The CDC (Center for Disease Control) lists outbreaks of a variety of diseases.  During 2011 in the United States, there were outbreaks of Salmonella and E. coli outbreaks related to food production.  There were eleven outbreaks of Salmonella and four of E. coli alone.

In 2011, Listeria monocytogenes was found to infect cantaloupes and caused the deaths of 16 people.  The bacteria were not found inside the fruit, but on the surface.  The soil where the cantaloupes were grown contained the Listeria bacteria.  It remained on the outside until the consumer cut into the cantaloupe.

The 2010 Salmonella outbreak is another example of diseases that are problems in our food supply.  The Salmonella was found in eggs from several Iowa farms.  Thousands of people were affected but, fortunately, no one died.  Over a half billion eggs were recalled and destroyed.

We know that SAFI is effective in killing Cholera and E. coli for drinking water.  The question now is will it work when applied by food producers during the growing season or before it reaches our grocery shelves?

It is believed that using SAFI in water sprayed on fruit, animal manure, or even in the drinking water of farm animals may aid in the prevention of diseases like these.  The planned research will test how effective SAFI is against these common diseases when used by producers of our food.  One way that may be effective is washing produce in a solution of water and SAFI before it reaches your store or can be used at home on produce you’ve grown yourself.  Using SAFI wouldn’t leave an unpleasant taste or smell like you get when using a bleach solution at home.

We’ve also heard something interesting from our partners in Haiti.  In our work fighting Cholera with schools in Haiti, some school employees have noticed that flies do not stay very long on surfaces that have been cleaned with a solution of SAFI.  It’s been suggested that because flies have taste sensors in their feet, SAFI treated tables somehow repel them.

It will be gratifying if SAFI can do much more than just provide safe drinking water.  We will keep you posted on our testing.

The government is attempting to bring organization out of the chaos by appointing committees and bureaus but, so far, little progress is apparent. There are occasional outbursts of violence, often associated with elections. Overall, we have found the people are generally both friendly and helpful.
As an NGO (non-governmental organization), work in Haiti is frustrating. Transportation is a major problem for several reasons. The initial cost of a vehicle is about double the US price because of Haitian Customs. The cost of gasoline in Haiti is around $5.00 per gallon. To rent a vehicle with a driver costs about $200.00 per day. A driver is a necessity because of the bad roads traffic jams and motorcycles.

The Koinonia Foundation was asked to treat a cholera outbreak at the local school in Moliere. Using SAFI to kill the bacteria, we sprayed the area and washed down every surface the students might touch. At the end of the week there were no more cases of cholera being reported.
Weeks later, we returned to see the results of the SAFI treatment. Moliere is located in the mountains and we were given two choices of transportation to the village, horseback or motorcycles. We decided to choose the faster method – motorcycles. The trip was uncomfortable because the road was filled with stones and we splashed through streams.
The view, however, was spectacular looking across the valleys at the other mountains and down on the farmers and animals in distant fields. Haiti truly is a beautiful place once you get out of the chaos of the cities.

Incidentally, riding up a mountain on the back of a motorcycle is not recommended.

The purpose of the Beacon Program is to teach women the basics of entrepreneurship.  The idea was hatched in 2007 in response to the obvious impact of the large number of women, especially single mothers, who were unemployed and impoverished.

In an attempt to make this a cooperative effort, the Foundation approached a number of local NGOs, such as widows’ groups and others, who were assisting all women.  Our idea was met with initial enthusiasm.  But as planning continued, we kept running into opposition to our rule:  ”women must manage their own finances.”

The mostly male managers of the non-profit organizations thought that they should be the ones to handle the money for the women.  Our experience in running a business in Africa has shown that women were more likely than men to use money for their family’s needs, such as food, clothing, and school tuition.  As a result of this impasse, all cooperative efforts to work with local groups failed.

In 2009, we hired our own employee, a woman.  Béata Musabyimana was given the task of setting up our pilot project of ten women.  These ten women were enrolled in our first business training class.

