NEWARK, N.J. — While many are rushing to aid Haiti in the wake of the 7.0 earthquake last month, New Jersey Institute of Technology students have already been helping the people of Haiti for several years.
The Caribbean country lacked even bare necessities before the natural disaster hit, and members of the student organization Engineers Without Borders will have their work cut out for them when they return in the coming months.
This past May, three members of EWB traveled to the village of Milot to install water filtration systems in households. EWB President Paul Rodriguez said the group plans on returning in April or May, and will organize fundraising activities on campus to benefit Haiti in the meantime.
"After the earthquake, Haiti has significantly changed, and it's very tragic to see what's happening to a country that didn't have much to begin with," said Rodriguez, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering. "During this time they will be more deprived from their basic necessities and even though we're trying to help as much as we can with initial rescue and medical care, there's much to come."
He said the group was originally scheduled to return to Haiti this month, but given the earthquake disaster, their trip was postponed.
"The town we're working in, it has a hospital and the hospital has become a trauma center. They have the capacity to bring [victims] in and do surgeries," he said. "So we preferably don't want to get in the way of doctors."
In May, the students worked sun up to sun down each day for a week. Rodriguez cited the language barrier as one of the challenges since most locals speak only Creole. But working with a local priest, they were able to communicate with residents.
The students built a few filter units which are four-foot high, hollow concrete boxes, and then taught the process to a group of seven technology students in Milot. The villagers fundraised $125,500 to subsidize part of the cost for the first 25 units, according to an NJIT press release.
The EWB members and locals installed 25 bio-sand filters which operate by arranging a combination of gravel and sand in a vertical cylinder. As water comes in, more than 95 percent of the pathogens are eradicated. One cycle produces five gallons of water which is accessed through a spout in the concrete filter, according to the press release.
A group of three or four EWB members will return to Haiti, along with a faculty member. One of the students will be from the previous trip to maintain continuity with the locals, Rodriguez said.
Students will return to test water from the filters they installed and ensure the water supply is coming out considerably better.
"We plan to fix up their current septic system in the hospital, make it more sustainable which means that it could produce gas and fertilizer for the community, and also finding a way to introduce other systems throughout the community, that will be our next project in Haiti," he said.
Rodriguez stated the accomplishments of EWB have prompted other NJIT students to get involved in aiding Haiti.
"We've raised several thousand dollars and we're not planning on stopping now either," Rodriguez stated. "We're going to keep on, maybe in a couple weeks start having themed events to raise money specifically for water."
The EWB project originated in 2006 when a physician from Doctors Without Borders told NJIT civil engineering professor Jay Meegoda that Milot residents were becoming ill from the water.
Meegoda, a water expert, was then inspired to found the NJIT chapter of EWB, according to the release.
"We're only a couple students, and I'm pretty sure we can make quite a big impact," Rodriguez said. "We already have, we installed 25 filters in households, 25 families [have] clean water."
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