Why Am I Here?

Amidst the factoids, pretty pictures, and beard puns, it dawned on me that I have given you little to no context regarding how or why I chose to be working for a water filter manufacturer in Uganda. Why social entrepreneurship? Why water? Why Uganda? I think these are important questions for me to answer so people can understand the motivation behind my decision. First things first, I wanted to address problems and learn more about foreign aid—what works and what doesn't.

This past weekend, I had a great discussion with a nurse named Lily from KOICA (Korea’s equivalent to the Peace Corps) about the many pitfalls of foreign aid—ineffective or unsustainable programs, acquired dependence on aid, and disrupting local businesses just to name a few. Most of these problems come from a top-down approach in which a solution is applied broadly to fix a problem. For instance, HIV/AIDS is a terrible problem in Uganda and Africa, in general, and deserves the world’s attention and resources. To alleviate the problem, a Dutch non-profit built a beautiful HIV/AIDS center at Lily’s hospital in nearby Soroti. Soon after construction was finished, the Dutch gave themselves a big pat on the back for a job well done and packed their bags for the next flight back to Amsterdam. Today, that once shiny HIV/AIDS center collects dust—it serves mostly as a storage facility when it is used at all.

Dutch-built HIV/AIDS center left unused

Sadly, stories like this are all too common. Non-profits from around the world swoop in to save the day with surefire solutions—HIV/AIDS is a problem; let’s build a hospital and people won’t be sick anymore! Often interventions lack is an in-depth understanding area and local people with skin in the game. When you add these missing ingredients (easier said than done, of course), a specific, comprehensive solution can be developed in which local leaders take responsibility for the project and proper follow-up and critical evaluation can be carried out. Fortunately, the field of international development is progressing to meet these goals and radically new systems have been developed. Social entrepreneurship is one such system that has shown great promise.

Acumen, a pioneer in social ventures, aims to “help build financial sustainable organization that deliver affordable goods and services that improve the lives of the poor” and has done so successfully by helping over 100 million people and creating 60,000 jobs. (Thanks, Wikipedia) This business-charity hybrid is successful because there are built-in mechanisms that constantly test the efficacy of the enterprise. Bad business goes bankrupt. Too often there are no repercussions for bad charity. I believe that social ventures are a step in the right direction which is why I have chosen to work for one now. But that’s not the only reason I ended up here at SPOUTS of Water. Long before I had even heard the term “social entrepreneurship”, I knew that I wanted to work with water.

“No one knows the worth of water until the well runs dry.” – Benjamin Franklin

As we all know, water is essential for everyone on the planet, but as Benjamin Franklin famously observed, “No one knows the worth of water until the well runs dry.” Due to population increase and climate change, wells around the world are running dry and the world is learning exactly how much water is worth. As water resources dwindle, farmers are unable to irrigate their crops, people are forced to drink from unclean sources, and tensions surrounding water ownership rise. I knew I could not tackle all of these issues effectively, so I have decided to focus on clean water with SPOUTS. But why is clean water so important and why Uganda?

Kathy Ku, the founder of SPOUTS of Water, was inspired to address the issue of clean water when she was a medical volunteer in Uganda where 1/3 of its citizens lack access to safe drinking water. At the clinic, Kathy saw that time after time people sought medical help for preventable water-borne diseases, such as diarrheal diseases, which are responsible for about a 1/5 deaths in children around the world each year. Fed up with treating symptoms, she wanted to stop these diseases at their source. After Kathy learned about ceramic water filters and their proven efficacy and affordability, SPOUTS of Water was born.

In short, SPOUTS not only addresses the critical need for safe drinking water but its social entrepreneurship approach offers more potential for sustainable aid than traditional charity. That is why I am working here today. 

The Thinker

The only possible explanation for the profundity of this post is that my beard is finally long enough to stroke pensively. 

The next post will be fun again. I promise! Thanks for bear(d)ing with me.