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Nerissa Persaud Welcome to another episode of Voices of District 7020, the podcast where we amplify the stories, ideas and impacts shaping Rotary’s future across our district and beyond. I’m your host, Rotarian Nerissa, and today’s conversation is one that goes to the heart of service, vision, and legacy. Imagine a vision so bold it dares to transform the destiny of an entire nation. To ensure that every family, every child, every community has access to clean water and sanitation, that vision became HANWASH – Haiti National Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Initiative. And today we’re going to peel back the layers to understand how it all began, where it’s headed, and what it asks of each of us. In this series, I’m honored to welcome three remarkable leaders who are often referred to as the godfathers of HANWASH. Each of them bringing deep wisdom, bold conviction, and decades of service to Rotary and to the world. First, I am delighted to welcome past Rotary International President Barry Rassin, who led Rotary International during the years 2018 to 2019 and whose leadership helped ignite the HANWASH movement with clarity and courage to dream big for Haiti and for humanity. Joining him is past Rotary International Director for the years 2022 to 2024, Jeremy Hurst, who continues to shape sustainable development and strategic growth throughout our global Rotary family. And finally, I’m honored to welcome past District Governor Robert Leger, who served as District Governor for District 7020, for the Rotary year 2017 to 2918, and whose unwavering commitment to Haiti has anchored this initiative with heart from the beginning. Today, these leaders have helped shape not just a project, but a movement. Gentlemen, welcome to Voices of District 7020. How are you?
Barry Thank you Nerissa. Great to be with you. Great to talk about this fantastic project.
Nerissa So let’s start at the very beginning. And Barry, I want to start with you before HANWASH had a name or a structure. Can you take us back to that moment when the idea was born, what sparked it and who was a part of the initial conversation?
Barry Well, I’m trying to make a long story short, but it was it was a moment in time I was in Haiti. I spent half a day driving from Port au Prince north to Cap-Haitien. It was a hot day in August. We had three flat tires. We were late by the time we got there. I was staying with the President of the club and I told him, look, I got to take a shower before I go to the club. And the President said, okay, hold on a second. He got in his car and he drove away thinking, wow, what is this? When he came back and said, right after the meeting, we got to talk about this. So afterwards I asked him, what was that all about? He said, well, we only have water in our community two hours a day. So I had to go ask the city manager to turn the water on so you could take a shower. That’s a very humbling and embarrassing moment. And I swore to myself in my lifetime I wanted to make a difference and help the people of Haiti have easy access to water, like many other places in the world.
Nerissa That’s incredible. And that’s that really goes to your heart, Jeremy, when you think back to the early phase. What was the dream behind it for you personally? Is there a story that you might want to share with us?
Jeremy Sure. A Rotary wheel. We should all have great stories. And I think the amazing thing about our district is it gives us, as District Governors, when we have that opportunity, and all three of us at this table have, have had that, to really sort of experience much more than your average District Governor, we had ten countries we visited. And of course, perhaps the one that affects us most because of the challenges it has and the amazing diversity it has and the most beautiful people and the passion it has is indeed Haiti. That’s not to decry the other nine countries we have. They’re all equally amazing in their own ways. But Haiti, you tend to leave a little bit of yourself in Haiti and like Barry, you know, coming from somewhere like the Cayman Islands, which is highly developed to actually see, not only the challenges in a place like Haiti post the earthquake, but also the joie de vivre, the passion that’s there and the life that’s there and the opportunities that are there for us. So those really resonated with me and for me. My journey into HANWASH, I think everyone had a different journey, started with a glass of water. And again, when a certain President of Rotary Club, Fritz, offered me a glass of water that came through a Sawyer water filter. He went and got dirty water from the ditch, poured it in the top of a bucket, and this amazing filter cleaned it to the point where it was safe to drink. Now, I remember Michelle squeezing my hand tightly, imploring me not to drink it, but I did, and I’m still here. But that started a program that I got deeply involved with, which was, the Haiti National Water Filter Project, where we did some global grants with a thousand of these filters going to one thousand families in rural areas and I always remember the call I got from Barry I think it was in 2017 when he mentioned he’d had a conversation with Ron Denham, who was the, the Chair Emeritus of WASHRAG. The Rotary Action group for water and sanitation. And Ron, I think his words, Barry, if I remember correctly, was saying that we were being blinded by shiny objects, by just looking at these filters. And if we really wanted to do the job properly, we would have to take on something much more sustainable and substantial. And to me, that was where my journey to HANWASH started, because after that we all got together at the Atlanta convention, and, the rest is history, so they say.
