Gift of Life-Saving Water Transforms Lives of Haiti’s School Children
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| Founders of the “Do Much Good” coalition (l to r) Steve Deace, Stephen Baldwin, Dani Johnson and Kevin McCullough, traveled to Haiti with Food For The Poor’s Radio Marketing department. | |
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COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Jan. 9, 2014) – Hundreds of Haiti’s students, attending three schools located in Leogane, Tabarre, and Croix des Bouquets, now have access to clean, life-saving water. Thanks to the kindness of the “Do Much Good” coalition who partnered with Food For The Poor, a water filtration unit has been installed in each school.
“Food For The Poor takes a holistic approach with all of its projects. When water quality testing revealed that the water supply in these schools was not safe for the children to drink, immediate action was taken,” said Angel Aloma, Executive Director of Food For The Poor. “Thanks to the magnanimity of the “Do Much Good” coalition and the support of Water Missions International, three solar-powered water filtration units have been installed, and each unit can purify and chlorinate up to 10,000 gallons of water per day.”
In mid-December, the founders of the “Do Much Good” coalition traveled to Haiti with Food For The Poor’s Radio Marketing department. They are: Stephen Baldwin, actor and public speaker; Kevin McCullough, nationally syndicated talk show host and author; Dani Johnson, ABC Television’s “Secret Millionaire” and financial marketing expert; Steve Deace, nationally syndicated talk show host.
“Do Much Good” supports individuals and ministries around the world that provide food, water, shelter, medical aid, education and teach life skills to people in need. While in Haiti, the members saw for themselves the impact their gift of clean water is making in the lives of students and staff. When they visited the Complexe Educatif Jesus Bon Pasteur School in Croix-des-Bouquets, they were greeted by an assembly of 3- to 12-year-olds, waving banners and singing songs of jubilation for their much needed water filtration unit.
“This water project is beyond your wildest imagination and the impact it’s having here humbles me,” said, Stephen Baldwin. “It’s a blessing and a privilege to be a part of this project.”
“Last year our listeners helped us to bring life-saving drinking water to these children, and your gift made this all possible. This is what this is all about,” said Kevin McCullough.
Potable water can be the difference between life and death, yet thousands of Haitians are using polluted water collected from lakes and streams for their daily needs. Usually, it is the women and young girls who are forced to walk several miles a day to obtain this water for their families, water that is often contaminated with life-threatening bacteria and parasites.
Because there is a desperate need for clean water throughout the country, the water filtration unit installed in each school is being used as a water source for the surrounding communities as well. Nearly 6,000 people living near the Reap de Morel School in Leogane and the John Branchizio School in Tabarre now have access to clean drinking water. Each unit can support a community of up to 3,000 people.
The lack of clean water wasn’t the only need the coalition members saw while in Haiti. The members also got to see what life is like in the remote rural community of Kadwa in Mirebalais. After speaking with some of the families living in unfathomable conditions, “Do Much Good” wants to do more to help the suffering in Haiti.
“I think when you’re doing good the way Food For The Poor is doing it, what it does is encourage you to want to pay it forward, and what you recognize is God alone is responsible for the giving in you,” said Steve Deace.
Even though many of the people met by the group in Kadwa do not have much materially, one “Do Much Good” member expressed awe and amazement about their rich faith and their hope for the future.
“We can learn some things from the poor, the poor who know God,” said Dani Johnson. “I have witnessed here in Haiti the beautiful praises for God coming out of the mouths of the poor – it’s humbling and it’s beautiful.”
For 13 years, Food For The Poor’s Radio Marketing department has traveled with on-air personalities and radio hosts from across the United States to Jamaica, Haiti and Guatemala. As the radio hosts campaign for funding to help feed and shelter the poor, they also educate their listeners about the poverty that plagues parts of the Caribbean and Latin America.
Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor.
Wanda Wright
Food For The Poor
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6079
[email protected]
