From the Field: Back In Hispaniola

It was a long, hot, steamy and exhausting day yesterday (August 30). While we work in many difficult areas around the world, we are definitely dealing with a situation of incredible hardship here in the poorest areas of southern and western Dominican Republic. The cholera epidemic that spread in Haiti last year has now taken hold in impoverished areas in the south. It can be hard to believe this exists so close to North America.

Today, we visited a very large hospital in Santo Domingo and had a meeting with the director. It was a very good meeting where we learned of the serious damage that cholera and other water borne diseases is doing to the poor communities like those we visited yesterday. The cholera ward was standing room only. It is a public hospital and the only one the poorest can go to.

When cholera broke out last October the already difficult situation in Haiti was amplified; from chlorinating standing water, administering intravenous electrolyte solutions to the sick and disinfecting deceased bodies, we are continuing to work alongside our Haitian partners and responded to those needs. Over the last three months of 2010, Water School funded seven truckloads of supplies containing chlorine, cholera beds, IV solutions and other essential items. After the outbreak subsided, we learned that the number of cholera cases in the 24 communities where we had started teaching our program seven months prior, were substantially less than areas without our training.

In 2011, as we continue to grow and develop our work in Hispaniola, our program has also begun to evolve; transitioning from critical aid to long term, sustainable water, health, and hygiene solutions.

We will be posting a full report of the Dominican trip in the coming days.