Blog | Clean Water for Haiti

28 Sep

Peyi Lock

Posted by Leslie Rolling Life In Haiti, News 2 Comments

“Peyi lock” are words we’ve been hearing more frequently in the past year. It translates to “country lockdown” and it’s a statement about current political issues getting so bad, the country is locked down and people can’t go about their day in a normal way.

Since last summer Haiti has been building steam toward a major outbreak of civil unrest. Chris and I have been watching it slowly roll, and after each of us spending more than a decade in country, we knew it was just a matter of time until things blew up completely.

Last summer the sitting president announced a major hike in gas prices, which is something that needs to happen, but the method was a major shock to the system, so to speak and people revolted. Since then, every few months or so, we’ve been going through days of the country being locked down, or “peyi lock”, as people protest the current government. These “lockdowns” take the form of roads being blocked by rocks, rubble, and burning tires and are manned by protestors. They can and have and do get violent at times, and in the really bad ones, police show up to try and restore order, which can result in tear gas or shooting. It’s not good, but it’s the way things work here in Haiti. This method of getting the government’s attention has been used for generations, and to the people, feels like the only way to be heard.

From an outsiders perspective it seems extreme, but I come from a country where my vote matters and my voice can be heard in many ways, so I can understand the frustration of feeling like you have to resort to extremes to have anyone pay attention. The sad part is that Haiti has built up a reputation because of this cycle, and so many of the good things that are here get missed because of it.

For the past few weeks we’ve been experiencing gas shortages and supply issues. There IS fuel in country, but businesses are not selling it consistently to put pressure on the government to raise prices. That does need to happen because Haiti was getting subsidized fuel for a long time, and the government set the price per gallon based on that, but when that supply ran out prices didn’t go up to reflect the regular market price, so Haiti has been selling fuel at a deficit for years.

As the lack of fuel increased throughout the country, people started to protest. Last week we had to stop sending staff out because we couldn’t get fuel, or because they couldn’t get where they needed to go because of roads being blocked by protestors. This week things have escalated. On Thursday rumors were circulating that Thursday would be a bit quieter, but for everyone to prepare for the “bataille finale” – the final battle – on Friday.

We’re never quite sure what to believe or listen to when rumors start to fly, so our usual approach is to just keep doing what we do every day, and see what happens without getting worked up or making big plans. CWH is very self-contained, in that we have a full solar system that powers everything for us, including our water pump that pumps water from our well to our holding tank for use around the compound. As long as our staff can get to work, we can work. And all through the unrest for the past year they’ve showed up every day, even when things were bad, so we just kept working. Yesterday we did exactly the same thing – we got up and we went to work, and so did the rest of our staff. Many were late because of road blocks between home and work, but they eventually got here and did a full day.

As the morning went on reports of major unrest through the country started to spread, including photos and videos. It’s hard to describe just how “big” this is, other than saying that Chris was here through 2003 and 2004 when things got really bad before Aristide left, and this is like that. In the 14 years that I’ve lived here, things haven’t been on this level.

I/we always try to be prudent in what we share, because we don’t want to exaggerate or blow situations out of proportion. Haiti already has enough bad press as it is. So, we try to wait and see what will happen, then share what we know to be true so those that follow what we’re doing have accurate information.

So this is what we know to be true right now…

Yesterday much of the country was shut down because of large protests. In major cities, especially Port au Prince, huge mobs took to the streets. Some were peaceful and marched and chanted. Others caused destruction of homes and businesses. Some were also violent. A lot of stuff was burned and looted. In some locations police stations were over run by gangs of people. When this happens it’s an indication that the scales have tipped, and it’s scary because everyone knows the police are already ill-equipped in situations like this. These are all things that have been verified by photos and videos, they aren’t rumor.

In our community things were quiet. The surrounding communities had roadblocks and some issues, but other than not being able to go anywhere, we weren’t affected by those. Our community has always had a reputation of being peaceful and calm and as one that doesn’t get involved in politics. We’re thankful for that because it means the mission is safe and that our staff can come and work when others aren’t able to do so.

