Fundraising | Clean Water for Haiti

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

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

Hurricane Matthew – How To Help

Oct 5, 2016

Reports have started coming in from all around Haiti to the expat/missionary network that we’re a part of. The damage in the south is BAD. There are no other words for it. Last night as it got dark and I had to run out and turn off the generator, I waded through 2 inch deep water running down our driveway. The rain kept coming and I was sure that we were going to wake up to reports of flooding in Gonaives, a city about 45 minutes north of us that has flooded badly, twice, in the past 12 years. Thankfully all the canals held and the city is just fine.

image source

As we’ve waited to hear news of the areas that would need the most help, Chris and I have been able to talk a bit about how Clean Water for Haiti can best be involved in the coming weeks and months.

Here’s the bottom line – we’re a development organization. And as much as we want to jump in and help with relief efforts, we know from experience that that isn’t our strong suit. Where we shine as an organization is in the long term. When everyone else pulls out and is done with the immediate needs, we follow behind and help families move to that next level, to being independent and caring for their own needs.

We know that one of the major needs after a natural disaster of this nature is clean water. But, aside from the fact that roads and bridges are out, we just aren’t the people to provide that in the south of Haiti. Our filters need to be installed in established households and we need to be able to provide multiple follow up visits through the first year. We can’t get to where the greatest need is right now, and it’s not the right time even if we could.

So, how can Clean Water for Haiti be involved right now?

By continuing to do what we do well.

It’s a fact that after a natural disaster of this kind there are spikes in water borne disease. Sanitation facilities, if they exist, are destroyed. Flooding can spread things like Cholera from one water source to many others. People who have been displaced may be carriers, so they carry the disease from one location to another. This is going to be a reality in the coming weeks and months here in Haiti. Many have already started talking about the issue as reality.

This is where we come in.

By continuing to work with our network of Community Promoters in the places where we already have an established presence, we’re going to be able to further strengthen communities. Rather than responding to a Cholera spike, we’re already working to help prevent a further spread. Families who already have filters in times like these become first responders to their friends and neighbours, which is a beautiful thing. It’s Haitians being strong and helping themselves, which is what we’re all about.

Now, this is where YOU come in.

There will be a huge need for relief support for Haiti in the coming weeks, but if you would rather think long term with us and support lasting investment in Haiti we would love it if you would choose to support the work of Clean Water for Haiti. $100 will provide the funding needed to build, deliver, install and follow up on a filter for a Haitian family. We are also desperately in need of a new truck to help meet the demand for filters.

DONATE NOW

If you are interested in supporting some kind of specific relief work we would encourage you to be very intentional about which organization(s) you support. Much was learned after the earthquake here, and I’m sure we can all think of articles we’ve read or things we’ve seen or heard on the news about aid done poorly in Haiti. When you consider who to support, please give to smaller, grass roots organizations that have people here on the ground full time. These organizations are already established, they have relationships within the communities they serve, they have an understanding of the culture that will allow them to be more effective, often their overhead is lower, and they will know how to work more effectively with the communities they want to serve.

As you consider giving, I would also ask you to give much needed funding rather than collecting items for Haiti unless you have been given a specific needs list. Funding allows organizations on the ground to buy from local merchants, whether it’s a family selling shoes and clothing in the market, or local grocery stores and warehouses when buying food and materials to rebuild. Buying local does double duty – it meets a specific need, but also puts income back in the hands of the families that so desperately need it right now. When we want to help rebuild, we should want to do that in a way that truly loves people, even if it leaves us feeling a little less involved.

Lastly, while I know there is a huge desire to come and be “hands and feet” let’s remember that Haiti has over 10 million people on this tiny island. Let’s love people well by letting them have the opportunity to be employed by these local organizations as the cleaning and rebuilding happens. Let’s let men and women know the dignity of providing for their families and building into their communities. Let’s honor the skills that so many have and let them lead in the construction realm as this all unfolds. If you want to be “hands and feet” ask the organizations that are here on the ground how you can best do that, then do it, and do it with all your heart.

