Hydromissions has been partnering with an NGO called Faith and Love in Action since 2013. Faith and Love in Action is based in Haiti and run by husband and wife team, Marlaine and Daniel. Marlaine, a native of Marbial, has opened up several schools in Haiti in an effort to promote and enhance education in the area.
Initially, we attempted to drill a water well, but the rocky conditions stopped us after 7 days of little progress. We returned to try to find a spring water source and while we were there, noticed that the school had an old latrine with two toilets built next to classrooms. The latrine was unsanitary and smelled so foul that the children would resort to going to the bathroom outside. After seeing these poor conditions, we decided to construct a new latrine for students and teachers.
Building up a mountain is much more expensive and difficult due to the efforts that go into transferring material. Donkeys are used to carry the concrete blocks, cement, sand, gravel and tools up into Marbial. The pit of the latrine was hand dug and about 20′ deep. It took about a month to dig because the rocks had to be pried out individually.
The latrine design is based on the Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrine. The VIP latrine system incorporates a PVC vent pipe that is used to promote airflow up and out of the bottom of the pit. That vent pipe will help eliminate odor in the latrine and the screen at the top of the vent pipe will keep flies from exiting and spreading contamination. The new latrine will have 5 toilets (four for the students and one for the teachers) and one urinal.
We have continued to support Marbial by installed a rainwater catchment system and a new medical clinic in the village and providing a water filter for the clinic. We attempted drilling again on a visit that proved unsuccessful and have a design in place to store and treat river water.