BELBEDE, HAITI SANITATION PROJECT
Press Release WHO November 22, 2008
ALMOST HALF THE WORLD HAVE NO ACCEPTABLE MEANS OF SANITATION…
New WHO/UNICEF Report Charts “Shameful” State of World’s Water Supply and Sanitation Services
The Belbede Sanitation project is based on the World Health Organization Vision 21 project. Coupled with our household water purifier proeject, this project goes a long way to achieving the goal of Vision 21 in the small village of Belbede and in reality, achieves on a village level the goal of Vision 21-that being providing safe water and sanitation for all people by the year 2025. These two projects show that even small interventions can make a huge difference for individual peoples lives when implemented in a community based model.
In 2005 Luke’s Mission received funding from the International Hunger Fund of the Presbyterian Church, USA (PCUSA) for a comprehensive multi year sanitation project in the rural community of Belbede, Haiti. In 2005 there were no latrines in this community of several thousand people.
Luke’s Mission and long term ministry Pastor Jean Revil of the Belbede Christian Church and local community leaders constructed 50 latrines across the community over the next year. Haitians oversaw this project completely. 6 were initially completed at which point an ongoing evaluation was conducted of the project prior to further work.
To date 50 have been built across this community. In the next year or so, a hygiene education program will be initiated where local residents will be trained in basic hygiene and will serve as community health educators to further educate the community.
We are grateful to New Hope Presbytery, Rocky Mount, NC for their support of this project.
Vision 21: Ending the Sanitation Scandal
VISION 21 is an initiative to put an end to a global crisis. Despite enormous achievement over the past two decades, an estimated one billion of the earth’s citizens still lack safe drinking water while almost three billion have no adequate sanitation. More than two million children die each year from water-related diseases. These factors compound the suffering of more than a quarter of the developing world’s people who are denied a healthy environment for living.
VISION 21, brought out by partners in the Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council, offers a practical picture of a future in which this shameful scandal is brought to an end.
VISION 21 is directed to achieving a world by 2025 in which each person knows the importance of hygiene, and enjoys safe and adequate water and sanitation. The futuristic scenario describing a better world explains how this can be achieved. “Following the turn of the 20th century, governments and civil societies accepted access to water and sanitation as basic human rights, and linked water, sanitation and hygiene needs with broader development goals and poverty reduction, using them as an entry point for development work. The real breakthrough came when all agencies recognized that the most effective action came from the energy of people themselves. Qualityleadership and democratic governance provided the environment within which 20th century visions become 21st century realities”.
The essence of VISION 21 is to put people’s initiative and capacity for self-reliance at the centre of planning and action. The foundation is recognition of water and sanitation as basic human rights, and of hygiene as a prerequisite. Together they form a major component in poverty reduction.
Such recognition can lead to systems that encourage genuine participation by men and women, resulting in the acceptance and practice of hygiene, coupled with safe water and sanitation at the household level. These factors can improve living conditions for all, and most particularly for children and women. They can contribute significantly to sustainable and self-reliant patterns of human development and wellbeing.
2025 A clean and healthy world: A world in which every person has safe and adequate water and sanitation and lives in a hygienic environment
VISION 21:
The People’s Route to Water,
Sanitation and Hygiene for All
• WATER SUPPLY &SANITATION • COLLABORATIVECOUNCIL World Health Organization
Luke's Mission-serving the Lord in Haiti 