Haiti
The poorest country in the western hemisphere. Half the population without clean water. Two schools in the north that nobody else was reaching.
Haiti: the western hemisphere’s poorest country, and its most water-insecure
With 60% of the population living below the poverty line on less than US$2.41 per day, Haiti faces a compounding cycle of poverty and disease. Only around half the population has access to clean drinking water. Of all diseases in Haiti, 80% are linked to dirty water and poor sanitation. Cholera outbreaks have been a recurring risk, particularly during heavy rains.
Most water and sanitation projects in Haiti concentrate on the densely populated south around Port-au-Prince. The rural north remains largely overlooked. Through local contacts in the Dominican Republic and the foundation America Solidaria, Kids at Play identified two primary schools in the north, near Carice, with basic structures but no sanitation and no clean water at all.
Two water wells, water storage, and a sanitation block for northern Haiti
The 2021 Haiti project delivered clean water systems to two primary schools in rural northern Haiti. Each school received a manually operated water well that requires no electricity, paired with water storage tanks. At the school in Carice, Kids at Play also built a dedicated sanitation block with toilets, addressing one of the most critical gaps in hygiene and disease prevention. All work was done in a region that other water projects were not yet reaching.
Reaching the ones no one else reached
Funded by people who care.
Raised entirely through the Kids at Play charity run and donations, every euro went directly to water wells, storage, and sanitation for children who had none.
America Solidaria and local school communities
Kids at Play reached Haiti through local contacts in the Dominican Republic, including foundations InspireDR and the DREAM Project. On the ground in Haiti, America Solidaria, a foundation with years of local experience, confirmed that clean water was the most urgent need and helped identify the two northern schools that other projects had not yet reached.
Going where others had not yet gone
Haiti was the most complex context Kids at Play had worked in. A country still recovering from a devastating earthquake, dealing with ongoing political instability, and now facing the Covid-19 pandemic on top of a chronic water and sanitation crisis. The schools in northern Haiti were basic structures with no water, no toilets, and no prospect of getting either through the channels serving the south. Working through trusted local partners who knew the communities made this project possible. The wells were designed to operate manually with no electricity, because in rural northern Haiti, electricity cannot be relied on.
North Haiti
Our sixth project, completed in 2021.
Two schools. Clean water. For the first time.
to the ones no one reaches.
Haiti showed us that the most urgent needs are often in the places other organisations are not yet looking. Your donation helps Kids at Play find those places and act.