The Troubles of Giving

1.8 million. That is the number of people that die each year from diarrhea illnesses according to the World Health Organization. Most cases of diarrhea are caused by consuming contaminated water.  The people need clean water and we happen to have water filters we can give them at extremely discounted prices. So what’s the problem? 

I always thought they would jump at the chance to get filters.  This is definitely not the case.  How do you convince somebody the water they have been consuming all their lives is bad when they are still alive?  This is literally the response I get, “we drink this water and we’re still alive”.  Well, yes, they are still alive but they are putting themselves and their children at a risk.  About 70% of the people here in Honduras have worms or amoebas.  This is extremely detrimental to the development of children and curbs their learning abilities, so even if they are still alive, they are not getting a fair shot at a better future.

Unfortunately, giving a person a filter does not improve their health if they do not use it.  If the filters are just given away people will always accept them just because nobody walks away from something free!  We have encountered time and time again the problems with giving things away.  It creates a reliance on handouts and the expectation that if you are poor people will just give you things.  It is especially dangerous with kids.  “Why should I study hard at school if these foreigners come by and I can just ask them for money or candy?”  Charity is wonderful in its idea but it is extremely detrimental in practice.  I always think of the old adage; “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day.  Teach a man to fish and he eats for life”.

We have improved greatly in the fact that we are no longer just handing out filters to people, they need to make a payment of about $6 to get one.  But then we are SO heavily reliant on grants for these projects that they really don’t seem very sustainable.  If we used a regular business model we would constantly be forced to improve our quality, efficiency and total package.  We make small changes here and there, but still nothing not the drastic change that would occur if it were a for-profit enterprise. 

For profit, whats so wrong with that?  It seems that everybody is so determined to give charity and handouts.  It is instant gratification.  You feel good about it.  Wow, I helped that person get a filter and clean water for life.  When the reality is they think the water was ok in the first place so they don’t use it.  Once their municipality comes through and wants to put in water infrastructure and needs to collect payments they won’t be able to collect the payments because the communities expect it for free.  If there were a for-profit set up, the people who want filters could purchase them and help themselves instead of just waiting for a handout.  We also wouldn’t be forcing these 300 lb filters on people who don’t want them and then can’t lift them to get rid of them.

A for-profit organization would sure take out the feel-good-factor for other people but it is still achieving the same goal.  A business would not have an expiration date, so they would be able to ensure quality service for a much longer time.  Our project in Atlantida will have grant funds supporting it for a total run of 3 years. That means we will have paid staff only up until that point.  If something goes wrong with the filter, they might not be able to get it replaced because there will be no project anymore.

The overall problem of water and sanitation worldwide is daunting.  I think things are trudging along and the development community is starting to learn from their mistakes but we can still not get over this cycle of giving.  What we should be giving is the technology transfer not material things so the recipients can then indeed eat for life.