It’s International Women’s Day! So we’re taking a moment to look back at all the incredible women we met last year while in the field. Some have clean water, others are still walking hours to the nearest source. Many are mothers, balancing parenting with housework, jobs or work in the community as hygiene educators and well caretakers. Some run their own businesses or entire clinics and schools.
All are beautiful.
Celebrate women today! Take a look back at some of our latest stories from the field about powerful women:
Central African Republic (C.A.R.), a country where charity: water has funded more than 200 water projects, held presidential elections on Sunday. Provisional results showed the incumbent, President Francois Bozize, won with 66% of the votes. But his opposition believes the election was rigged; courts are reviewing the votes next week.
C.A.R. has struggled with chronic political instability since winning independence from France in 1960. The most recent coup was staged by Mr. Bozize in 2003 to overthrow a man named Ange-Felix Patasse — one of his contenders in Sunday’s election. Mr. Patasse is leading the appeal to the election’s results.
We focused on C.A.R. during the 2010 September Campaign. Watch our video on the country’s history here >
Cholera is one of the most dangerous and contagious waterborne diseases, especially in crowded areas lacking sanitation after a major disaster or displacement. But specialists studying cholera outbreaks in the last decade are saying that the strain of cholera we’ve seen most recently in Haiti is harsher than normal — and we don’t yet have an effective way to combat it.
Of the up to 5 million cholera cases each year, the World Health Organization estimates that 100,000-120,000 are fatal. Researchers say a new strain causing 1-5% more deaths first appeared in the 1990s, in Bangladesh and India. In 2004, it popped up in Mozambique, then Zimbabwe, Zambia, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad. Cholera struck Haiti in October and has since taken more than 2,000 lives.
The most effective way to combat a cholera outbreak of any strain is with sanitation and ready access to safe water sources. As you probably know, we funded 10 large-scale water projects in rural Haiti last year — each with a sanitation component to help fight waterborne disease.
What makes or breaks a country’s economy? There’s no easy answer, of course — but the World Economic Forum just published data tracking what they consider to be “global risks” for economies around the world. About 580 leaders and officials helped compile the info and identify 37 risks; water security is a major one.
See how water is connected to social, environmental and economic risks — click through their interactive graphic here >
Our take on the report: Notice that water ranks above “chronic diseases” in costs to the global economy and is in the “very likely” category in terms of whether its effects will have major economic impact in the next decade. The Forum predicts these impacts will be on food supply, conflict between countries, political and social unrest, pressure on people to migrate from their current homes, spread of infectious waterborne diseases and loss of biodiversity in ecosystems. It’s a bleak prediction — but it does shed light on the effects of the water crisis, which we believe we can prevent with sustainable solutions. And we’re encouraged that water is a part of the conversation in Davos, where the world’s top businesspeople and economic specialists meet. Water is connected to everything: it deserves a chunk of the agenda at any global summit of leaders.
We try to keep up with our mycharity: water fundraisers, who are constantly making their local press for their inspiring or unique campaign ideas. Here are a few from the past month… if you spot more, just comment or send us an email to let us know:
From Alexandria, Va.: Nine-year-old Nathaniel gives up toys to fund water.
From the University of Alabama: Brother and sister raised enough to fund an entire project during the September Campaign in honor of their school.
From Lake Zurich, Ill.: Middle schoolers will hold a talent show this Friday for donations to water projects.
Today’s the one year anniversary of the earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince, displacing more than a million people from their homes. How far has Haiti come in overcoming the disaster? Let’s take a look.
On Jan. 12, 2010, an earthquake with magnitude 7.0 struck Haiti’s capitol, Port-au-Prince — the largest in this region in over 200 years. More than 300,000 people died and up to 1.5 million were displaced. The city was leveled: damage estimates are as high as $13.2 billion.
In the month after the quake, aftershocks continued to hit Haiti. Many fled the city to the countryside to stay with friends and family members. Others set up homes in tent cities in Port-au-Prince, hoping to stay near where emergency aid (food, water, tarps, etc.) would be handed out.
A year later, more than a million people in Haiti still live in tents. Reconstruction has been slow, partly because a few wrenches were thrown into development work during 2010: a cholera outbreak in the countryside, political protest following a controversial presidential election and dangerous floods from Hurricane Tomas in November.
More than $7 billion has been donated or pledged in the last year to help Haiti recover.
Despite the challenges of working in Haiti, the disaster did organize aid workers and spur innovation in emergency response. From photographers Tweeting real-time photos in the field to crowdsourced mapping of destroyed areas — information was flowing out of Port-au-Prince faster than ever. The Knight Foundation gives the spectrum of communication technology here, check it out >
In March 2010, we launched Unshaken, a campaign to bring long-term clean water solutions to people in rural Haiti. By year’s end, we raised more than $1 million to help 10 communities in the rural countryside.
As we mentioned above, so much has happened in Haiti since we first started Unshaken. Here’s an update from our Water Programs Manager, Jonna Davis:
Thank you for your support of Haiti this past year. When we visited Haiti last March to assess Unshaken projects, we met the faces of hope and resilience — from eight-year-old Louis to 17-year-old Keisha to 70-year-old Inore. Communities were wounded, grieving and devastated; there’s no doubt that they continue to struggle now, a year after the disaster. But there is hope: they will have clean water soon. And no matter what other challenges lie ahead, we’re dedicated to helping every person in Haiti gain access to clean and safe drinking water.
Partners In Health, one of our local partners in Haiti, has been updating us on a cholera outbreak in the southern Artibonite region. As of this afternoon, clinics have reported more than 2,000 cases of diarrhea and 160 deaths from the disease.
Cholera is a waterborne disease that affects the lower intestine. It’s usually contracted by drinking water or eating food contaminated with human feces containing the bacteria. Only 10% of people who drink cholera-infested water actually fall ill — but if they do, constant vomiting and diarrhea will quickly cause severe dehydration and if not treated, death.
Aid workers and NGO’s on the ground have anticipated a cholera outbreak since the earthquake first struck Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12.
More than 1.7 million were displaced by the quake immediately and another 300,000 fled the city in the following months. With hundreds of thousands living in unsanitary camps or staying in cramped houses of relatives, rural Haiti had all the circumstances for cholera to strike.
Amanda Schwartz from Partners In Health sent us an update earlier today:
Thousands of patients are appearing at clinical sites, and hundreds of deaths reported. St. Marc hospital is inundated and we’re working quickly to set up tents to accommodate the patient volume. Based on the pattern of communities affected, the outbreak appears to be tied to the Artibonite River, which flows from Lac Peligre in the Central Plateau westward to the sea (if you remember, we crossed this lake to reach charity: water communities).
PIH and Zanmi Lasante are of course very involved in the response, working around the clock with partners on the ground to treat patients and address the outbreak. We’ve also gone out to the communities where we work to try to identify serious cases and get them to hospital. While none of the communities where charity: water has funded or is funding are affected right now, there is serious cause for alarm that the outbreak will spread along the river. The need for clean water in Haiti, I’m afraid, has never been more urgent.
Learn more about what’s going on at the ground level on PIH’s blog here >
When our team visited Haiti after the devastating earthquake earlier this year to assess regions for new water projects, deadly diseases like cholera were at the forefront of our concerns. As PIH notes, cholera is “a disease of poverty” — it only really affects areas that lack safe water sources or sanitation. Access to clean water coupled with hygiene and sanitation training can greatly reduce the chances of outbreaks like this one.
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