Nerissa Robert, from your vantage point in Haiti and District 7020 what did you sense was possible and what did you know in your heart needed to change in order to make things happen.
Robert Okay, first of all, I have to tell you that my the impact of this program on me was amazing. And it started when Barry called me to join him in a room where there were senior officials, you know, from Rotary International. WASHRAG members and to talk to me about his vision. I listened carefully and he told me, you know, the stars are aligned. That means he told me that he’s from the Caribbean. You have the Prime Minister of Haiti still President of his club. And you will become very soon. A few weeks, because we are in the international convention in Atlanta District Governor. So we would like to start in Haiti. So let me tell you, I had like a goosebumps. You know, that’s why Haiti, you know, I know it’s very challenging my country. I know it’s so difficult and I know that we need that. He told me that the stars are aligned. We can start in Haiti because I’m from the Caribbean, from The Bahamas, I know Haiti and the Prime Minister actually, Haiti is President of his Rotary Club of Petionville. And in a few weeks he will become District Governor. So we want to start in your country. So really, I was amazed, you know, to to listen to that news, you know, and knowing that the, necessity of drinking water in Haiti. And so I asked him, what do you expect from me? He told me, can you put us in contact with the Haitian government? So what I did, because, due to my relations with, the Prime Minister at that time, a friend a colleague, it was easy to put them together. So, that was the impact that it has on me. Because I know this program can make a lot of changes. You know, about WASH in Haiti.
Nerissa So you each got a divine call from Barry prompting you on a vision. An idea. When you got the call, was there ever a moment where you were like, ‘what are you thinking?’ ‘How are we going to pull this off?’ ‘Is this going to be bigger than us?’
Robert Exactly. But you know what I did the parallel with the how PolioPlus program started 1985 in the Philippines. It started with Rotarians in the Philippines. Barry told me about that. And I remember talking to Barry you know things are very difficult you know to, do in Haiti. Barry’s answer – ‘If we have a success in Haiti, we can have a success anywhere around the world.’
Nerissa This brings me to a question for you, Barry. At what point did you realize that this wasn’t just a big deal for Haiti, but a sustainable, scalable blueprint for other nations? What made you see that?
Barry You know, right at the beginning, when we got together and started talking about it, one of my first requests was, we need to put a business plan together to show how we’re going to do this and what we’re going to do. Why? So that we could give that and share that with other countries who also have issues and challenges with water. So we wanted right from the very beginning of HANWASH to create a program that is some would say is bigger than us. But I believe in Rotary. Nothing is too big for us. I believe once you dream it, you can make it happen. And so we wanted to have that organized business structure to a program. And if you do it right and you can do it in Haiti, then we can take that to other countries and do it there as well. So I think pretty much right from the beginning, as we got together as a group, we knew it was big. I, like Robert, compared it to the Polio program. In my opinion this is the second biggest program in Haiti in Rotary first being Polio. And then here we are as one District being, crazy enough to think of a program that’s that big. And yet it’s doable. All we got to do is stay focused, stay organized and realize this isn’t just your average volunteer program. This is bigger than that. And we’ve got to think bigger than that. And we’ve got to think of it as a business so that we do it right.
Nerissa The way that this has been laid out forms a strategic blueprint – from having that vision, making the outreach, the contacts, connecting with the right partnerships. This brings me to a question for you, Robert. How did the local communities respond as the vision began to formalize? What was their participation like? What did it teach about the real movement?
