In South Sudan, schools have shuttered their doors for a brief respite amidst the scorching heat that would otherwise consume their precious time. But this isn't the typical Spring Break getaway to Florida's beaches or Colorado's snowy slopes. No, it's a different kind of break – a Heat Break.
This story of Water is Basic is way bigger than clean water. It’s economic opportunity, generational transformation, women's empowerment, and hope for a nation.
That’s why I’m inviting you to keep the good going today. Your thoughtfulness will:
Provide access to clean water for another 200,000 people in 2024.
Encourage consistent management of our work by extremely committed staff.
Ensure another group of women-led pump mechanics is trained and deployed.
July 9th is South Sudan's birthday! It's hard to believe that only two years ago, the people of South Sudan democratically voted to become the world's youngest nation.
It hasn't been easy, but good things seldom are.
For a great perspective on the past two years of independence, as well as a look towards the future of the young country, read this interview with Amnesty International's expert Khairunissa Dhala.
We've got 16 days left to raise another $11,000!
Our short film, Ru: Water is Life, has been seen by thousands of students across the country and the requests keep pouring in.
In order to share Jina's story with as many people as possible, it's our goal to create a DVD package with educational and promotional materials that we can send to these schools/organizations, instead of spending the money to fly out and speak to them every time. In the end, we can save tens of thousands of dollars AND spread the message of clean water to exponentially more people.
Win, Win, Win!
Tomorrow, President Obama will leave for his first extended trip to the continent.
While he's been rather busy (multiple foreign wars, economy, domestic issues), it has been a little surprising that he hasn't made an extended trip to the continent most suited to change world dynamics in the next decades. Africa is full of emerging economies, healthy trade partners, and home to areas that are increasingly becoming microcosms of the global struggles between the US and Chinese interests, not to mention the effects of the Arab Spring.
According to this Reuters commentator, President Obama is also living in the shadows of both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, two presidents who made an enormous impact on the well-being of the continent. Bush's passion to combat HIV/AIDS made a world of difference in curtailing the spread of the disease and increasing life expectancies. Clinton, in addition to his support of Nelson Mandela, also signed the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act and changed the way the West traded with Africa.
Does having a US President visit Africa make a lot of difference? It really can. Organizations like Water is Basic are committed to using local people to accomplish local goals, but these dreams only happen with international support for a prosperous Africa. Leaders like President Obama make the most impact when they use their influence to put a spotlight on hard-working locals, and encourage the world to support them.
It's a tricky thing to balance local leadership and foreign support, but we can make it happen. We're excited to see the pictures, hear the speeches, and see what the next 10 days of foreign travel bring to Africa. We hope that President Obama becomes the third president in a row to lend US support to the growth of a powerful people
Yesterday, The Week Magazine featured 5 Ordinary Things that Save Your Life.
#1 stood out to me.
1. Tap Water
Water is problematic. You need it to live, but it's practically aching to kill you. Naturally occurring water, even when not soiled by human contact, can be swimming with an untold number of murderous micro-organisms.
Treated tap water may not be nearly as palatable as Evian, but it's ubiquitous, affordable, and you can drink it without getting sick or dying. For most of history, that simply wasn't true.
Common waterborne illnesses have been laying waste to humanity all over the world for all of time. Diseases like botulism, cholera, E.coli, Legionnaires' disease, Hepatitis A, SARS, and all the sicknesses that killed your family when you played Oregon Trail. ("Yoda has died of typhoid.") These diseases still ravage the third world. But where there is regulated tap water, they are rare.
I thought this was notable, not only because its a reminder of how good we have it in the modern, developed country that we live in, but also because of the mindset it reflects. We all played the old computer game Oregon Trail and giggled at the names of diseases we'd never heard of because we live in a time and place where they are virtually unknown. The problem that I see with this phrasing, though, is that people on the Oregon Trail, who died over 150 years ago, are put in the same category as people living and dying today in developing countries. The correlation makes it seem as though we are lucky, but unfortunately can't share that good fortune with folks from the past. Which, of course, we can't.
