MIDDLETOWN, Ky. (LEX 18) – An Ursuline nun from Middletown, Kentucky, has led a successful clean water crusade to eradicate cholera in one entire Haitian commune. Now, she’s taking her “audacious plan” to wipe out waterborne illnesses in Haiti — village by village.
Sister Larraine Lauter and her Water With Blessings’ missionary team has already received a Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award.
In November 2017, the group piloted a unique “state of the heart” approach to provide clean water to more than 48,700 families living in Verrettes, a Haitian commune devastated by a large cholera outbreak in 2010.
Six months later, the group achieved results unreachable by the United Nations, World Health Organization and multiple U.S. vaccination attempts: Zero cases of the deadly disease within 18,000 Verrettes households. As a result, one of the largest cholera clinics in Haiti has boarded up its doors.
“This is Haiti’s second revolution,” Lauter said of her unimaginable undertaking to abolish Haiti’s water crisis. “We’re going to make history.”
The organization is based in Kentucky and will receive a sponsorship from Sawyer International. Sawyer products will give the women Sawyer International PointONE water filter systems that will supply clean water for families in their village.
Women in the village are trained to work the filters to eradicate all waterborne illnesses.
