Who’s the creator? My identify is Charley Vlietstra and I’m the Advertising and marketing Supervisor at Tespo. We’re going to start visitor running a blog in 2018 — that includes actual folks telling actual tales. That is the primary of many. Hope you get pleasure from.
THE JOURNEY TO SEGUIN, HAITI
On January nineteenth, 2018, I headed out on a mission journey to a rural mountain village in Haiti known as Seguin. The journey was run by means of RainCatchers, a non-profit group who’s sole mission is to offer clear water to folks in Haiti; the poorest nation within the Western Hemisphere. I additionally introduced some Tespo nutritional vitamins together with me. Right here’s the story —
HAITI’S CLEAN WATER SHORTAGE: THE FACTS
- Haitian ladies and youngsters spend 1 / 4 of their lives carrying water, strolling a median of 4 to eight hours day by day to get 5 gallons
- Each 15 seconds a baby dies from lack of unpolluted water
WATER SOURCE IN SEGUIN, HAITI
Not solely does it take a complete day to gather a 5-gallon bucket of water, however the water that’s being collected is full of micro organism. The village of Seguin sits atop a mountain round 6,000 ft above sea stage. On this village there is just one water supply: a small pond on the backside of the mountain. The pond is a set of rainwater and runoff. There is no such thing as a sewage system in Seguin so you possibly can think about the quantity of pollution that exist. The pond can also be used for bathing. Consequently, utilizing it because the neighborhood water supply leads to extreme sickness, and sometimes demise.
RAINCATCHER’S MISSION
Raincatcher’s mission is kind of easy — they convey a clear, sensible, and sustainable water answer on to Haitian properties. This answer, or “raincatcher” is basically a gutter used to first catch the rainwater, filter the water, and fill the clear water it into a big bucket. Parts embrace:
- Tin to safe the raincatcher to the tin roof, and assist water stream into the piping
- PVC piping to behave as a gutter and catch the rain
- PVC elbow to direct the water into the filter
- Water filter to offer clear ingesting water
- Rubber tubing to assist stream the clear water right into a bucket
- 55-gallon plastic bucket to behave as a water receptacle
Right here’s the ultimate product:
Sidenote: that’s rubber tubing coming off of the tip, not black water 😆
THE RESULT
Not solely do these raincatchers present clear water to households and surrounding neighbors, additionally they give time again to the ladies and youngsters. The 4 to eight hours spent on a regular basis gathering water from a polluted pond can now be used to assemble meals, good a commerce, construct a enterprise, or create significant relationships with folks of their neighborhood.
GIVING TESPO VITAMINS TO SEGUIN
Along with a clear water scarcity in Haiti, there’s additionally a meals scarcity. This begs the query “how do Haitians get their wanted day by day vitamins”? As part of the journey, we introduced 5 years price of Tespo nutritional vitamins to assist carry well being to the neighborhood. At this level, my Creole vocabulary was restricted solely to cattle – which the youngsters would train us on every hike. For instance, each time we walked by a pig the youngsters would make an “oinking” sound, level at it and say “Kochon! Kochon!”.
Fortunately we had Fritz, our pleasant Creole translator who helped clarify Tespo — that every one of many Tespo pods incorporates 31 servings of nutritional vitamins in powdered kind, and that in an effort to take a day by day dose of liquid nutritional vitamins they first wanted to use a Tespo Go to the pod which punctures a gap within the foil, then pour the nutritional vitamins right into a glass of water and blend generously. It took just a little explaining, however as soon as they understood they had been genuinely appreciative. One older man even began dancing!
Listed below are some cool moments:
Seeing the enjoyment and appreciation of their eyes as they obtained clear water and nutritional vitamins was fairly unbelievable. The nation of Haiti and the folks of Seguin could not have loads when it comes to possessions, however they’re definitely full of pleasure and love.
To study extra about Raincatchers, please go to their web site at https://raincatchers.org/