In my very first post, I mentioned that the economic-growth component to Friendly Water’s model of teaching people to start micro-businesses was of significant excitement and interest to me. While the health benefits of clean water are impressive on their own, community empowerment leads to deeper, sustained change that maybe, just maybe, has a chance to fight against systematic poverty and injustice.
In a little over one week, we will be running our big BioSand water filter training, here at Gandhigram. We already have several groups coming from a variety of places in India, all eager to attain the knowledge and ability to make and sell these filters in their home communities. But in addition to training and sending these groups on their way, we are training one group to stay here, run future trainings, and start a filter business based right out of the Worker’s Home. Once the team learns how to make the filters, the they’ll be ready for clients. Clients will create the incentive and income that will motivate this team to stay committed to their new business.
Securing clients wasn’t necessarily our goal, but we seem to have done reasonably well. I created some promotional material for the training event, which has now circulated to people, groups, and organizations in several states across India. I have received calls not only from groups interested in training, but also from people ready to purchase the filters after the training finishes. An enthusiastic professor from Gandhigram University called us over to learn more, which led him to arrange meetings in several other departments too. The head of the chemistry department is doing research in environmentally safe ways to purify water, and was very pleased to hear that this filter doesn’t use chemicals. Some of her questions exceeded my chemistry background for sure, but it wasn’t difficult to keep her curious. She wants several filters for her department and her research students to do tests on. We also met with the head of a department called Rural Technology Center, which focuses on providing solutions designed for villages or impoverished areas. He wants to order filters as models in the center itself, and then through a continued relationship with our filter-making team, spread this simple technology in nearby communities. This budding partnership between the university and the filter team will hopefully result in our initial work taking a deeper root and creating a greater and lasting impact.
Just like a venture capitalist may provide seed money to an entrepreneur, Friendly Water provides all starting groups with molds, basic tools, and the materials to make their first 20 filters. After selling this first batch of filters, we have seen that groups can go on from there, self-sustained and profitable. If all goes well, we will be happy to see this team earning an income very soon after their opening.
I don’t have an economics background, but I would definitely love to learn more about how loan programs, micro-financing systems, or small-scale credit offers might combine with relevant technologies to create the kind of change I would feel proud to be a part of. I just finished reading The Blue Sweater, in which Jacqueline Novogratz (founder and CEO of Acumen Fund) tells the story of her transition from international banking to addressing global poverty, using her background in finance. I didn’t necessarily agree with everything, but for the most part, I think she shared many valuable lessons. It is exciting to read books like this while also being out in the field, learning lessons of my own.
On a quick aside, I had a unique opportunity a few days back:
Krishnammal (Amma) was invited to give the opening address at a youth advocacy conference and training, held near Madurai in the Center for Experiencing Socio Cultural Interaction (CESCI). And I had the great pleasure of going with her. I am continually inspired by seeing an interest in doing socially minded work that spans across education levels, socioeconomic levels, or career paths. I got to meet a whole group of young professionals, eager to make a difference and dedicated to becoming leaders. Just before this conference began, CESCI held a three-day workshop for engineering students from an esteemed engineering college in Tamil Nadu. This workshop focused on encouraging these students to look beyond just developing technology for the rich, and instead to be more critical about the greater impact their work is having. CESCI has been running trainings for high school and college students, professionals, leaders, and organizations for the past 25 years. Naively, I had no idea that a center like this would thrive in India. But to have now met people who are dedicated to land reform and worker’s rights, have gone on hunger strikes and been imprisoned, and have used their economics and law backgrounds for a life of social advocacy, I am seeing a side to India I had never encountered.
