Haití
Pilar Phillips
Social worker and International Service Fellow in Haiti
My experience running the cholera project in Haiti has been one of the most life-changing I have had...
Haití
Pilar Phillips
Pilar Phillips
My experience running the cholera project in Haiti has been one of the most life-changing I have had in my 27 years. Life-changing because I have let go of prejudices, opened up to those who are different and welcomed a new language, other colors, flavors and smells. It has been a permanent process of "un-learning" to be able to leave behind the safety of everything familiar, all comforts and certainties, and open up to that which is different, to people who are different, many people, with curious eyes, full of life, with pain, living in poverty, but who are strong and wear smiles. Many smiles. The daily struggle in Haiti is for water. It is never nearby and families – mainly women and children – have to walk more than two hours to reach a stream, the nearest water source. Cholera – which goes hand in hand with other infectious diseases- has spread over these families, but not over their hopes and dreams. After a lot of hard work, we have formed a health committee, elected representatives and embarked upon a unified fight for better sanitation. We have broken down barriers built upon culture, skin-color and language and we have found more than just differences. With each step, each conversation, each smile and planned assembly we are shortening these distances.