We aren’t sure what will happen here in the next few weeks, but we know to prepare for this to continue, and we are as best we can. We’re asking you to pray for Haiti right now, and to follow along with what’s happening. One of the best news sources for what happens here is the Miami Herald. You can also sign up for our email updates and I’d encourage you to follow our Facebook page. We’ve recently started doing video updates so we can get a bit more personal in how we share.

Thanks for praying for this beautiful, complex country that we love so much.

~Leslie

05 Sep

15 Years of Clean Water

Posted by Leslie Rolling Filter Program No Comments

“How long does a filter last?”

It’s a question we get often as we share about what we do here at Clean Water for Haiti, and it’s a good one to be asking. People want to know if their investment in helping get Haitian families clean water is going to be a long-term thing.

For Chris and I, and our long-term staff, we know that filters can last a long time, because we’ve all had first-hand experience with them in that regard. Before CWH moved to it’s new facilities, the filter in the round house (it was literally a round house) had been working for 14 years, and we only had to clean it a couple of times, because our water source there was clear and the filter didn’t clog up at all. All of our staff are gifted a filter after 1 month of employment, so all CWH employees have had experience with their own filters working for many years. Some of our guys have been with us for over a decade, and their filters are still serving their families well.

But, what about filters that we install in the homes of others, for people who don’t have the same background and experience with the filters that all of us at CWH do? Do those filters last as long, and serve as well?

Last fall a missionary couple that we’ve known for about as long as Chris has lived in Haiti (early 2003) called to ask if we could send one of our filter technicians to check on their filter because it had stopped flowing properly, and none of the user maintenance that we teach our filter owners was working.

Kendy arrived and found one of our “gran moun” filters – one of the “old men” of CWH filters that have been installed. Mike and Marion said that they believed we installed this old man back in 2003, before CWH went through some revision projects to help decrease the size of the filter to make it lighter and use less materials, while maintaining it’s filtration capacity.

This version of the bio-sand filter was the same version that Dr. David Manz designed when he did the first designs for household use. Dr. Manz didn’t ever patent the designs, because he wanted them to be “open source” and free to the world. His goal was to make household water filtration available to anyone who needed it, whether they lived off the grid, or in a developing country with few resources for treating water. Last year Dr. Manz was inducted into the Alberta Order of Excellence for his work with biosand water filters.

The filter that Mike and Marion had, and that CWH used for the first few years of operation, was a beast. The concrete box itself weighed 330 lbs. That’s before any of the sand and gravel needed for installation was added. Another 90 lbs of sand and gravel goes inside the filter to make it function properly. We recently reinstalled one of our very first filters to use in the guest house, which was the same version that Mike and Marion had, and it took four of our guys to move it into the guest house to install. Can you imagine what our staff had to go through way back in the day when they were installing these things? Or the wear and tear on our delivery trucks?

Kendy, as he was attempting to do the repairs on the filter, commented that it was like working with a stranger. Everything was so different from what we do now in our filter program.

The filter box was bigger and heavier. The sand inside was coarser from what we use now. Instead of a diffuser basin there was a lip on the inside of the filter and a plastic plate (diffuser plate) was used. The lids, while nice varnished wood, were very basic compared to the carved lids we used now that are made by local craftsmen.

Kendy’s tools in his installation kit didn’t match the tube on the filter, so it was difficult to do some of the routine work that our technicians do. In Kendy’s opinion, we’ve made a lot of changes for the better over the years.

After working to do the normal cleaning, the filter wouldn’t run properly. Kendy took all the sand out and washed it, then reinstalled it – twice.

The filter still wouldn’t work, and after exhausting all options he and Evens, our foreman, decided to have Daniel drive a new filter over to Mike and Marion’s to replace the old man filter that had gone into retirement.

While Kendy was working Marion told us how much they had loved using their filter over the years, and told stories of the thousands of gallons of water that it had treated for them in that time. Imagine – 16 years of filtering water!

