Embry-Riddle students bring clean water to Haiti children

A girl named Tracy from the Ryan Epps Home for Children in Haiti gets a drink of clean water from a water purification system designed and installed by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University photos

Published: Wednesday, September 4, 2013 at 7:58 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, September 4, 2013 at 9:12 p.m.

When Marc Compere and his students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University saw pigs in a polluted stream in Haiti near bathing children, they realized the significance of their work to provide clean water to the impoverished country.

More importantly, it confirmed more work needs to be done.

Compere and 11 others, mostly students from the Daytona Beach university, returned last month from Haiti following their fourth trip to install water purification systems they designed. This time the system powered by solar was provided to an orphanage and school.

Next summer, they hope to install a similar system at another orphanage using various donations.

“There is no shortage of need,” said Compere, an assistant professor who oversaw the project.

In addition to this year’s project at the orphanage, Embry-Riddle students have installed systems for a missionary relief camp, another orphanage and last year to a tent city in Onaville for people displaced from the 2010 earthquake. The students this summer also checked back on the Onaville system, making adjustments and replacing parts.

“The new students had their experience broadened by learning a new culture and seeing impoverished people,” Compere said. “Our seasoned students were able to see the system they installed last year and how it is working.”

At the Ryan Epps Home for Children in Michaud near Port-Au-Prince, the new Embry-Riddle system is delivering 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of clean water a day, half of which will be used by the home and its school. The remaining water will be sold to the community to raise money for the home and to operate the system.

The home houses about 30 children. Close to 200 attend the school. Both used well water for bathing and cooking, but it’s not pure enough for drinking, home officials said, so they welcomed Embry-Riddle’s aid.

“They were an amazing bunch,” said Patrick Tormey, who is on the board of the orphanage. “(The Embry-Riddle students) saw immediately how they were having an effect not only with clean water, but producing a sustainable business for the home in Haiti.”

The university students also installed three solar systems to run the water purifier and power some electricity at the home and school.

“This year was definitely, for me, a more powerful experience seeing the children at the orphanage,” said senior Kyle Fennesy, 21, of Richmond, Texas, who was on his second Haiti trip. “All the kids went to get the water and there was nothing but smiles. Some were very young and it’s hard for them to understand the implications of clean water, but others realized how much of an impact the purifier will make in their lives.”

The students also played tag, soccer and other games with the children; taught them basic sanitation and hygiene; and delivered more than 250 toothbrushes.

“Experiences like that where you change people’s lives is kind of indescribable,” said Allen Graham, 24, a graduate student from Charlotte, N.C., who helped install solar panels. “It felt really good knowing I was part of something so big.”

Gloria King, 21, a senior from Flagler Beach, helped with the solar panels and taught the children some basic English.

She was surprised that some of the restaurants in Haiti and other locations had no soap in the bathrooms to wash hands.

“It was kind of mind-boggling for me. I had never been in another country before let alone a Third World country,” King said. “I was very grateful for what I have (in America). I wish things were better for them.”

Students will discuss their trip at a Sept. 25 event from 4:45 to 5:30 p.m. in Embry-Riddle’s Willie Miller Instructional Center.

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