Quenching Haiti’s Thirst

Reporting by Joanna Mayhew in Port-au-Prince

As post-quake water shortages continue, World Relief is meeting short-term emergency needs and creating long-term solutions.

Four wells have been drilled to support the work that churches, orphanages and schools are already doing to meet the needs of their communities.

Pastor Sampson Dorilas leads a local church and school in one of the slum areas of Carrefour. The church, a World Relief partner for several years, experienced horrific loss in the earthquake – 49 church members died, and at least 200 lost their homes.

Church services are now held on pews in the open air, alongside the makeshift homes of approximately 150 people living in the church yard.

Pastor Dorilas lost his own house and is living in a tent, but every day he focuses on meeting the needs of his congregation. His church has used all its reserves to feed the hungry.  And Pastor Dorilas carries bread everywhere he goes in case he meets someone in need.

One of the church’s most urgent needs is water.

People are getting water wherever they can, often from dirty and dangerous sources that put them at risk of disease.

World Relief has come alongside the church to build a well that provides potable water. “We consider it as deliverance because as Christians, we cannot go and fight for water, like we see happening each day,” Pastor Dorilas says.

“World Relief has wept with us in our grief.”

The For His Glory orphanage is home to 50 children ages one month to 15 years. World Relief and partners have dug a well at the orphanage.  All the children sleep outside in tents. They have their own struggles in the aftermath of the quake, but they have decided to share their well water with other orphanages that have no water supply.  They plan to fill water jars and deliver them to street kids and other vulnerable children.  “We will give them relief through water,” says Pastor Pierre Alexis.

At every well location, World Relief forms local committees to provide oversight and create a sense of community ownership – so that the wells will be properly maintained and operate for years to come.

Pastor Alexis hopes that the water will be a witness of Christ’s love to all who drink it.

“I will tell tell them, ‘As you are drinking this water, think of Jesus as the Living Water who is indispensible for your life.’”

At the Mission Par la Foi Church, water is flowing from a newly installed well. On the front of the well, a sign reads: “In the Name of Jesus.”

Church members invite their community to share the well water with them. “And if we see someone passing by, we welcome them,” says Jean Pierre Saint Julien, a church leader.

Joseph Samuel, 15, fetches water from the well – and shares his heartbreaking story.  He lost his mother and his sister in the quake.

In the face of overwhelming tragedy and trauma, local churches continue to show Christ’s love and compassion to those like Joseph, struggling to make sense of life.

“God is faithful,” says Pastor Dorilas.  “Even in this difficult moment, God has a plan. I am certain that the future cannot be bad.”

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