Once the business training was completed, each woman was given six K-lights (solar lanterns) to sell for start up capital, the group was registered as an independent cooperative, elected officers including an audit committee, opened a bank account, and rented a small store front.  They began selling other items besides the lights, such as clothing and food.  A coffee shop was equipped and a tailoring shop was started.  There are now about 100 graduates of the Beacon Program.

In 2010, an intern from the University of Michigan MBA program, Dale Jackson, designed a better way of training the women.  He gave lectures to a new group of twenty women.  Then he broke them into groups of five and, despite everyone telling him the ladies were mostly illiterate, told them to go off and come up with a business plan.  Then he would chose the group with the best idea.

It worked!  Each group came back with ideas of how to start a business.  The group that won was going to to buy chicks and raise money from eggs and meat.

Not much has changed. The rubble from the earthquake is still around, but much has been moved to either dumps or empty lots. There is still a lot of trash and traffic is still clogged. It takes two hours to make the forty-minute drive from the airport to the Methodist Guest House. Much of the traffic consists of either construction type trucks or large SUVs that many of the NGOs (charities) seem to import.

I am becoming wary about traveling to Haiti. On the last trip, we visited the Moliere School where we had contained the cholera outbreak. We were given a choice of making the twenty kilometer trip by horseback (four hours each way) or on the back of a motorcycle (one hour each way). Sadly, I chose the motorcycle and it was a harsh ride. The road up the mountain was over rocks, through creek beds, over more rocks and more rocks. Walking and other muscle pain from the jolting lasted for a week.

This time an incident occurred after dinner as we walked back to the Guest House. It was pitch black and as we felt our way along, I slipped off the path and fell into a 4-foot deep hole, injuring my head and shoulder. Apparently, the hole had been dug for use as a cistern but was never covered. After another visitor also fell into the hole a few minutes later. It was covered with boards the next morning.

Otherwise, the visit was successful. We talked with a number of missionaries and showed Tom Braak how to use SAFI. One drop of the compound in a gallon of water will kill all the pathogens. However, it is not a filter. If the treated water is run through a cloth, it will filter out and lumps.

World Vision has taken on the responsibility of treating human waste for the government. There is an area in Port au Prince where waste has been dumped and left without treatment. We want to help because SAFI is perfect for this. It can be sprayed on the waste using an applicator, similar to a lawn sprayer, on a regular basis. SAFI is non-toxic and leaves no harmful residues. They seem interested and, hopefully, we can have the chance to demonstrate the product.

Church teams up with Koinonia Foundation to send sanitizer to Haiti

By Zane McMillin | The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS — Science can combat disease in a variety of ways, but for a school in the Haitian mountains suffering from a cholera outbreak, relief comes in liquid form.

A Grand Rapids foundation has teamed up with the city’s First United Methodist Church to fund the production and distribution of a copper-based solution that can be used as a surface and water sanitizer.

After a trip in June to the Moliere region of Haiti to instruct locals on using what is called SAFI, Koinonia Foundation founder Dale Williams said the growing number of cholera cases there all but stopped.

“Once they did that, no more cases. Boom, just like that,” said Williams, a doctor with West Michigan roots. “We are eager now to start doing it some more.”

Cholera is an often-fatal bacterial disease that can be contracted from contaminated water supplies. Poor sanitation practices and lack of action by the Haitian government have compounded the country’s cholera emergency following the devastating 2010 earthquake, Williams said.

He and a colleague delivered SAFI in one-ounce bottles. One drop, Williams said, is enough to eradicate harmful pathogens in a gallon of water.

Before SAFI, chlorine had been the chemical of choice to disinfect surfaces and waters. Unlike chlorine, though, SAFI is tasteless, odorless and nontoxic, Williams said.

SAFI has not been subjected to testing for certification by the United States government. And, because it is relatively new, the solution’s full potential is unknown, Williams said.

The foundation also must work with nongovernment organizations, including United Methodist Committee on Relief, because they are stepping in where Haiti’s leaders have not, he said.

“The potential’s there,” Williams said. “We’re just feeling our way with how to progress.”

Email the author of this story: localnews@grpress.com

We started out helping to build schools in Rwanda, and over the years have found ourselves dealing with solar power, business education, cooperatives, and books. Looking forward, I believe we will continue as we have and break into new areas of helping others. We always find a way to make any worthwhile project work with our mission.

