From the Field – May 15, 2013
This week, the Hope for Haiti staff would like to give a shout out to our Clean Water Technician, Harry Victor, for all the wonderful work he has been doing to ensure the success of our Clean Water Program.
Each month, Harry has been conducting water site visits at all 13 clean water program sites. He checks the batteries and filters and fixes any problems he sees at the time. He also tests the water to ensure the systems’ functionality and shows the results to each system manager so that they can see that the water is being properly filtered. Today, Harry and I visited two primary school partners that have Hope for Haiti water filtration systems.
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| Harry Victor, Water Technician. | Harry tests the pH of the water. |
The first was an urban school, where the system was installed in February 2009. Harry spoke with the School Director, Uterlord, about the school’s usage of the system. Uterlord said, “the system works very well for us and the children are very happy to have a source of clean water to drink while they are at school.” He is also very glad that Harry takes the time to show him the results of the tests so that he can not only be sure that the school is providing high quality water for its students, but can also use the good results as a motivator to encourage the community members that come to the parent meetings to use the water from the system.
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| Students sneak a peek inside the office to watch Harry checking the water system. | Harry explains the water test results to School Director, Uterlord. | Harry and School Director planning their next community meeting. |
Afterwards, we visited another school, which is actually the first site where Hope for Haiti installed the UV water filtration system. It is a rural community located a bumpy 15 minute ride off the main road, often unreachable if there has been a lot of rain. Harry and the School Director, Olneme, have been working closely to design new ways to spread the word within the community to continue using the filtered water. Today, the system was in good shape after Harry’s check-in so they were able to brainstorm ideas for a water-themed community meeting to take place the first week of June. Olneme told Harry, “the people use the system, but I know we can get more to use it if we continue to educate them on the importance of clean water.”
These two examples characterize what a typical day in Harry’s life entails. He always makes an effort to keep the system managers involved the discussion about how to improve access to clean water to as many people in Hope for Haiti’s partner communities as possible.