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Local support secures fresh water, brings life to Haitian village

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The Lolo, Haiti, village received clean, fresh water for the first time in February, thanks to support from volunteers living in the Bridgeport area. Pictured, villagers and their children fill up containers during the joyous moments after the water pump provided the first drops of safe water for them.

Some of those constructing the well house, from both Water For Life and the village of Lolo, Haiti, are pictured in late November. The Cornerstone Foursquare Church in Bridgeport has been heavily involved with financing this project. (Submitted photos)

By Correne Martin

For the very first time, a small village in the impoverished nation of Haiti has clean and fresh water. It’s all thanks to donations and volunteer support provided by the Cornerstone Foursquare Church in Bridgeport, the Coastal Community Church in South Carolina and the Iowa-based non-profit Water For Life. The Lolo Community Well Project will be completed this month, as the finishing touches of a well house are underway.

A few years ago, the Cornerstone Church became connected to a couple of volunteers from South Carolina, who were originally from Madison—Nick and Kate Matthias. Their Madison pastor had done mission work in Haiti and helped link them to Lolo, Haiti, after they moved to the East Coast. During a medical mission to Lolo, Nick, an engineer specializing in renewable energies, and Kate, a pediatrician, recognized a real need for a fresh source.

“There’s no access to clean, abundant water. What they had was a concrete cistern that the whole community shared and it cost 50 U.S. dollars to fill it for a couple weeks. Of course, it’s a very poor community as well,” said Levi Blackburn, Cornerstone associate pastor. Even in the free clinics, patients were suffering from dehydration, he said. Basics such as drinking, bathing and cooking were fulfilled with unsanitary water found often from contaminated sources.

In October 2014, a group of about a dozen volunteers from the Cornerstone Church spent a mission trip in the Lolo village and noticed the same desperate need.

“We were thinking, ‘How can we bless this community? What can we do to help them?’” Blackburn recalled.

Upon their return to the Prairie du Chien area, the volunteers and their church congregation started researching possibilities through which they could help supply a safe water source for this Haitian community for a reasonable financial investment. They came across Water For Life and started an application process toward sponsoring a well. Without knowing it, the Matthiases’ church was attempting the same process, also for the village of Lolo.

Water For Life helped join the two groups toward the ultimate goal of providing something this destitute village of about 2,500 people had never known.

The Matthiases’ church next helped raise the money necessary (about $10,000) to drill the well, which, according to Blackburn, means digging “pretty far” into the mountains. And, once you go below so many feet—in this case, 530 feet—a hand pump is no longer feasible and an electric pump is needed. So, the Cornerstone Church raised enough funds through donations to pay for the electric pump and installation, in addition to a well house and reservoirs for the project. The total raised, thus far, is about $5,700.

On Feb. 3, the Cornerstone Church learned Water For Life had the Lolo community well all set up. It was actually drilled some time ago but the installed pump and reservoirs weren’t finished until then. Overjoyed villagers were photographed filling five-gallon containers at the pump.

The well house itself is anticipated to be operational around March 15. That will complete the basis of the well project; however, the local group isn’t done helping Lolo and the people they’ve come to know and love.

Throughout Haiti, the majority of land is rented and, if you build on that land, you rent to own. The Haiti Foursquare church and its pastor, Arold Marcellus, rent seven parcels of land, measuring about 54 x 26 feet. Two of those parcels contain the church and the well house, and the village would like to officially own at least those two parcels—so their well’s existence isn’t threatened. Helping with that wish, both the Cornerstone Church and the Matthiases’ church are funding the purchases.

“We felt, as a church, we wanted to pour our resources and time into this community,” Blackburn noted. “So we’d like to help purchase five other pieces of land eventually, plus pay for ongoing maintenance of the well.”

“We’ve kind of adopted them,” added Senior Pastor Mel Wild. “You fall in love with them and you just want to help. Arold would love us to come back and we’re pretty antsy to go there and see it all done.”

The local group would undoubtedly like to go back to Lolo. They anticipate future fundraising so some volunteers can return to see their finances in action.

“[The people] like that we’re not just there to go on a mission trip but that we want to stay,” Wild shared.

“We want to see them blessed long-term,” Blackburn said. “We’re so grateful to be able to do what we can and be a part of this. To be able to see it realized, to be able to partner with others so this community can reap the benefits for generations, that’s why we did it.”

Haiti and the people who live there are in such sharp contrast to Crawford County and its people—or South Carolina, for that matter. Roads consist solely of dirt and rock, residents live in shacks, earthquakes have left shambles in plain sight, and, overall, they frankly have much less.

“It’s a very simple life and they have very little, but their hearts are just as full,” Blackburn illustrated. “Just building a relationship and connecting with them, heart-to-heart, is a big deal for them.”

Anyone interested in finding out more about the Lolo Community Well Project, or how to assist in years to come, can find the page on Facebook or they can visit www.thatchurchonthehill.com.

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