The recent trip to Haiti by Executive Director Lili-Anna Pereša was ONE DROP’s first visit to the country since January’s earthquake. The purpose was to define, along with partner OXFAM-Québec, the objectives for Project Haiti: to rebuild and rehabilitate systems to provide sustainable access to water and adequate sanitation. While in Haiti, Lili-Anna was vividly reminded of how the country’s people can inspire.
Among the remarkable people Lili-Anna met during her visit was Viola, a lovely, tall 14-year-old girl who wakes up at three or four o’clock in the morning to begin her daily three–hour, two-way trek to the bottom of a dangerous, rocky mountainside to collect water before going to school. More than 200,000 people perished in the earthquake, with 50,000 still reported missing; meanwhile, 600,000 have become refugees in their own country. It is because of Viola and the thousands of others like her that Haiti can hope to survive.
Nature makes no distinction between rich or poor, academic or unemployed—and nor should we. To live with dignity, water is essential. Let us each contribute a drop, so that “water for all” becomes a reality in Haiti.
Published on June 4, 2010