Newsletter: May 2009

Watch a short video "What's to be done?"

    In Haiti, the place to start is water. That is the message of our short film - 7 minutes - about the work of International Action in Port-au-Prince.

    "It's a heartbreak," comments Sister Michele-Marie about typhoid, hepatitis and chronic diarrhea the children get from dirty water. Sister Michele is a star in the film and a powerful spokeswoman for clean water.

    Like all the people in the film, Sister Michele is Haitian and speaking from her heart. She works as a school director.

    Our group - International Action - installs chlorinators on public water tanks. Port-au-Prince was a city of 2.5 million people with no sewers and no clean water. Our first installation was in May 2006 and we have since installed 110 chlorinators.

    The film appears now on our Third Anniversary. Today, we serve 400,000 Haitians clean water every day in nearly 40 neighborhoods of the capital city. The film was shot by Youngmin Chang, Associate Director of IA and edited by Sangyoung "Sam" Seo, both South Koreans, here in Washington, DC.

    I find it wonderful that Koreans, Haitians, and Americans can work together to record the conditions in Haiti so accurately. You will be moved by this film work.

    The leading cause of infant death and morbity in Haiti and other developing countries is waterborne disease - typhoid, hepatitis, and chronic diarrhea. Chlorine stops these diseases.

    In each neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, 10 volunteers manage the water system, adding chlorine when necessary, testing the water, and reporting any disease problems. These volunteers are becoming local public health groups protecting their neighborhoods

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