Filter Program | Clean Water for Haiti

15 Years of Clean Water

Sep 5, 2019

“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

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

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

The Proof is in the Sand

Nov 16, 2017

Since living in Haiti, I’ve not had to really worry about my clean water source. Whether using aqua tabs, buying filtered water or now using biosand filters, safe drinking water has most always been available to me. Brushing my teeth with well water doesn’t make me sick. Buying filtered water in Haiti has sometimes made me a bit suspicious. It’s not the most sterile process; yet again I’ve not gotten sick from drinking it. This is one of the benefits of being a foreigner, my water source is clean.

Not the case for most Haitians. Data speaks, numbers don’t lie and the clean water challenge in Haiti is… well huge. In the Artibonite Valley, the region we serve, the numbers are staggering. About 57% of the residents, and there are 1.6 million of them, collect their drinking water from unimproved, open sources which are contaminated with human waste and biological pathogens. That means over 900,000 residents are drinking dirty water. Water that makes them sick. Water that most of us would not want to touch our shoes… let alone drink. Keep that image in your mind for a moment. Remember these residents include children too.

Clean Water for Haiti has installed over 26,000 biosand water filters. That’s impressive. But when you look at the number in relation to the whole country, we’ve only reached 1% of the total population of Haiti. One percent.

Let’s be fair. Haitians are clever. They use clean-ish water containers and bleach to disinfect this water before using it for drinking, cooking, bathing and the like. But let’s also be real, bleach doesn’t solve the issue of purifying contaminated and pathogen filled water. Sand does.

Oh the things I have learned since joining Clean Water for Haiti. Sand & gravel purify water. Our biosand filter technology saves lives. When cholera was accidentally introduced to Haiti shortly after the 2010 earthquake, people noticed that families with biosand filters weren’t contracting the illness. Truth.

I think awareness is important. I am grateful for the loyal followers of my work and life here in Haiti. I have always been passionate about clean water. I want to make a difference. My difference is water. Having access to clean water is a right, not a privilege. But we are not there yet. Now, I am able to share how Clean Water for Haiti offers this much needed technology to provide safe water, right in the homes of the recipients. No bleach, contaminates or pathogens. Just clean water. oh, and sand.

We call it Making Waves. Because we can, together. Make waves, one filter at a time.

https://cleanwaterforhaiti.org/donate/make-waves/

#cwhmakewaves

kim snyder 16/11/2017