It has been a very busy and exciting few months for Health for Haiti. We have eighteen students registered for the 2015 course and we are raising money to fund our health clinics and other projects. We are also making plans for our January 5th departure to Haiti.
Thanks to our amazing and generous corporate partners, the Pall Corporation, ETM Solar Works, and Geodis Wilson, we are one step closer to implementing our 2015 project to bring clean water and solar power to Grande Saline, Haiti.
Clean Water and Solar Power for Grande Saline
This week I visited the Pall Corporation and met many of the engineers who have devoted so many hours to the clean water project. I saw the AX1 water system and learned about how it would filter water pumped out of the river in Grande Saline. The engineers have chosen a special filter that is robust enough to stand up to the contaminated and muddy water, but sensitive enough to filter out the bacteria that cause cholera. There is a plan to network the system so that the engineers can monitor and troubleshoot from their site in Cortland…even from a smartphone! Pall is having the manual translated into Haitian Creole so that the operators in Haiti will have some instructions. The Pall engineers who travel with us to Haiti will provide training for the Haitian (and for our students). Pall has also been very active in raising money to help support the purchase of chemicals and tanks in Haiti and to defray the costs associated with installation. Thank you, Pall!
I am also very happy to report that we have purchased our ocean shipping container and it is loaded and on its way to a port in New York ! The container houses the water system and all its accessory equipment, as well as the solar equipment we will set up to power the computer lab in Grande Saline. Thanks to the expertise and hard work of Dr. Gay Canough from ETM Solar Works, we have a stand alone system that she will help us to install in Grande Saline. Dr. Canough will teach the people of Grande Saline (and our lucky students) about how to set up and maintain a solar system.
We still have a long way to go and I expect many more challenges to overcome, but it is very exciting to have the equipment packed and on its way to Grande Saline.
It has also been a very busy and exciting time for our pilot computer labs in Haiti. Hear is an update:
Computers in Grande Saline
We receive regular updates from our computer school in Grande Saline and look forward to expanding the lab with new equipment and solar power. Out students will also be able to provide some computer literacy training while we are in Haiti this January.
As part of the “Bridge to Haiti” program, we have partnered with the children at George F. Johnson (GFJ) Elementary School in Endicott, New York. The kids at GFJ will be creating educational content for the children in Grande Saline and have raised money to purchase a few digital cameras that we will bring to Grande Saline in January. This way the children in Grande Saline can create some presentations to share with the kids in New York. We are so excited to create this unique learning community!
Computers in Cite Soleil
We have also opened the new computer lab in Cite Soleil. We have been given a small room in the Good Samaritan Mission and with the help of our Haitian partner Esterling Accime, there are about 200 primary school children receiving computer literacy classes.
We look forward to expanding this program in Cite Soleil to include computer training for young adults. While we are in Haiti in January, we will work to bring more equipment for the new lab and make plans for offering more digital learning opportunities to the community.
Please support our projects in Haiti by making a donation of medical or person care supplies. Please click here for more information about what we need and how to donate. You can also support our projects by attending one of our upcoming fundraising events! Please click here for information on our Zumba! fundraiser. We are also having a Christmas Karaoke Benefit for Health for Haiti Sunday, December 21, 2014, 6-10PM, at The Blind Tiger Pub, 4402 Watson Blvd in Johnson City, NY 13790. Please join us to sing, have fun, and support a great cause. 100% of proceeds will support our projects in Haiti this January.
SUNY Broome Health for Haiti 