Engineers Help Clean Water & Build Hospitals In Haiti

Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SamEAnderson

COLORADO SPRINGS – A Colorado Springs based non-profit organization is helping to improve the water crisis in Haiti.

Engineering Ministries International (EMI) has two disaster response teams on the ground in Port Au Prince. They’ve partnered with Samaritan’s Purse and Food for the Hungry to assemble and distribute clean water filters and do structural assessments. “The teams will be providing clean water in the simplest means possible and doing emergency assessments of critical buildings, focusing on hospitals,” said Gary MacPhee, Vice President of Human Resources at EMI.

MacPhee tells NEWSCHANNEL 13 the need for clean water in Haiti is critical. “The average person is not being able to meet his needs of food and water.”

EMI has been working in Haiti for 25 years and has completed over 80 projects. Of those projects and disasters they’ve had to deal with, earthquake Haiti, “is certainly the most difficult from the standpoint of all aspects of what we do as engineers,” MacPhee stated.

LTC Scott Peck, a U.S. army soldier stationed at Peterson Air Force Base, is volunteering with EMI and is part of the disaster response team. His wife, Jennifer Peck, is an administrator for EMI. “He’s not an engineer, but he’s there providing support in terms of logistic coordination, transportation and trying to get communication set up,” stated Jennifer Peck.

LTC Peck is an army officer who recently returned home after 41/2 months in Afghanistan on January 9, 2010. Six days later, he was on a plane to Haiti to volunteer. “We just really felt this was too tragic of a situation for us to not try and be involved in some way,” Jennifer said.

The disaster response teams will be in Haiti for three weeks to assess damage. But EMI will be preparing for a yearlong project to help recover the earthquake stricken country.