Robert Let me tell you, when we contacted with the Mayor, local authorities and the beneficiaries – some beneficiaries came for the first meeting and we explained to them who we are and what is the vision with that program. You should have seen their face. They could not believe that because they are used to many NGOs or charitable organizations coming and to give them order. After a couple of years, broken, they don’t work anymore and they back to the same situation again. But that time the approach was really different. Talk to them explaining to them the vision and let them know that we’re not bringing you water. We are bringing you the way to have your own water and to manage it, to conserve it, to keep it forever. So that was the approach. Then they see that the delegations coming to them were formed by Rotarians that they know as professional. For example, the Mayor with me was a Past Assistant Governor Bob Cartier. He was his teacher. Math teacher. And my myself, they are doctors, you know. They know me. They and they see people living their professions, their work, to sit with them and talk to them about that. And this was the impact we had by that time. And let me tell you since then, I’m repeating the Mayor. He told me, you know in such area people they were always fighting. I want to be first I want to be this. You have to start first with my community. No. They say Mayor, We are waiting for Rotary. You are waiting for our turn because we built up a community action plan and we list priorities where to start and themselves, they decided that area needs more than us. That area needs first, second. So the mentality was changing. Their behaviour was changing. So the HANWASH not only brings water, drinking water, hygiene, sanitation, but changing the mentality of the both, the behaviour about how to manage a WASH system.
Jeremy That’s such an important point. If I can jump in, it really comes down to almost cultural change we’re talking about here. And, you know, that’s a lot harder to achieve than just drilling a well and doing a one year project within a Rotary Club. I want to draw this distinction it’s very much a program and a program that’s designed to be scaled as opposed to the normal type of project we may take on. And that’s one of the reasons that Rotary International and the Rotary Foundation has been so supportive of this, because if you can get a program doing exactly what Robert has talked about, you can have a much greater impact in the long term, and you can create transformational change. And those are words that those of us who know the vision statement for Rotary, and that’s what we’re looking at, is ‘lasting change in our communities globally as well as in ourselves’. I think that’s a that’s a great point Robert raises there. And, I just want to add to, you know, the other visionary aspect of this as well and just comment that we we’re aware from the start how audacious this was. And so when people said, what do you mean by that? Well, we always anticipated this would be a multi-decade project program, and a multi-billion dollar program, in terms of its cost. And, right now we’re going through some exciting applications to, try and actually become a candidate for Rotary International’s Rotary Foundation Program of Scale grant for next year. And, that’s the point we’re making there, is that this is not something that we’re going to be one and done with in a five year period, or we don’t even have a time frame for this. It’s very much like Polio. We honestly believe that Rotary is the right organization to bring this together and to bring the partners together that will be necessary for us to be able to deliver clean water, safe water to everyone in Haiti forever.
Nerissa It is incredible to listen to these stories, but not just listen to them, to understand them. What really translates to me is that you have managed, through the HANWASH program, to instill a sense of dignity. People within these communities are treated with a sense of dignity by having something as simple as water, clean water to live with, to dwell with, and to thrive with. So that sense of restored dignity can really transform communities on a cultural level, because it changes the way we think. What I would like to do is to fast forward a bit now. Much has been done, much has been carried forward. But with anything that is carried forward, stories are displaced. What are some of the misconceptions that you have found after developing, executing and trying to continue that progress, that trajectory of progress? What do you think about that, Jeremy?
Jeremy One of the biggest ones right now is how can we continue to do this at a time when Haiti is going through perhaps one of its most challenging times socially, economically and from a civil perspective? And that’s a misconception, because even though these are harrowing, terrible times for much of Haiti, so much of that is focused around Port au Prince and the outskirts of Port au Prince. And what we’re finding is in places that where we have our five communes, which are across Haiti, These are primarily peripheral to Port au Prince – Les Cayes and Cavaillon, for example, where Robert is based are in the Deep South, Leon which is another one of our successes, towards the north, and we’re able to carry on quite effectively in those areas and I know Robert can speak more to that. So part of the perception is that, this we can’t be functional at this particular point in Haiti’s history. Well, that’s a misperception, we are being functional. We are being effective, and we are bringing water to people on the ground. And, we’ll continue to do so.
Nerissa And we still need the support of all Rotarians to do that, and communities and partnerships. It doesn’t stop because of what we might see on the headlines. Robert, would you like to add something to that?
Robert Yes. you know, the media always ready to talk bad about Haiti, you know, and, you know, that we are paying our history, you know, like Cuba with 1961 Haiti is paying 1804. Okay, so it’s always ready to Haiti is bad. Haiti is bad. Haiti is bad. All right. But Port au Prince is not Haiti. And the media when anything bad happened in Port au Prince. Is that the whole country is in is burning. No, thank God. Until now. No. So we have this HANWASH program bringing hope to the people of Haiti. That’s very, very important because so many bad news in the media and you listen to good news, for example, we’re going to inaugurate very soon a project in Cavaillon. That’s a global good number two, where we bring a volume of water so big, now people are more interested to get connected to water, and they see water coming because HANWASH has done that. Rotary has done that. So that’s the advantage of this program, and that’s the way I think we can fight this constant bad news. You know, there are the media are throwing you know, that’s my opinion.
