Clean Water in Haiti

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the Haitians' attitudes, knowledge, and usage of clean water. A variety of community leaders, water system technicians, and community members in Barasa, Gwo Mon, and Dekosye were interviewed. Participants were purposely chosen due to awareness of the necessity for clean water, their ability to explain the changes that access to clean water has made, and to explain what changes still need to be made. Interviews were transcribed and the data was analyzed using content analysis. In the areas where water bucket systems have been provided, the knowledge of the need for clean water and how to properly use the systems was established. When discussing what it was like before and after they had access to clean water, every interviewee immediately gave thanks to the EIU Haiti Connection for providing them with the buckets as they had provided life for them and their families. The third theme, behavior, the actual use of the water was discussed to ensure that they were not just aware of the importance of using clean water for everything, but that they were actually using the clean water for all water needs. International health issues should be a global concern. Things can only change when people are aware that changes needs to happen; while this does not ensure that change will occur, it does increase the awareness of that need. Ways to do this from a health educator standpoint are in the classrooms, either by influencing other professors to include it in their curriculum, creating forums, or traveling lectures made to various classrooms. As well, using social media outside of the classroom can be incredibly beneficial in increasing awareness of the problems in the world. Using this technology to do so could then inspire people to do more research on the topic and increase their awareness of the subject, therefore, potentially increasing the number of people who are inspired to make the necessary changes happen.