On Jan. 12, 2010, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. More than 220,000 people lost their lives; more than 1.5 million became homeless.
A year later, most of the people left homeless still live in refugee camps. A recent cholera epidemic has killed more than 3,600 people, with more than 17,000 infected, according to Democracy Now.
As the one-year mark approached, Seattle resident Jesse Hagopian feared that little would be done to highlight the catastrophe and honor those who continue to suffer in the earthquake's aftermath. "I didn't want the anniversary to pass on the news and have no one talk about it," said Hagopian.
So, aligning with Maha-Lilo, a local nonprofit working to provide disaster relief in Haiti, Hagopian and others held a Jan. 9 fundraiser. Specifically, the event was focused on generating funds to bring clean drinking water to residents of the island nation. By evening's end, participants had raised more than $4,000.
Held at Waid's Haitian Cuisine and Lounge, located in the Central District, the fundraiser solicited funds from dozens of attendees to purchase water filters, sometimes called ceramic water purifiers. The 11" wide by 10" deep filters are clay vessels created from a mixture of terra cotta and sawdust, rice husks or other combustibles. The ingredients are placed in a press to give the filters a bucket shape, then fired in a kiln, burning away the combustibles. A coat of colloidal silver provides an antibiotic barrier.
Once fired and coated, each porous filter is housed in a five-gallon ceramic or plastic receptacle. A lid covers the unit's top. Water placed in the purifier passes through the porous filter at a rate of more than half a gallon an hour. Purified water can be tapped through a faucet already built into the receptacle.
Hagopian said the funds will allow Maha-Lilo, whose name is a contraction of "Many hands, light load," to purchase more than 160 water filters, which could provide potable water to more than 700 people. An international nonprofit, Potters for Peace, will assist Haitians in constructing the filters, said Hagopian. Filter production will benefit those in refugee camps located in Cap-Ha