I was quite happy to see the foundation team has had this same philosophy of forward momentum. I returned to the U.S. to find a revamped website. It is easier to maneuver, has more information, and takes us into the next phase for the Koinonia Foundation…safe drinking water.

Take a look at the new site and you will see some interesting and disturbing facts about what most people in this world have to deal with just to get a basic commodity like safe, clean drinking water.

This may seem a bit of a stretch for our Foundation, as we have never worked in this field, but as I stated earlier, we must look toward the future. I have found that the future for water in the world looks bleak and we must rally together to deal with this situation. This is not just an issue for those in the developing world. There they deal with it in the present, but if we continue on the same path, these problems will come right home to us.

Here is the good part; it is not that difficult of a task. For those of you who remember the days before mass recycling, the prospect of such a monumental change in the way the world dealt with garbage seemed unreachable. It wasn’t. In fact, the majority of us embraced this new process and were able to make it a fact of life. Imagine not recycling.

Clean, safe water for everyone, and the ability to protect this resource for the future, is the same. It may seem daunting now, but as we make the effort to change it will become easier and easier. We will change the world.

Koinonia Foundation has changed. Updated website, new projects and new thinking keeps us moving forward. Take a look at what we are up to now and I hope you can join us.

We had our intern, Nicole Joyce, giving some pretty intense business skills training to these Beacon ladies. However, there is always time to take a short break. Here’s what the women treated us to during one of these breaks:

One of the causes of poverty in Rwanda is the 1994 genocide of Tutsi. Beacon women find that will never happen again. They are committed to work and raise their socio-economic status, to rebuild themselves and their country. Working in co-operative helps them not only to join their efforts in business but also to remain in a solid unit.

Most of the members of Ingenzi za Rwezamenyo Co-operative are survivors of the 1994 genocide. Some are widowers, others are single mothers or live separately from their husbands and raise their children alone.

The 25th of April (mourning month in Rwanda); Ingenzi za Rwezamenyo Cooperative organized a march to Gisozi Memorial Center in memory of their family members and other Rwandese killed during the 1994 genocide.

You’ll find that in the pictures below, many of the women are wearing white and red, and also offer white and red flowers. Beata explains what those colors signify.

Regarding the meaning of colors:
-Red: blood of Rwandese killed in the 1994 genocide
-White: overcome the misery and preserving our dignity.

Busy day yesterday. We went up to visit the Moliere School, where we had treated the cholera outbreak. Moliere is an area of farmers of approximately 35,000 population, about twenty miles up in the mountains at an elevation of approximately one-half mile.

The problem was it was a four-hour trip both ways, which actually wasn’t the real problem. It was those last twenty miles. We drove to Petit Goave, which is on the coast. This took three hours. Then they said the last part was by motorcycle and would take about an hour.

Being macho, I said “no problem”.

Riding on the back on the passenger seat was the most god-awful hour I’ve spent in long time. Brought back the aphorism, ‘be careful what you pray for, you might get it’.

When the road wasn’t rocky, it was crossed by streams of water, so if my behind wasn’t being spanked, we were slipping around in the mud. The worst was when I realized we had to come back the same way.

The reason for us visiting the school is because we had been called by Jim Gulley, from UMCOR (The United Methodist Committee on Relief), about an outbreak of cholera in the Moliere area. The families of the children at the Methodist were affected and ten people had already died. They asked if we could help by using Clean Water Environmental’s (CWE) Safi to control the spread of disease. Bill Burmeister arrived two days later and held a training session with about twenty of the residents in Petit Goave (rain had made it too difficult to travel to Moliere). By this time there had been 700 cases of Cholera with 30 deaths.

We visited the school and talked with the principal. He explained the families of the students had each been give a bottle of Safi, along with education on washing hands and other safety measures. All the grounds, including the outdoor toilets, walls and desks of the inside of the school were sprayed with Safi. Once the Safi was being used, there were no further cases of cholera, at least among the school families.

Bill tolerated the adventure better but he is younger. The only part of me that doesn’t hurt are my fingers.

Dale