Access to clean water and sanitation can play a major role in ensuring children remain healthy enough to remain in school and lead productive lives, escaping the grip of extreme poverty.

Working with Haiti's Ministry of Health, PIH hopes to eliminate cholera in Mirebalais, home to nearly 100,000, through vaccinations, hygiene education, and water filtration systems.

PIH finds the Trump administration's decision to end temporary protected status for Haitians living in the United States inhumane, short-sighted, and disastrous for thousands of families in the U.S. and Haiti.

The teams wound down dirt paths, high-stepped through muddy slums, and climbed stairs cemented into lush hillsides. Never mind the lack of road signs and house numbers—they knew where they were going. They lived nearby.

“How di body?” one would ask a neighbor.

“Body fine,” the person would reply.

PIH prepares for the second round of a cholera vaccination campaign in Sierra Leone

Zanmi Lasante, Partners In Health's sister organization in Haiti, created its own water, sanitation, and hygiene program in an effort to eliminate cholera.

Haiti is still grappling with a pernicious cholera epidemic nearly five years after the disease's first appearance in the country. Beyond Port-au-Prince and its suburbs, the Artibonite and Centre regions—the hub of operations for Zanmi Lasante, Partners In Health’s sister organization in Haiti—have been among the hardest hit, especially the communities of St. Marc, Mirebalais, Hinche, and Lascahobas. So far, PIH/ZL staff are seeing two or three times as many patients in 2015 as they did over the same period last year.

The second anniversary of the cholera outbreak can serve as a turning point in Haiti's battle against the epidemic.

Earlier this spring, 45,000 people in Haiti received oral vaccinations to help protect them against cholera. But the campaign also had more far-reaching effects.

Dr. Louise Ivers offers her thoughts as the Haiti cholera vaccine delivery project finishes successfully.