Fight childhood disease with safe drinking water

Dear Friends-

Today I want to share a success story from a young student that you support through your donations to Agua Pura.  Hovard  is a young man in Cap-Haitien, Haiti who was able to come to the US to study environmental technologies at a local Community College. While here we helped him learn about water and sanitation issues and other things he could do to help his community and his country.
There is no garbage collection in Haiti, resulting in water contamination and a breeding ground for disease.  Howard has started a garbage recycling and composting program with his neighbors.  He has enlisted his friends to start collecting food waste to be composted into garden soil, and his plan is to sell this nutrient rich soil to farmers and others to improve and enrich soils and increase crops.  This is the small scale, local programs that we believe are the most important and successful and we are helping Hovard with his project.
Here’s Hovard’s story:
 
Growing up in a third world country, there are many challenges. I was blessed with the opportunity to study in America, where I was part of an environmental study program and I decided to create and implement a plan for composting back home, in Haiti.
Haiti lacks the infrastructure that many first world countries take for granted.Haiti has a massive problem with trash. It is everywhere and on hot days -- which there are many;
the smell is dense in the air.  However, Haiti also has gorgeous beaches, beautiful waterfalls, lovely mountains, it is a wonderful place to visit, but the abundant rubbish issue can deter travelers from visiting my country.  I believe that once the garbage issue is managed, people will be more willing to travel to Haiti.
My composting initiative, to start, will educate the people in my community. Waste reduction is one of the benefits, however the end result of composting is creating mineral rich soil.  This soil can be used for families to grow nutrient rich food. It will also reduce the waste that lines the streets in Haiti and there will be a less trash that is burned, polluting the air.
Currently the trash on the streets is burned. The burning of waste, while efficient, greatly contributes to air pollution.  It also is bad for people's health, the smoke can cause lung cancer, asthma, burning eyes, ozone reduction. Because of the worldwide issues with air pollution and the ozone layer reduction, I feel that my composting project, while only in my small country, will contribute to lessening of pollution worldwide.
If my project is successful in Haiti, I plan to expand to other third world countries. It is a small start but there is much potential for expansion.  As the project grows and more people are composting, the overall air pollution and waste issues will decrease.  

Agua Pura is proud of Hovard and our other students and we continue to support them and their projects.  If you wish to help him with his composting project you can donate to our Agua Pura program and indicate that your donation is for him.