One of the beautiful things that has already come out of this disaster is that organizations and their staff all over Haiti are sharing one voice as we ask people to be deliberate, intentional, and thoughtful as they help. Let’s work together to come alongside the people of Haiti as we help them rebuild, and do it in a way that empowers them.

Thank you for your continued prayers in the past few days. Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti as they once again rise and show the world how strong they are.

~Leslie

Why We Need A New Truck

Aug 29, 2016

Everything that we do at Clean Water for Haiti requires a whole team of people working together to make it happen, whether it’s our staff in Haiti, board members across three countries, or volunteers scattered through North America to help with fundraising and promotion. That said, did you know that some of the hardest working members of our team aren’t actually people? Nope, they’re our big, beloved delivery trucks.

Most of the filters that we deliver go into very rural areas. When I say “rural” it has a very different meaning here in Haiti than it does in Canada or the US. In most cases rural areas in Canada and the US still have paved roads, or at least graded gravel roads, unless you’re really getting off the beaten track. Here in Haiti most of the places we go into are down dusty, gravel roads that have never seen a grader. They’re full of dips and holes that turn into mud pits during the rainy season. It’s essential that we have 4 wheel drive, but even with that there have been times where our trucks have been stuck up to the axels in mud, and our delivery crew have had to unload the entire load of filters, all the bags of sand and the rest of the stuff needed to install filters, dig the truck out, and then reload everything. Each filter, with no sand in it, weighs 165 lbs of solid concrete. Add 80 lbs of sand and about 10 pounds of gravel for each one and you can imaging how exhausting this whole process is.

Our trucks work hard. Did you know that every delivery day we do, with the exception of smaller local deliveries, sees 30 filters and all their installation goodies on the truck? That’s almost 5 tonnes of weight that they carry each time. When we’re working full steam ahead we typically see about 2 deliveries per week. When you think about that much weight moving over really bad roads you can imagine the wear and tear that our vehicles go through.

A couple of years ago our white delivery truck was feeling a bit off, so Chris did a thorough inspection and found that the frame, made of 6 inch steel beams, had cracked almost all the way through on both sides. There was only about an inch of steel left on each side that hadn’t cracked through. We were so thankful that we had found the damage when we did and that it didn’t result in a major accident. We were able to weld the frame back up and add in extra supports and put the truck back on the road. I would love to say that it was the first and last time that we’ve had to do extensive repairs like that to one of our work trucks, but I can’t because I would be lying.

Right now we have three vehicles in our fleet to do all the work we do in our filter program. Our old, old, old (did I mention old) blue Daihatsu truck is barely running most days, but when it is we try to send it out on local errands, or use it to do filter repairs and local deliveries. It’s in sad shape and basically needs to be sold for scrap, but we keep fixing it and using as much as we can.

Our red Daihatsu truck was purchased back in 2007 with a Rotary grant. It’s almost 10 years old, which seems crazy to me. It’s already had one transmission job, has gotten banged up, but we keep it running. It’s worked hard over the years, but really isn’t rated for the work that we need it to do now. Sadly, last week while it was out on deliveries because our white truck was having issues, the motor blew. It meant towing it into Port au Prince in the wee hours of the morning to get it to a mechanic who is now working on the motor rebuild. It doesn’t have 4 wheel drive, so when we send it on a delivery day we’re taking a big chance that the filters that need to get delivered won’t get where they need to go, depending on the recent weather and the conditions of the roads in the communities we’re working in that day. That can be incredibly frustrating and a big waste of resources if we can’t deliver all those filters and need to go back. Most of the time the communities we deliver to are about an hour and a half drive away.