Barry Along those same lines, it’s when I’m talking to individuals about why don’t you join us and help us? Oh it’s Haiti. You know, they have too many problems. You can’t say, look, we have twenty two Rotary clubs, twelve Rotary clubs, and they’re all engaged in this. If it’s so bad, how are they able to keep doing that? They’re there. They’re working. They’re making a difference. And I love giving the story about one community member who went to a Rotarian and said, look, these are tough times in Haiti. NGOs have left our country. The one thing that gives us hope is what Rotary is doing with HANWASH to bring us water. And we can’t let that go. We’ve got to work as hard as we can to make sure that the resilient people of Haiti know that we’re there to support them and help them to do what they need to do for their future. And Rotary will always be there for that purpose.
Nerissa Absolutely. I want to have a mental picture. And for anyone listening to be able to see that picture, what does that impact look in Haiti? Despite all the misconceptions and so forth, progress is still happening. The work is still being carried out. What is the impact that we’ve managed to generate over all these years? Jeremy.
Jeremy Well, the picture I always have in my mind is of a thirteen year old girl, and we took this picture, not the front from the back, as she was struggling with a five gallon water container, barefoot up a rocky hillside. We asked, and we found out that the spring that she was going to be going to was a good thirty minutes away, thirty to forty five minutes away, depending on how fast she was able to walk. It was a dangerous path. It was a path where, friends of hers apparently had been attacked in recent weeks. To have to do that as a thirteen year old girl. Just the thought in my mind about what how that affected her life was something that will last me forever. And the inability to attend school, to get an education, to have to do this every day just to keep your family alive. And oftentimes that water was not potable. It needed to be boiled or had disease associated with it, and it was unclean. When I look in contrast that, with the communities we’re seeing and the solutions we’re seeing in communities like Cavaillon, where we’re seeing, pipelines connected to pumping stations to clean water into water systems, where that same little girl doesn’t have to walk for thirty, forty five minutes can now walk five or ten minutes from her home to a properly run water kiosk, knowing she’s getting clean water. That’s the image that lasts in my mind. And that, to me, is what we’re doing and what we why we need to keep on doing that.
Nerissa That dignity is priceless. Robert, what are some of those economic impacts that shifted as a consequence of HANWASH?
Robert Yes, there is an impact. For example, the National Water Regulator, DINEPA, changed the way they want now to have the water points. Before there was a manual pump you pumping. But now they say no, we have sun. We need to have the hybrid system. And so that’s why now the program we had before we called, we used to call it Adopt-A-Well. Now we are going to call it Adopt-A-Water-Point. They are going to align with the DINEPA structure new criteria that mean the people can have water, based on the sun and the solar system. In case of the rainy season, they will still have the pump, but we have more sun than rain. So we noticed that people are using this energy to charge their phones. They have more water, they can have a small garden area, and the economy is building up around this water point. So that’s another approach, another change that this program has carried.
Nerissa What about in terms of job creation, in terms of what the potential of this initiative does in terms of bringing jobs outside of the water that it bridges?
Nerissa Barry.
Barry My vision is you bring a community water. Now the children don’t have to spend all that time going to get water. They can actually go to school, they can get an education and we can help with that. So we help the education of the community that helps develop the community. The mother, instead of getting water, she becomes an entrepreneur. She starts selling goods to support her family. So now you’ve got the education going. You’ve got the economy growing. You’re changing the entire culture of that community into a future that really looks very positive.
Nerissa It’s clear to see HANWASH has become an engine. It started with a vision, but traveled into communities to bridge a very real need. Water. But let’s think about the future for a bit. Barry – when you look ahead five, ten plus years from now, what do you see or hope to be the future of HANWASH?
