, but that’s just a bare bones reality of what we do as a non-profit. With being a non-profit in general. As much as we dislike it, we recognize that funding determines how hard and fast we can work in the coming months and year. That’s just how it is. We don’t like it, but we have no choice other than to roll with it.

I’ll be honest, last year was a bit of a stretch funding wise, but once again we saw a loaves and fishes situation where we always seemed to have just what we needed when we needed it. We went into our holiday giving campaign crossing our fingers and saw some slow momentum but by the time we finished work and wrapped the year up with our Christmas staff party I think we were accepting that it wasn’t going to be an amazing success.

Until it was.

You guys, we set the goal of raising $20,000 between Canada and the US in the months of November and December with our Make Waves Campaign. After all the totals were added up and things were converted into US dollars, we had over $100,000 donated!!!

$25,000 is a grant from the International Foundation that we applied for earlier in the year, and were awarded in December. $10,000 was donated specifically to the purchase of a new work truck. We’re SO close to having all the funding for that. The rest was simply donated for the filter project, and we couldn’t be more excited.

Humbled, actually.

This was the biggest donation response we’ve had in years, and it was so exciting to see things roll in, and know that we were going into 2018 in a much better financial position than we’d been in for the past few years. Sharing the news with our staff this week as we started back to work brought a lot of smiles. They know that they are such a vital part of making this all happen, and that you see the work they’re doing for their country. Thank you for encouraging them through your support.

Looking back over 2017 I can tell you that we installed slightly more filters than in 2016, and we’re happy about that. Did we reach the goal we had set? No, but we did a lot of really good work, and this year we’re going to keep pushing forward.

In 2017 we welcomed new board members and spent some really good time as a team this past summer deciding on where to focus our energy. In two weeks we’ll be meeting again and growing things even more, and we’re all really excited about that. I wish you could meet every one of our board members in person because they’re a solid, committed group of people that love us well and want to do what it takes to make Clean Water for Haiti an amazing organization that is truly helping Haitian families. It’s a privilege to work with them.

We saw our guest house finished! We still need to install kitchen cupboards, but we opened our doors for guests in November and it was heavily used all through December with rave reviews. I honestly think the building turned out better than we ever imagined that it would, and we’re so excited to see how it will be used to host people who come for trainings this year, who join us on Vision Trips, and for friends and family who want to visit or need to just have a place to get away and rest. Did you know that Chris and I also volunteer with the Canadian Embassy as wardens, which are people work as a liaison between the Embassy and citizens in country in times of crisis or emergencies? They stopped by in December to check out our facilities so they knew what was available in the event they need to shelter people. We’re so happy that this building is available for so many uses.

One of my personal high points for the later half of 2017 was having Kim join our staff. Over the years the work load here has grown and changed, and my role has moved from being extra help to being vital, and I’ve spent the past few years feeling overwhelmed because I couldn’t do it all. Kim has been such a great and much needed addition to our team and has just fit right in, in a way that we never could have planned ourselves.

Our staff. We love them so much. They’re such a hardworking group of people. While we had to let go of some last year, we also added people to our team, and we’re seeing them grow and take on more responsibility.

YOU! You’ve been such a highlight of the past year for us. Out of all the donations we received in November and December, a large part of them were from brand new donors. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who gave of their hard earned finances to support the work we’re doing. Thank you to those of you who comment on social media, or leave blog comments. We read them all and feel so encouraged when you take a few minutes to say hi. Thank you for praying for us. We know that not everyone that supports Clean Water for Haiti shares our faith views, and we love that. For those that do, your prayer support mean the world to us. Please know that when we say we can do any of this without ALL of you, we mean it from the very bottoms of our hearts, and it always feels inadequate.

So, what’s coming in 2018???

Well, we have a grant to process through! And we have a couple of Rotary grants in the works that we’re hoping to see distributed this year. There are a lot of people working hard behind the scenes in the US and in Haiti to make that happen.

We know we’ll be getting a new truck!!! We’re so close to reaching our goal, only about $10,000 more to go. Being able to make that purchase is going to see two years of fundraising come to an end, and that feels really good. It’s going to mean that we’ll be able to do more deliveries and offer more repair and maintenance services faster. We’re very excited about what this is going to mean for our program.

With Kim on staff this will be the first year in quite a while where we’ll be able to keep operations up and running through the summer months while our family takes our annual vacation. This is something we’ve been pushing towards for years, and we’re so excited that we’ll be able to offer uninterrupted service to our filter recipients and keep our staff working through the summer.

We’re able to host Vision Trips once again! So excited to welcome people to Clean Water for Haiti and let them see what we do in person. If you’ve thought about coming to see us check out the Vision Trip page for more info.

This will be the first year since 2014 where we won’t be dividing our time and energy between our day to day operations and construction. It feels SO GOOD to know that while we have some small projects to do, we’re DONE all of our buildings at our new site, and that we can get back to focusing 100% on doing what we do best – getting clean water to people.