But folks who are dying from water-borne illnesses in East Africa and Haiti and other places aren't in the past. They aren't suffering today due to a lack of global technology development. They are suffering due to a very present, very fixable problem with affordable solutions.
Often, we put the problems of other folks in the same category as the problems of folks from the past -- "We just can't do anything about it." But we can. We can empower local people to drill clean water wells. We can raise money for filtration systems. Rain collection technology is affordable and possible.
We can make clean water a problem of the past for everyone.
If, that is, we stop assuming that we can't. There are no forgone conclusions in the present or the future.
Let's do it.
At Water is Basic, we have a soft spot for folks that "get it".
For us, "it" is the idea that empowering local people to solve local problems is the cheapest, most efficient, and most productive way to make a huge difference in improving the lives of a country. Rich Westerners have wasted lots of time and money over the years by investing in other Westerners to solve local, African problems.
Over the weekend, Barry Segal, founder of the Segal Family Foundation, wrote an editorial for the Huffington Post that I really enjoyed.
Barry gets it.
A few highlights:
"We strive to improve the lives of people in Sub-Saharan Africa by seeking out and supporting grassroots solutions that might otherwise be overlooked. The Segal Family Foundation finds and funds the rising stars creating these solutions."
"There is a tendency of foundations to throw large amounts of money at problems without assuring that these investments deliver meaningful results. We don't subscribe to this philosophy and approach. We believe that it is often not the amount of dollars, but the focus and effectiveness of the dollars invested that is most important."
"Deo Niyizonkiza, a refugee from the war-torn African country of Burundi, left his homeland in 1993 with little beyond the clothes on his back. When he arrived in New York City, he didn't know a soul there, nor did he speak English. But a series of charitable deeds by complete strangers helped Deo transform himself from a homeless immigrant to an Ivy League student and eventually set up a health clinic back home to help those he left behind. His organization, Village Health Works is now treating tens of thousands patients per year."
Be inspired. We can do this.
Yesterday, Paste Magazine featured Coury Deeb, a friend of WiB, on their blog.
A few years ago, Coury returned from South Sudan with a goal: create a documentary film that showed the history of the longest running civil war in Africa and the toll it had taken on the Sudanese people. He focused on the water crisis, as well as the need for education and leadership development.
His company, Nadus (Sudan spelled backwards) has since moved on to tell other stories, including a soon-to-be released documentary, B-Boys for Life, on the subculture of breakdancing amidst one of the most dangerous urban ghettos in central America.
We're glad for the work he does and the passion with which he tells his story.
My favorite news story from last year didn't get much attention, but it certainly should have.
Every year since 2009, some of the smartest folks on the planet gather for a few days for "Maker Faire Africa," an event designed "to sharpen focus on locally generated, bottom-up prototypes of technologies that solve immediate challenges to development."
In other words, this isn't some hipster-cool conference where guys talk about how they've designed the next cell phone app that is going to change the way people buy groceries. There are no power-points or pie charts. This is where real people with real genius, mostly local Africans, show off new technology that has the power to change the way millions of people live.
Interested?
Last year, the event was held in Lagos, Nigeria. The breakout stars were four African girls, Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, Faleke Oluwatoyin and Bello Eniola. At age 15, Bello is the elder stateswoman of the group. The other three girls are only 14.
Their invention? A generator that uses with something available to all people at all times in all climates in all circumstances -- pee.
One liter of urine is all it takes to produce 6 hours of electricity.
According to the Maker Faire Africa website, the system works like this:
Why is this so awesome? Because it's an example of the incredible power of innovation and efficiency that is unleashed when you focus your energy on local people. No one who lives in a Western urban environment would have ever come up with this idea. No venture capitalist would sign on to provide millions of dollars of Research and Development for a pee-pee generator.
Here's a plan for success: Find amazing, smart, local people familiar with a problem because they live with it every day. Allow them the courtesy of coming up with an efficient solution. Applaud. Loudly.
