Liquid For Life
ProvidingSafe & CleanWater In Haiti
Together We Can Achieve More
Liquid For Life has been a program that MHW initiated many years ago.
As a company that assists new wine, spirit and liquor brands in entering the US market, we have been privileged to touch so many countries. While we have the opportunity to help Americans experience some of the cultures of foreign countries through the local beverages they produce, we see many parts of the world where people can’t even access clean drinking water to live. Ironically, oftentimes the water is available in their local area in the form of underground springs. The major challenge is accessing. With the help originally of the Saint Patrick Fathers missionary and other charity organizations, MHW has been able to fund water pumps/water wells in locations such as Africa, Haiti, and other Caribbean countries. We look forward to continuing with this critical objective-to give liquid and life back to people in places that really need it.
John Beaudette, President & CEO of MHW, Ltd.
Help us bring hope to the hurting and help to draw the hearts of the poor to the peace of our Savior who declares,
Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life
(John 4:14)
Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life
CROSS CATHOLIC OUTREACH
OUR MISSION
We are a Catholic ministry that serves the poorest of the poor internationally by channeling aid through dioceses, parishes, and Catholic missionaries, cost-effectively helping the poor break the cycle of poverty while advancing Catholic evangelization.
The Need
When Father Glenn Meaux and his missionary team arrived in Kobonal in 1989, families were starving; children were dying from dirty water; there were no farms and no jobs.
“Very few employment opportunities existed for the unskilled, uneducated population, so very few were able to earn money to buy food. Families were facing starvation. There was no agriculture, there was no irrigation system, there was just literally no hope at the time,”
Fr. Meaux recalls. “The families had no possibilities for advancement.” Over the last two decades, the Kobonal Haiti Mission has helped hundreds and hundreds of families. “Throughout these years living among our Haitian brothers and sisters, we have clearly seen God’s hand hard at work,” Fr. Meaux says. “Hundreds and hundreds of people have experienced dramatic positive changes in their lives. God has changed hearts. There now exists among our families a vibrant faith community, whose members reach out in loving service to others.”
Despite this overwhelming transformation, there is still a great need for help and the hope of Christ in the Diocese of Hinche, which is home to half a million people, many of whom still live in dire poverty. Located in one of the poorest parts of the country, families in Kobonal struggle to survive on next to nothing. The poorest families live in one-room shacks of sticks, tin, mud, and cardboard, with dirt floors and no running water. Clean water is scarce and hygiene is inadequate.
THE PROJECT
SAFE WATER SOURCE NEEDED
By some estimates, more than half of all deaths in Haiti in recent years are attributable to waterborne diseases — diarrhea, typhoid, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis and most of those victims are young children.
Despite the overwhelming improvements made by Fr. Meaux and the Kobonal Mission, a great need still exists in the communities for clean water. Without safe water the people cannot bathe, cook, grow a garden, raise livestock, or run a medical clinic; and they risk life-threatening illness every time they take a drink.
Many of the communities currently depend on parasite-contaminated streams, which only have water during the rainy season. During the dry season, families will dig a hole in the dry riverbed and wait for groundwater to seep into it so they can fill their buckets.
Community Wells
With help from Cross Catholic Outreach, Fr. Meaux plans to build clean-water wells for several communities in dire need. The people in these remote villages will not only use the water for drinking and cooking but also to water the gardens they depend on for food and income.
These hand pump wells are free-standing, with no holding tanks. The families in each community will choose a leader to oversee and perform maintenance on the wells. Each well will have a cement wall around it for security and will be open certain hours during the day.
The water will be free for the users, but they are encouraged to give a token amount that is put into a community fund for repairs on the wells. This gives the villagers a sense of ownership over the wells and builds community sentiment.
WE NEED YOUR HELP
MHW Ltd created Liquid for Life, a campaign in partnership with Cross Catholic Outreach, to dig and install wells and pumps to benefit poor villagers living in Haiti’s Central Plateau. Each well costs about $14,636 which includes drilling, installing a pump, building a shed to store supplies, and providing education to community members on how to fix and maintain the wells.
If we raise $50,000 together, we can provide 3 wells that would forever change the lives of 981 families in the communities of Locawil, Maria Lapas and Mirerbalais!
We hope you will prayerfully consider joining us in our mission to bring clean water to the people of Kobonal. This clean water will not only help prevent cholera and other potentially fatal waterborne diseases; it will also provide a strong demonstration of Christ’s love to suffering families in a region that, for many years, was in bondage to oppressive voodoo beliefs and practices.
GET THE FACTS ON HAITI
Haiti’s natural environment is one of the most devastated in the world
Due to discoveries in the field, anthropologists have suggested that fermented beverages may date back to 10,000 B.C.E.
During the Crusades and medieval times, fermented and distilled beverages were used for medicinal purposes (an early form of anesthesia for surgery, used as an antiseptic and disinfectant agent for wounds), and for drinking water via wine or beer.
The Benedictines, a Catholic order of monks, were famously known for fermented beer/wine and also distilled beverages. They were the first ones to make brandy and an early version of whiskey in Europe. They shared their beverages with the local communities and towns they were near. As time went on, more Catholic religious communities (Franciscans, Dominica, Jesuits, etc) began to do the same and thus the mass production of wine, beer, and distilled beverages spread throughout Europe and eventually to the Americas. Jesus’ First Miracle was turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11)
During the Greco/Roman/Egyptian Eras, fermented beer and wine were used in place of drinking water. Wine was for the ruling class and elites. Slaves and the working class drank fermented wheat beverages (an early version of beer).
Until the 18th Century, boiling water for drinking purposes just wasn’t done on a regular basis. So, people would drink water from pails to collect rain water, wells that were less than 30 feet deep (at best) and rivers and streams. Bacterial infection and disease were commonplace for people who did not drink boiled water. So, the only way they could get their water intake was through beer/wine and distilled beverages.
