Posted 04/01/2013
HAITI WATER PROJECT UPDATE Rick Jacobs
Bower Hill’s Haiti Water Project is alive and well. The water team and our stalwart fundraisers have been hard at work, preparing for our next trip to Haiti. You have probably noticed the water drop display on the bulletin board outside the nursery, offering opportunities for you to provide financial support for our next trip. And you have been VERY SUPPORTIVE. The team members continue to be amazed and humbled by the outpouring of prayers and dollars to help bring clean drinking water to Haiti.
Our next trip to Haiti will be April 10 – April 16. We will be going to Camp Perrin, which is a farm community in the mountains outside of Les Cayes. They have been hard hit by cholera. We surveyed the water there over a year ago and found their only water source to be severely contaminated. This project has been in our prayers ever since. This will be our third installation in Haiti. The traveling team for this trip includes Brian Snyder, Karl Casey, Tim and Darenda Lease and Rick and Pat Jacobs.
Camp Perrin is in the same area of Haiti we have been to on previous trips, and we are beginning to develop a reputation there. We are working closely with a group from George Washington University that operates under a nonprofit called The Oshun Project. You can read more about all the things they are doing with the community of Camp Perrin at www.theoshunproject.org or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/#!/TheOshunProject. The Oshun Project is providing funding for construction of the water building and some other expenses.
We have been busy refreshing our training, purchasing, sorting and assembling equipment, making endless travel and in-country support arrangements, planning fundraisers and tending to all the myriad details of planning a major excursion into a third-world country. We are very excited to be going back to Haiti so soon.
We hope to make another trip in the fall of this year if we can raise an additional $25,000 to cover all the travel and installation expenses. That’s a lofty goal, considering how much financial support has already been given to the Haiti Water Project. We are working with Pittsburgh Presbytery to apply for a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance grant to obtain some of the remaining funds for disaster relief and rebuilding set aside by our denomination after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti . We have also been talking to Rotary Clubs and other churches (like Southminster Presbyterian) about providing financial support for the Haiti Water Project. We have additional fundraisers in mind, but we would welcome any suggestions you may have about potential funding contacts or ideas to raise money. The team feels strongly called to continue to serve in Haiti as long as God provides the means.
Please continue to pray for the success of Bower Hill’s continuing mission to the people of Haiti and to support the Haiti Water Team. The need is so great. The other members of our travel team are Alan and Betsy Hohlfelder, Chris Robbins and Rich Salvante. Our fundraising coordinators are Mary Good and Kathy Philson.
If you want to know more about the current project, or how you can get more involved, just find a team member. We’ll be happy to talk your ear off.