After Daniel arrived with the new filter, he and Kendy did quick work of installing it for Mike and Marion so they could once again have a working filter in their home. While they were sad to say good-bye to their old friend, Marion really liked the blue filter that Daniel had chosen for her.

So, is this story of a 16 year old filter a common thing for CWH, or a rarity?

Well, the truth is, we don’t know. We DO know that the filters owned by our staff and that are used at the mission compound have served us for over a decade (with the exception of the newest ones installed after we moved), with all the normal maintenance we teach our filter owners.

Part of our service plan to our beneficiaries is to visit their filter one month, three months, and one year after installation. During those visits we make sure the filter is working properly, and we reinforce the maintenance and user education. Because of those visits, and the data that we gather during each one, we know that over 95% of our filters are still being used after the first year. But, we didn’t know what happened beyond that, so we decided to find out. Two years ago we started doing 5 year follow up visits, and tracking that data as well. It turns out that this year, when those visits on filters installed in 2014 were done, over 80% of them were still being used!

Is it worth investing in Clean Water for Haiti, with the hope that you’ll be helping to provide clean water for a family for many years to come?

We think so.

~Leslie

29 Apr

The Director Writes a Blog Post

Posted by Leslie Rolling Uncategorized No Comments

Leslie and Kim are in charge of social media these days, so I rarely write any kind of update anymore. However, a few different people have called or written me in the past few months asking me if Clean Water for Haiti is still active. It turns out that it’s been a long time since the last blog update on our website, and work is a bit slow for me today, so I’m going to step outside my usual role and write to all y’all.

Visiting some people while out doing some video work for the mission. This lady gave me a chicken nesting basket to take home to Leslie and the kids for homeschooling stuff.

We are definitely still active, and we’re not going anywhere. For my part, Haiti has been my home since 2002. I’ve lived in Haiti longer than I have lived in any other country. In certain ways the United States and Canada feel foreign to me now. Leslie has been here almost as long as I have, and our kids only see the USA and Canada as places we go on vacation once a year. Kim is the newest addition to our Haiti office team, but she is working on almost two years with us and almost 4 years in Haiti so far.

It isn’t obvious on our website, but we don’t maintain an office in the USA or in Canada. We choose to focus on our work in Haiti and keep expenses as low as reasonably possible in the USA and Canada. We use a Skype number on our website that is set up to ring through to my cell phone here in Haiti, so I frequently end up talking to people who think I am stateside. Those calls can get expensive, so feel free to send me an email if you have questions – crolling@cleanwaterforhaiti.org.

The work is advancing by leaps and bounds. 2018 was our most productive year ever. We installed 3033 filters. We managed to buy a new delivery truck, hired some great new technicians (we’re up to 21 now) and increased our efficiency substantially. In addition to strong donations from our long-term supporters, some new groups have provided grants and some of them will turn into regular, annual support. Our biggest new donor, USLI, an insurance company, has made a large annual commitment for the next three years which has a huge implication: financial stability. Now that I know we will have at least a certain amount of funds available each year, I can hire the appropriate number of workers without worrying I will have to lay some of them off a year later.

For 2019, we looked at our financial and infrastructure situation and decided we could set an ambitious goal: 400 filters per month for a a total of 4800 filters. This would be more than a 50% increase over last year, our best year ever, but I think we can do it.

For the past 6-7 years, we were installing around 1000-1500 filters/year. Why are things moving so well after all those years of stagnation? Well, first off, those weren’t years of stagnation at all. From 2012-2015 we were working on relocating our facilities to a better (much, much better) location. We were also making major improvements to our education and follow up system. Our program developed a reputation for stability and sustainability, and we built into our staff. Funding was light, but we made the most of things, and when funding finally picked up last year we had all the pieces in place to make the most of it. Kim Snyder joined our office staff in late 2017 and she brought in skills that allowed us to focus more on grant writing and fundraising. The result is that as of early 2019, we are KILLING it! This is the level of productivity we have wanted to be doing for years now, and we’re finally doing it. We’ll reach the same amount of people in a single year that we used to reach in four years!

