1. Partners in Health Member Discusses the Haiti Water Situation at Glover School
Seamus FitzPatrick
6/13/12
Partners in Health Student Outreach Coordinator, Elise Garrity, visited the Glover school
June 8 to talk to 4th
and 5th
graders about the water situation in Haiti. Partners in Health is
an organization that has been demonstrating means of health and social justice since 1987
with 15,000 staff across 12 countries, 8,000 being Haitian community health workers
who worked through an earthquake in 2010 despite some of them losing family members.
Garrity was assisted with a water clean-up demonstration by Suvan Shukla.
Before Garrity could get started, she was interrupted by a student who seemed to think he
knew more about the Haiti water situation than she did. “Do you want to give the
presentation?” she happily joked at him. Garrity was very contributive in converting the
global health presentation designed for college students into one that could be interpreted
by 4th
and 5th
graders, reflecting her theory that children begin to love science when
outsiders come into the classroom and display real-world examples of science.
Garrity then began to discuss what is causing the water crisis. With Haiti being a poor
country with an unstable government, it makes it difficult to provide its inhabitants with
proper access to a healthy water supply. “There are poor countries where the government
doesn’t have enough money to afford a good water supply,” stated Garrity. Haiti is the
poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. She also said that “it is very important that
the water supply is run by the government.” She continued – “we want to enable (the
government) to do what they're trying to do.”
One could see where the problems arise.
“Water isn’t our specialty, but we are one of the voices for clean water in Haiti,” she
announced. They could use some help. In addition to the water situation, PIH provides
health care to people who can’t afford it. The sooner these people can get health care, the
better. “Many people die every year from very treatable diseases,” she explained. PIH
plans to help this issue by building the Mirebalais Teaching Hospital, a structure that will
be the biggest hospital in Haiti with 320 beds and will teach Haitian health care
professionals, which will also be free to those who cannot afford it. The hospital is being
built in Cange, a pivotal location in this issue. “People travel from all over the country to
get medical care in Cange,” she said.
Garrity then called on a student to share her question – “My sister went to Haiti and
couldn’t shower for two weeks. Is the water system that bad?” Garrity responded by
informing her that sometimes the people must use bottled water to shower to avoid the
inevitable risk of contaminated water.
Next was the very impressive filtering demonstration by Suvan Shukla. The young
Shukla got up in front of the class without hesitation and performed a filtration of
cholera, a bacterial disease of the small intestine caused by Vibrio cholera. This
potentially fatal (if untreated) diarrheal disease is actually in Haiti’s drinking water.
Shukla used a cloth to soak up the contaminated water and distill the purified water into
another bucket. Suvan’s mother Aarti was there to help, which he didn’t need much of
any.
PIH hopes to fight cholera with its Vaccine Project, which started in 2010. Its mission is
to raise awareness and treat the disease known as cholera. “In a place like Haiti, (cholera)
can spread quickly because people might not know about it,” Garrity informed.

2. Partners in Health is located at 888 Commonwealth Avenue, 3rd Floor in Boston and can
be reached at 617-998-8922.