Lastly, our white truck. We bought our Mitsubishi Canter back in 2010 and were so excited to finally have our first 4×4 delivery truck. This thing is a beast. It’s high and I always feel like a boss when I’m driving it. (I always get a lot of double takes when I drive it because people aren’t used to white girls driving big trucks here.) This is the truck we prioritize for delivery days because of the 4 wheel drive. But, it just spent several weeks with a mechanic because the 4 wheel drive has been going out. We weren’t able to fix it the way it needs to work with a dash switch, but figured out a work around. The problem? Our drivers now need to stop the truck, crawl under it, and engage/disengage the 4×4 with a screw driver. I don’t know about you, but crawling under a vehicle with 5 tons of weight on it is not my idea of fun.

In Creole there’s a word, degaje (deh-gah-jzay) that means make it work. We’re really good at making things work, but at some point all that making things work starts to become work in and of itself, and ends up costing more. In 2015 we spent over $10,000 just in vehicle repairs. Do you know how many filters we could have built and installed for that amount of money? 100. 100 households could have gotten clean water. That translates to about 800-1000 people. It makes me sick to think of that.

As an organization we try to be good stewards of the tools and resources we have. That means fixing things and using them for as long as we can. But, it also means taking a good look at things and determining when fixing things is costing us more than replacing whatever it is we’re fixing.

We are at a place where we’re waving the white flag of surrender, and ~~begging~~ ~~pleading~~ asking people to come alongside Clean Water for Haiti to help us steward what we have well, and make the most impact that we can so more people can get access to clean water. The hard truth is that people are daily battling and dying from the microbes in their water, and we can help. We can stop that. But we need to be able to get filters to people.

We don’t ever want to be in a position where we have to tell people that we can’t do a delivery in a particular week because we don’t have any working vehicles, but sadly we’re encountering that scenario more and more often. I don’t even want to think about the number of down days we’ve had in the past year because we literally didn’t have a truck that could go.

So, how do we solve this problem?

We buy a new truck.

We desperately need to purchase a new 4×4 delivery truck. We need a truck that is even beefier than the current model that we have. Chris is big on doing research and finding the very best option for anything that we need at the mission, whether it’s a computer or a concrete vibrator or a vehicle. He’s spent over a year looking at all our options. This past week he went to the Isuzu dealer in Port au Prince and got a quote on a new truck. It’s rated for 4.5 tons, so much better than our current 3 ton trucks. It has a bigger motor and a better reliability rating than what we have now. It would be such a huge step up for us.

And now we need $52,450.00 US.

That number seems staggering, but if I know anything from the past decade of working with Clean Water for Haiti it is this – nothing is impossible. Nothing.

I have seen God move mountains through people and situations that at the time seemed crazy. If you’ve been reading our blogs, both mission and personal, for the past few years you’ve seen some of those stories play out. When we share the things that we have seen happen as front row witnesses it is staggering. So, even though I think that number is crazy, I know it is not impossible.

And I believe that it will happen.

I believe that because I know that the work we’re doing is saving lives every. single. day. And I know that people believe in loving people. The last time we needed a new truck we had one single donor who stepped up and wrote a check for the total. Done. I know this is not impossible, no matter how daunting it feels right now.

So I am asking you, with my heart wide open, to be part of moving another mountain. Not because you want to help us buy a vehicle, but because you want to love people you will never meet. Because you want to help moms and dads know that the water they’re giving their children isn’t going to kill them before they’ve had a chance to live. I want you to help because you believe in helping a nation rise up and care for themselves, because you want to come alongside us and help us tell people that they’re worth it and they can do it, and help them to step forward in controlling their own health.

I think we can do this. I really do. I believe it. I’m asking you to click on that button below, right now, and make a donation. Maybe you can give $10 or $25. But maybe you can give more. That button is going to take you right to our DONATE page, and it’s going to give you the choice of where to give your gift. Each option will let you choose to give specifically to our New Delivery Truck campaign. Please specify that when you donate so we know your gift is earmarked for this need.

DONATE NOW

Thank you. From all of us at Clean Water for Haiti, thank you.

~Leslie