Haitian Inspiration
Thursday, 26 August 2010 12:21
Thursday August 26 2010
I’d like to introduce you to an incredible person: Marthe Merveille, a close associate of PAIDEH, CAWST’s in-country partner organization, she shines with a unique, inspiring light.
Olivier raved about her before we arrived in Port-au-Prince, so by the time we got to Cap-Haitien, we were dying to meet the famous Marthe. As I shook her hand in greeting, she looked me square in the eye and said her name. Immediately I felt Marthe’s presence: a mix of kindness, strength and intelligence that would be reinforced every time I saw her in action.
Marthe has been working with women’s groups voluntarily since she was 18 years old, more than twenty years ago. She started her career as a school teacher, but she became frustrated with gender inequities that had already taken root in the children by the time they reached her classroom. Boys are treated with more respect than girls in Haiti, she told me. It’s a cultural reality she experienced not just in homeroom, but in her home growing up.
Several years ago, she decided that addressing the imbalance at school was simply too late in the game – the message that boys were more important and valuable than girls had already been solidified in the children’s minds. She decided to work with women – mothers – to empower them and to encourage equality and respect in their children from birth.
Waves of Change Goes to Haiti
Wednesday, 18 August 2010 09:33
Following the successful launch of the CAWST Waves Of Change photo-documentary exhibit this June, photographer Cate Cameron and I are set to begin Phase Two: two weeks of field work in Haiti collecting images and stories about clean water and sanitation.
The documentary project is supported by Calgary based humanitarian organization CAWST (the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology) and funded by CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency), Rotary International and Encana.
Last year at this time, we were in southern India after spending the bulk of July working in Zambia. For both Cate and I, the two months abroad was our first foray into the developing world as documentarians. It was a rude yet poignant awakening as we grappled with the challenges of working with interpreters and unique cultures all in a context of extreme poverty. For both of us, it was a complex and personal experience that affected not just our work as journalists, but our entire lives.
Cate and I are very diffe-ent as artists and as people, but we come together on this project. We are bound by the life-changing experiences of the past year and now we begin a whole new stage of the journey. In many ways, we're taking our work to a new level. We are no longer "field virgins" -- neophytes navigating the challenges of language and cultural difference -- but in many ways, we are still green.
Cate describes it this way: "Even though I've had the experience of working around the water issue in Zambia and India, I know that each country has its own set of challenges and issues, its unique expression of poverty." She's right; there is danger in painting all poor countries with the same brush. Especially after January's earthquake in Haiti and the several months of humanitarian intervention that followed, Haiti's circumstances are like no other's. Our job will be to learn from last year's experience and see Haiti with fresh eyes.
Nepal: Local biosand filter entrepreneurs
Thursday, 29 July 2010 11:27
[Click on the image to view the video]
CAWST and ENPHO organized a five-day Project Implementation workshop for local entrepreneurs in Nepal. Although Narayan Pandey had some ideas about the biosand filter, he learnt a lot about the importance of safe water, project planning and implementation. After the training he started to manufacture biosand filters on his house premises. He has received technical support from ENPHO and CAWST since then. Now he is running a "Lumbini Filter Industry" in the western region of Nepal and sold over 3000 filters.
Betman Bhandari
International Technical Advisor, CAWST
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Upcoming Events
- Sep 13 - Sep 17 African Biosand Filter Learning Exchange (Uganda)
- Sep 23 | 5pm CAWST Annual General Meeting
- Sep 30 HIV/AIDS and Water Seminar (Zambia)
- Oct 11 - Oct 15 Low Cost Sanitation Workshop (Zambia)
- Oct 12 - Oct 15 | 8am Project Implementation for the Biosand Filter Workshop