We had a very difficult February. The main cause was a terrible accident that happened on the way back from filter deliveries. As director, vehicle accidents are one of my greatest fears and the phone call I am always fearing finally came. Our driver lost control of the truck on the slippery, rainy highway and the truck hit a motorcycle before flipping over twice down into a ravine. A woman on the motorcycle was killed, and all 6 of our workers on the truck needed medical attention. One of them has a broken leg requiring a series of operations. Our drivers are all prudent, but accidents happen, and the roads here are very dangerous. In Haiti, unfortunately, much more is involved than simply handing over insurance cards and having the police make a report. Even before all the injured were hauled up from the ravine, people in the area were trying to find our driver so they could beat him. Some other workers put him on a moto-taxi so he could safely leave the area before that happened. After that, there was talk of setting fire to the wrecked truck. We ended up hiring security to guard the wreck but not before many items had been stolen from it.

The aftermath of the accident has been dealt with. Our workers are recovering, but the dead woman will never return to her family.
To add to the stress of this situation, Haiti was/has been going through a period of major political unrest. The day after the accident, I managed to go see the workers in the hospital in Port au Prince, but there were rocks and burning tires still in the road from the previous night’s protests against the government. I made it there and back in a narrow window before the highway was shut down again. For the next two weeks, it became nearly impossible to get into the capital, and supplies began to run out in the provinces. Fuel ran out, which didn’t matter because the roads were blocked anyway. Getting medical attention for our workers and dealing with the security and legal aspects of the accident became much more complicated. This isn’t something I could have dealt with myself. We have a good friend and retired policeman on retainer who dealt with all of the most difficult aspects. He has a legal education, so we managed to get through the whole thing without hiring a lawyer. He is even managing the repair of the wrecked truck, which won’t be nearly as expensive as we had feared.

Accidents happen, political unrest happens, and natural disasters happen, but whatever happens we will still be here, working. When families have safe water, people don’t get sick and lives are saved. Clean Water for Haiti is doing it’s part to make Haiti a happier and healthier place, and even with the kind of trouble we had in February, I’m glad that I’m here to be a part of it.

~Chris

30 Aug

Just Keep Juggling

Posted by Leslie Rolling Filter Program, Life In Haiti 2 Comments

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

22 Mar

The art of sitting at a desk

Posted by CWH Guest Uncategorized No Comments

When I was dreaming of moving to Haiti, I always thought after each day my feet would be dirty, my hair would be messy and my eyes would be sparkling. This is a quote I read by Shanti that depicted the perfect life for me in Haiti. And it’s been true so far, yet those adjectives of messy and dirty take on a new meaning in Camp Marie. My eyes are always sparkling.

I have my own work space in the office, yet couldn’t imagine what I would possibly be doing to keep me there all day. I want to be covered in paint or installing filters and meeting recipients out on deliveries. Until Chris said hey… I have a project for you.

And now I am, well simply all in. GRANTS. My first one was tough, and admittedly a mountain to climb. The day we submitted the final was filled with thoughts of pending rejection and failure. None of which is true of course. It was my first grant after all and I allowed those feelings in for a moment. Until we received the notice we’d been advanced to the next phase in preparation for a final decision.

And there you have it! Beginners luck? Maybe.

There are four other grants in the works, and another one in second phase which includes a meeting in Port-au-Prince. I won’t say anymore.

My time at the desk is not exactly what I planned, but surprisingly rewarding. It’s not entirely the same as seeing first-hand the sparkling eyes of our filter recipients, yet I will trade not going on deliveries all the time to do the work that creates the sparkle.

Peyi Lock

15 Years of Clean Water

The Director Writes a Blog Post

Just Keep Juggling

The art of sitting at a desk

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Peyi Lock

15 Years of Clean Water

The Director Writes a Blog Post

Just Keep Juggling

The art of sitting at a desk

Welcome To the Blog!

Subscribe to the Blog

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Follow Clean Water for Haiti