How Many Cows

The project in Haiti went really well!

Thirty new students were trained in goat care and gifted a female goat to raise their new herds. The students are getting better each year! The former students share their new goat knowledge with their fellow classmates so we don’t have to spend as much time training on basics (food, water, shelter) anymore. Now the students know those basics and our teachers can focus more on breeding and birthing problems. During our first class in 2014, none of the students at that time has ever tasted goats milk – when Helene asked the class this year, every child raised their hand! This is big! Goats milk is so healthy for babies and young children that we hope it will become more common for use in this rural community.

Thank you so much for your support of our annual “Gift a Goat” program!!!!

We also had a “water scouting” project at the same time. We are trying to find the best way to provide water to the new medical clinic in the Marbial region. This clinic is the first in the area and serves hundreds of people (some who have walked 6 hours to get medical care from the nursing staff at the clinic). We dug a 31′ pit nearby the clinic, but no water was present (mostly rocky soil). We built a manual pump to pump water from the river to the clinic, but that was extremely difficult and would not have been sustainable. For now, water is carried by 5-gal bucket from the river to the clinic. We installed a simple water purifier to clean the water so it was safe for the patients in the clinic as well as the nurses and staff.

We have decided to purchase an engine-driven pump to pump water up above the clinic (800′ from the river) so water can be gravity-fed to the clinic and two supporting structures (the buildings that house the teachers, nurses, guest doctors and volunteers). In June, we are going to build a 10,000 gallon concrete cistern with the necessarily piping system to complete the project. This is one of our more expensive projects, but we have decided that this is the best way to serve the clinic and the nurses and teachers in the area. The water will also be accessible to the homes nearby. The medical clinic is directed by USA Docter, Jennifer Nomides. It was awesome to meet Jen during this trip and we will be meeting in Haiti again in June for the water project. Below is a short video that I made to present this new project for funding. It shows the clinic and also the terrain that the ladies have to navigate with the 5-gallon buckets (about 42 lbs of water on their head).

If you are interested in backing this new project, please donate here on the Hydromissions website (for tax deduction) and dedicating it to “Haiti” in the comments.

I am on my way to Panama now (as usual, I am updating you from the airport … during my quick layover in ATL)

I will be spending 2 months working with the Wood family and the indigenous Ngobe people group in Bocas Del Toro. I will post a project update in a couple weeks!

Thank you for keeping up with my projects and please consider supporting the Water project for the Haiti Medical Clinic