On January 12, 2010, Haiti was struck by an earthquake that registered a 7.0 magnitude on the Richter scale. This earthquake was the worst in the region in more than 200 years and took the lives of approximately 300,000 people. If that wasn’t bad enough, the monsoon season started one month later.

Following the earthquake, 1.2 million Haitians were left homeless and had no indoor bathrooms.  As the first rains of the monsoon season began to fall, the frightened homeless people had no place to go for protection. Luckily, no one died.

However, in November cholera rapidly began spreading through Haiti. Since there was no other available drinking water, people were forced to drink water contaminated with cholera from the outdoor bathroom pits.

Cholera is a serious infectious disease caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholerae, which affects the intestinal system of the body. An infected person experiences severe vomiting and diarrhea resulting in severe dehydration. After symptoms begin, a person with cholera dies from dehydration within four to twenty-four hours, so it must be treated immediately. Cholera is caused by drinking water or eating food that was contaminated by the bacteria Vibrio cholerae. 

As of December 7, 2010, over 2,000 Haitians have died of cholera and more than 97,000 have been sickened by the disease.

According to a BBC News article from November 17, 2010, Elysia Nisan, a Save the Children member, reported, “What is sad about cholera is that it is both preventable and treatable, and yet it claims so many lives around the world. We are informing the public [of Haiti] on how they can protect themselves, by washing their hands with soap and only drinking treated water and eating food that has been prepared cleanly.”

Chlorine to treat the contaminated water, purified bottle water, and soap are just a few of the items people can easily be sent to Haiti. Contact Save the Children via their website at www.savethechildren.org.