Community rallies for Haiti
Clean Water for Haiti has been helping build and maintain biosand water filters in Haiti for nine years and now the need is greater than ever.
Chris and Leslie Rolling, (Leslie is originally from Armstrong), have been working with the Vernon-based charity since 2003 in Pierre Payen, Haiti, with a training and manufacturing facility staffed by local people.
The day of the earthquake, Chris Rolling was going about his normal business. He had just picked up a loaner vehicle and was on his way back to the Clean Water for Haiti office. The vehicle had broken down and he was beside it trying to make a phone call when the quake hit.
“I didn’t actually fall to the ground but I stumbled around quite a bit,” he reported by e-mail.
“When the tremours ceased, a large cloud of dust was rising from the building a few doors down. A three-storey school full of teenage girls had collapsed. I went to the school and started working to pull trapped students from the wreckage.”
With the help of another man, who brought a hammer, he was able to break up a large piece of cement and free a girl as the aftershocks continued. It was getting dark and he had no way to continue to work to free the students. He had to walk several miles for more help and by the time he came back with a truck full of food, water, tools and others to help, some of the students were dead. With the help of families and others, he was able to help rescue more students, although some were injured. He also helped families identify the growing pile of bodies and continued with rescue work in the neighbourhood.
“We spent an hour boring a hole through a floor to a collapsed chamber to try to rescue a two-year-old but the cries had stopped before we even began,” wrote Rolling.
“This has been a very emotional experience for me. The bodies stopped bothering me after a while, but I think what I will always carry with me is the conversation I had with Jacqueline (a girl trapped in the rubble of the school and later found dead). How could I leave someone who was dying trapped in a building? That’s so wrong! At the very least, she needed someone to sit and comfort her in her last hours. But if I hadn’t found my way home, I wouldn’t have been able to bring the Clean Water for Haiti crew in to help. Still, leaving her was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I think this is going to trouble me for a long time.”
In an e-mail Feb. 2, Leslie Rolling said right now the group is delivering about two loads of filters (34 filters per load) into Port au Prince each week.
“We are setting these filters up in groups of four, six or eight in the areas with tent villages so that people there can filter whatever source water they can find. The filters so far have been well-received and we’ll continue with this as long as there is interest.
“Also this week we took our first load of filters into one of the regular areas that we have been working in for the first time since the earthquake. Many of the areas that we were working in before are areas that have absorbed the refugees from Port au Prince.
“We were able to purchase a new delivery truck last week thanks to a very generous donor so we now have two trucks available to not only help in Port au Prince, but also to be taking filters into other communities in need.
“We currently employ 18 people from the local community and have just welcomed a new family from the U.S. who has committed to work with Clean Water for Haiti long term so we can expand our work in the country.”
Clean Water for Haiti has water jugs for donations at businesses around Vernon. One of the filters, which costs $50, can supply clean water for three families with clean water for up to 20 years. So far, Clean Water for Haiti has supplied more than 10,000 of the filters as well as helping to construct deep wells. For more information see www.cleanwaterforhaiti.org.
Local supporters are organizing a fundraiser for Clean Water for Haiti. A Benefit for our Heroes in Haiti takes place Friday from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Prestige Inn ballroom.
The family-friendly event includes live music by Henry’s Heroes, Mace, Ranger Kaine Band, The Goods, Modern Folk, Tanya Lipscomb, Alex Yellow Shoes and more. As well, there will be a silent auction and door prizes.
Tickets are available at the Bean Scene and Bean to Cup coffee houses: $20 for adults; $10 for youth; kids seven and under are free.
For more information, see related story on page B8.
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