LifeGivingForce (LGF) is a great example of an organization leveraging innovative technology, methods of sustainability, and micro-finance to create a model for helping the poor and displaced.  Their central focus is providing clean and sustainable water through the utilization of their purification product in a micro-enterprise model.  Currently they are raising funds to support their pilot program in Haiti.  Refining the model, technology, and approach after the pilot will allow them to flexibility to leverage the concept in many areas of need.  They’re going about their organization the right way, which is to find a testing ground, pilot the program, and more importantly, be able to step away from the process in the end.  Stepping away while providing the necessary tools for sustainability allows locals to take ownership of the program and their well being.  Its programs like this that buck the trend of providing aid, and instead, providing ways for the locals to become self-reliant.

LifeGivingForce’s website describes their goal as making “the provisioning of clean water both self-sustaining and cost-effective long-term by bringing together technology, training, and micro-finance to local entrepreneurs on the island.” How are they going about this?  Their business breaks down into two major sub-sections: Technology and the Micro-Enterprise / Micro-Finance model.  Their product, the LGF H2O – 2500 UF portable suitcase water purification unit, filters raw sources of water (except for salt-water) of particulate and bacterioological contaminants and neutralizes remaining pathogens.  This product is in turn leased to a local entrepreneur who then repays the cost of the purification system via the profits made from selling clean water.  Currently they are in the process of raising $50,000 to pilot a micro-enterprise model to deploy and manage their water filtration units long term in Haiti. They plan to deploy 2 new units to orphan/widow communities in Haiti as soon as funding is secured.

Technology
At the heart of what LGF provides is a technologically advanced, portable, renewable-energy-powered water filtration system.  Essentially it is a “miniature water treatment plant”, as they like to decribe it.  The system is powered off-grid with solar energy and can be run through a gravity feed, batteries, or a generator if necessary.  The output is producing 2,500+ gallons of fresh drinking water per day which in turn can serve 7,500+ people.  Though the weight of the entire unit is 107 lbs including the case, the sheer concept of making this much clean water available on a daily basis makes the product invaluable.

Micro-Enterprise / Micro-Finance Model
So they have this great technology that is clean, robust, and effective.  What do you do with it?  Do you donate them to the poor?  Maybe LGF should accompany each unit and manage the output.  Neither.  The goal behind their model is to “create a sustainable model for providing essential services that can be replicated in Haiti and beyond.”  According to the LGF website, the way their model operates is by leasing the units to members of the local community, and training them on how to operate.  The local community members have a micro-loan out to pay for these units, and are able to repay the costs through profits generated via the sale of clean water.

Many micro-finance models treat money as the end result – Kiva loans local entrepreneurs money; Vittana loans students money to pay for school.  LGF leverages the use of micro-finance to provide access to a product, which in turn spurns entrepreneurship.  The owner of the product operates a business providing clean drinking water.  Once LGF receives their loans repaid in full, the capital (and subsequent interest) is reinvested in other projects to help make donations more effective.

I’m a huge fan of this model because it reinforces the need for local entrepreneurship, leverages sustainable methods, and is able to provide all of this through micro-loans. These are three of the strong pillars that social entrepreneurship keys off of, and it looks like a recipe for great success.

If you would like to donate to support their pilot, please click here.

- Chris