There’s so much more I could say, but I feel like the best way to leave things is to just let you know that we’re excited for 2018! How could we not be?!? I’m looking forward to sharing all of it with you as we charge full speed ahead.

~Leslie

Another Year In the Books

Dec 15, 2017

I had plans to get this scheduled and posted first thing today, but maybe it’s really fitting that I’m only now sitting at our kitchen counter trying to eek it out at the last minute. It actually perfectly sums up how I’ve been feeling about things around here for the past few months.

The past few months have felt like a marathon for us, running from one thing to the next. They’ve been full of wonderful, much needed things, like finishing our guest house and welcoming Kim to our staff, and traveling so we could meet donors and supporters and share about the work we’re doing here in Haiti. In the midst of all that, we’re still carrying on with our regular work, and we should probably use the word “regular” very loosely because I feel like there’s never a “regular” or “normal” week here in Haiti.

Last week, for example. We welcomed students to our training class on the weekend. Monday we started class. I drove our kids to school, and got in an accident when I was hit by a motorcycle taxi trying to pass me on the left, while I was making a left turn. I wasn’t at fault and everyone involved is okay, which is a miracle. Rather than going home and jumping back into the training class, it meant Chris coming to meet me and spending part of the day at the local police station dealing with all that, in the special way that only Haiti can throw at you. We returned, and kept plugging away at the class. Kim rolled with everything like a champ even though she had never done this before, and our staff stepped up like they always do. Wednesday we welcomed three guests from CAWST for the night. Class continued. Friday class finished and we headed into a busy weekend. This week the guys did two deliveries. They pulled up and redid/finished a driveway project because it got washed out in a freak December rain storm. And they got stuff ready for a three week break. Chris went to a conference on Monday. Kim and some of the guys went to a meeting for community health clubs on Wednesday. I went to Port au Prince yesterday. Oh, and we have family arriving too! And a staff party! All before the end of day today.

No, there are no normal weeks here. And you know what? As exhausting as it can be to have to completely throw your plans out the window on a weekly basis, or feel like you’re running from one thing to the next to make sure everything gets done, I am thankful for it.

In my 12 years of working with Clean Water for Haiti I’ve learned to be way more flexible than I ever thought a human could be. I’ve learned to be thrown into difficult situations, like having your car hit at full speed by a moto taxi with three people on it, and be able to roll with things. Sometimes it means setting the feelings aside for a bit and just getting the business of life done. Sometimes it means riding the roller coaster of emotions right there in the moment. There are days where we fail and realize we could have done things differently, and other days (more often than not now) we get done with whatever is in front of us and realize that we’re getting better at making decisions, processing, and giving directives when needed. We see the progress.

Today as we wrapped up our work year, we ended on a high note by celebrating together during our staff Christmas party. I think it’s a good way to end the year. No matter what struggles we’ve had, we still celebrate our successes. No matter which employees are no longer with us, we celebrate the ones that are and their dedication to making Clean Water for Haiti a great organization. No matter whether we met all of our goals, we still rejoice in the fact that hundreds upon hundreds of families and households in Haiti are drinking safe water today, because of the work we’ve done this year.

I looked around the room many times today and my heart swelled with gratitude for the team we have. We laughed and ate and played games. The tables were turned on me too, because instead of being the one taking the pictures of everyone else, several times our guys got out their phones and made us pose with them for photos! It was such a fun day, and such a great way to end our work year.

I asked the guys what they wanted for food, and they gave me a big list of Haitian food mixed with North American food. There wasn’t much left when we were all done!

Christmas Bingo! This is where everyone’s competitive side comes out :)

We played pin the nose on Rudolph, and everyone had to take a turn. Some of us were more honest in directing people toward Rudolph than others…

We have several birthdays in December, and birthdays at CWH mean cake! I always like to do something special for the staff party, and this year we had a spontaneous photo shoot in front of it when all our staff got their phones out and started snapping pictures.

If you’ve been following us on Facebook in the past couple of weeks, you’ll know that we’re focusing on Advent this month, and this week’s focus has been love. For us, that’s at the root of what we do. We’re here because we feel called to love people in a very tangible way. We feel called to love our staff by seeing the potential in them and holding them to a high standard. We love this country despite the challenges and struggles with just doing daily life here. We love the work we’re doing because we know it changes lives.

Today we’re celebrating another year under our belts. Another year of work. Another year of lessons learned. Of failures. Of good times. Of tears and laughter. Of seeing Haiti move that little bit forward.

I know that many of you are still doing your Christmas shopping, or are starting to think about year end giving. If you’d like to do something that will love people in a real, direct way – in a way that may actually save a life – make a donation to Clean Water for Haiti. Do it because you love people, and because you want what’s best for them. Do it to celebrate with us as we finish another year of work. Do it in honor of those you care about and make that part of their Christmas gift from you this year. All through November and December we’ve been running our Make Waves Campaign, with the goal of raising $20,000 by year end, and we’re almost there! Help push us over the edge and know that you’re helping to give people something that has real meaning this Christmas.

GIVE NOW

Thank you for all of your love and support in 2017!

~Leslie