Barry I see us moving, adding to our program of bringing water, sanitation and hygiene to communities, to adding the educational grants to help the kids get the education, to help develop the schools, to help develop teachers. I see us helping with growing the economies. I see us continuing to work with those community committees so that they can identify what their biggest needs are, and we can, as Rotary, help them in the ways that help them build and develop their communities for the long term. I see this as much bigger than just water. Right now, that’s what we’re looking at. But when I look out into the future, I see us transforming the country into a country that all of us are going to be incredibly proud of, and we can talk about some other country in the Western Hemisphere being the poorest.
Nerissa Jeremy. What do you think it will take to keep the mission alive? Because we have the dream. We have the vision, and we have the continuity, the heart of it. And who will need to help lead to that next chapter.
Jeremy Continued passion of District 7020 and its amazing Rotarians and Rotaractors, I think in a nutshell, I honestly believe that it’s our super District that drives this. We are they are alongside and of course, a key component of that super district is the amazing Rotarians, Rotaractors and Rotary leaders within Haiti. And by the way, I just want to mention that this is a great opportunity for us to develop leaders. And we’ve seen that through, how much already with, with Rotarians who have really risen up because of HANWASH within Haiti. In fact, I think I’m right in saying, Robert, not many people may know this, but at this crazy time in Haiti’s history, Rotary is not only stabilized, but in fact to see new clubs and is growing within Haiti. That’s just a testimony to not only, the amazing organization we have, but also partly to the role of HANWASH, which has been that beacon, that guiding light, I think, and that that hope, that North Star, to so many of us. So I think that passion is what’s key. But I also think we need to be very pragmatic as well. Barry and I and Robert have talked long about this, about the need for a business approach to this. And Barry mentioned a business plan. One of the things we are doing right now, as we, look at where we go, we’re going through a pause and reflect process reviewing where we’ve come in the past five, six years, reviewing which direction we need to go in, what we’re doing well, what we can do better, and how we need to adapt and course correct. And that’s such an important component of any organization. So what we will be seeing by the end of this year is a whole new business plan, that deals with the not only the immediate needs, the immediate programs, the immediate goals over the next three to five years, but also a ten to thirty year business plan because this will be, as we said, multi decade. And the goal is for us to in ten years time, perhaps twenty percent of the people in Haiti, of all the communities in Haiti will have clean, safe water. But in twenty years time, we think that could be seventy percent and in thirty years time, one hundred percent. So that’s the goal. We have big, big goals, big hopes, big aims. But we also have a really big District and big Rotarians and Rotaractors behind us.
Nerissa We definitely have the brains. We have the intelligence, we have the know how. We have the spirit to make it happen. Robert, my last question is for you from a generational lens, how do we prepare Haitian youth and communities to be stewards of this mission?
Robert Yeah, that’s a very nice question. The new generation, you know, when you listen to the radio, the news, they have to change their behavior. They have to change if they want even our country to survive. That means in the same way we offer water, drinking water, we offer also leadership training. And we go to schools. We talk about leadership. We go to the communities. We talk about leadership, responsibility, you know, and so I think that’s the way we need to move. So the youth, they are not discouraged with what’s happening. And those programs that we have with HANWASH program giving hope, that’s one step, toward that future that we need to see in Haiti.
Nerissa Barry, do you have any parting thoughts for us?
Barry You know, I think we have to maintain our passion. We have to stay focused. We’ve got to make sure we continue working with the business thinking this isn’t just a Rotary project. This is a long term transformational program to help a country move forward. And once you appreciate that, then you realize what you have to do to make this happen for the long term. So, the more help we get, the faster it goes and the better we do. So I ask anybody who hears this, think about how you are going to support our HANWASH program in Haiti.
Nerissa I am incredibly grateful for the time that each of you have contributed to share in the Heart of HANWASH. It’s certainly been a powerful conversation, and as we have learned, HANWASH is more than a Rotary project. It is a call to courage, to commitment to connection. And if we can sum up, it is driven by a lot of amazing people behind it. Leaders who dare to imagine a better future and took the steps to make it real. And to our listeners across District 7020 and beyond, this is your movement too. the future of HANWASH depends on every one of us – our voices, our actions, our resolve. Whether you’re in the Bahamas, Jamaica, Haiti or any of our beautiful islands. HANWASH needs your story. It needs your support, and it needs your spirit. Until next time keep believing, and keep building a Rotary that truly Unites us for Good. I’m Rotarian Nerissa and this has been Voices of District 7020.