Dr. Stephen Schroering

Every human being must have water to live such as clean unpolluted water that is available to most citizens in the United States.

But safe clean water is not available in Haiti, and Lehigh’s Dr. Stephen P. Schroering wants to do something about it, something that can literally save hundreds of thousands of lives, he says. And the cost is small, he says.

Schroering is a certified board orthopedic surgeon and was the past medical director for the local Wound Care Institute. His office is on Homestead St., in the Publix Shopping Center.

“Good clean water can save thousands of lives in Haiti, but there are no satisfactory utilities in most of the island to provide safe drinking water and as a result the residents are using polluted water for cooking and drinking,” Schroering said.

“This is the same water that people bathe in and urinate in. The water is killing the people and it is mostly showing up among the youngest individuals in the country, the young children who are dying in great numbers.”

Schroering says Haiti is a country that is diseased and rife with death from unhealthy polluted water.

“In fact, water in Haiti is one of the number one cause of death. Here in our country and most of the western world we drink water from our own faucets, which in earlier history in this country were made of silver. Americans also drink healthy water from fountains in public places. Silver is the word to remember.

“Though clean and healthy , eventually this was replaced by marketing campaigns with bottled water sold to the pubic as being safer, healthier and tastier, even though water is tasteless.

“How remarkable in the U.S. that we have capitalized on water,” Schroering said.

He continued by saying in Haiti “water is often the drink of death,” a poison that is readily available and sought-out daily for bathing, cleaning, and to quench thirst. Unhealthy water kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide every year. In fact unhealthy polluted water is the number two killer worldwide, he said.

Schroering who gives of his time as often as he can get away from Lehigh travels to Haiti and helps in medical clinics where he is needed. He has been doing this for years. After the earthquake in January of last year, Schroering and Lehigh Acres Medical Center CEO Chris Rakunas, went to Haiti with medical supplies supplied by donors and medical groups.

He knows Haiti well and worries about its plight and especially now, he says, since much of the county is still in disrepair due the quake that occurred almost two years ago. Hew said Haiti is a country with a population of nine million people.

“You cannot walk the streets of Port au Prince or the small narrow dirt and rock roads of villages or the many mountain paths and not realize that Haiti has become a truly forsaken country. The country’s own atrocities are not even recognized by many of its own people and death, famine, hunger and disease are everywhere and endemic throughout.

Haiti is a country ravished by poverty and perpetually stained by a history of hurricanes, disease, floods, mud slides, hunger, starvation and mental illness that without a doubt is related to this historical cataclysm, Schroering said life expectancy for men and women in Haiti is between 47 and 50 and that life is shortened by disease and hunger-related illness.

“This in turn causes immuno supression that leads to disease that has been nearly eradicated in the U.S., but prevalent in Haiti. Diseases, such as tuberculosis, typhoid and malaria and Aids-related illnesses are leading causes of death. And children there endure the brunt of suffering,” he said.

Schroering thinks there is a way to quickly bring the death rate down but first he said he wanted to illustrate his point from something he witnessed when he was in Haiti.

“Shortly after the earthquake, I was taking pictures of a sight that depressed me. A father stood in the middle of a large puddle of water in an intersection bathing his daughter. I took pictures from a distance as I thought they would be embarrassed by my intrusion.

“What came next really shocked me. In fact, I quickly looked around to see if there were any other witnesses to an unbelievable sight. As the father and daughter walked away, two men came along with a five-gallon white bucket and collected water from the puddle.

“I approached them and asked what they were going to do with the water and they told me it was their family for cooking and drinking. It is difficult for me to explain the desperation and helplessness that I felt, though they knew it could kill them they also knew it was their own possibility for life,” Schroering said.

Some time ago, Schroering was in Miami and met with Kevin Carleton of the Carleton Company in Springfield, Mo., who also shares Schroeder’s concerns and is associated with the manufacturing of inexpensive water filter.

“One easy way that is effective is to raise the standard of care in Haiti and diminish the infant mortality death rate is to create and produce clean, healthy water. Clean water will increase the life expectancy and diminish the infant mortality and end suffering,” he said.

Schrorring said that as a past medical director for the Wound Care Institute locally, he has treated many by using “silver dressings.” He said he has been using silver in dressings for the past five years and these products are the most powerful antibacterial wound dressings available anywhere today. He said silver virtually kills all bacteria just as the water filter made by Global Effect (Filture Pure) which Schroering says contains silver.

“Silver kills almost everything that is bacterial or protozoa 99.9 percent as proven by testing. What is exciting about this product is that is cost around $30 to produce a five-gallon filter that weights a few pounds and has a life span of five years. It is enough to sustain a family of 10 people. The product is safe, sustainable and affordable. For a family of 10 this could cost 1.6 cents per day for five years.

“It’s an absolute homerun and is unparalleled in cost, safety, kill rate, portability and sustainability. For every day this is not used in Haiti, it is costing significant loss of life. Not only will this product save lives and eliminate disease it will create jobs by having factories built within Haiti to produce the product.

Schroering said he was not a representative, investor or employee of the company that proudces the silver filters. He said he simply believes in silver technology and the technology is simple, inexpensive and lifesaving.

Schroering has taken on the task to ask for donations from everywhere to buy these filters.

“There is a matching donor we have for $9,000 to buy 300 filters. When matched by other donors, this will go up to 600 filters that will provide clean healthy water for up to 60,000 people.

“I should add that we at World Harvest Missions are in the final stage of completion of a rainwater cistern that will hold up to 350,000 gallons of rain water. While the water in the cistern could become polluted, water filters could have access to rainwater and can be purified with these filters and this will make an immeasurable difference in the lives of the people of Haiti.

If Lehigh residents, local business and churches want to donate to this cause, they can do so by sending a check or credit card information to: World Harvest Missions, 3357 Pinehurst Drive, Lakeworth, FL., 33467. Their email is www.newlife4kids.org and their phone number is 561-868-5505.

Schroering said if you want to help you should write on the check that it is for water purifiers in Pestel, Haiti, or state that in the information given with the credit or debit card.

You can donate online but must state is for the water purifiers in Pestel. Checks can be made out to World Harvest Missions and also sent to Schroering’s office in Lehigh and all will be forwarded as donations to World Harvest Missions. Such gifts are tax deductible, he said. Schroering’s address is 1328 Homestead Rd. North, Lehigh Acres, FL. 22926.

“This is an urgent matter as we need to save all the lives we can. We need to get this information out to everyone. I hope people will tell their friends and family members,” he said.