the issue

In Haiti, over 4 million people lack safe water, over 6 million people lack access to proper sanitation, and since 2010 over 700,000 people have been affected by cholera. Our work is focused in two areas: the rural commune of Cayes Jacmel and the urban community of Bois Neuf, Cite Soleil.

Cayes Jacmel is a commune of 37,000 people located in the southeast department of Haiti with most of the population living in highly rural and often remote areas. The main source of income is agriculture, and like the rest of the country, they are challenged by a high unemployment rate. Most families have to hike long distances on hilly terrain to collect water from a shared water source. This water is often contaminated, but still it is often consumed without purification. Many families don’t have adequate facilities to practice the standards of sanitation and hygiene that they’d like, perpetuating the spread of several waterborne illnesses.

Cité Soleil is an extremely impoverished and densely populated shantytown with over 300,000 residents, located in Port-au-Prince. The area is often described as one of the poorest and most dangerous areas in the Western Hemisphere, and it is one of the biggest slums in the Northern Hemisphere. The area has virtually no sewers creating highly challenging safe water, sanitation, and hygiene conditions. Bois Neuf, the community Surge works in, has 40,000 people.