Yachana Technologies - Water Purification Systems

We believe that working through local young people is the best way to reach the greatest number of people and to provide families with the knowledge and tools they need to improve their health, continue their education, and break out of the cycle of poverty.

Our plan will be economically sustainable by combining grassroots empowerment with corporate sponsorship to finance and distribute the water purification systems. Training and educational materials will be supplied to elementary schools throughout the region. There are many municipal governments and oil companies interested in providing community service projects that emphasize health and education. A study by UNICEF cites 15,000 rural elementary schools in Ecuador where children do not have access to safe drinking water. Our goal is to reach 1,500 schools within three years, providing roughly five filter systems per school (one for every 8-10 children). We aim to reach half of the 15,000 schools within ten years.

FUNEDESIN will also work in partnership with local organizations to improve the effectiveness of existing health initiatives. For example, the UNICEF/World Food Program provides a multivitamin powder supplement to mothers with children under the age of two. Although the supplements include clear instructions to be mixed with boiled water, there are two realities which must be addressed — many women living in rural areas cannot read, and many will not bother to boil the water due to difficulties involving a wood fire. These water purification systems will solve that problem.

Lastly, we will subsidize the filters for families that live on less than $1 per day. It is FUNEDESIN’s philosophy not to give the filters, but to make them more accessible by offering them at an affordable price. These subsidies will be offset by scaled contributions from civic organizations, churches, private donations and charitable organizations.

This project requires an initial capital investment to import and assemble the filters’ components, develop training and educational materials, and start up the business. It will be self-financing and economically sustainable within three years. Profits will be reinvested in the business’ expansion to other schools throughout the country and the greater Amazon region.

A recent study carried out by the World Bank, UNICEF, and the Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health ranks Ecuador’s six Amazon provinces as the nation’s worst off in terms of health, poverty, and education.

Our development model has a bottom-up marketing approach that begins with local youth living in the Amazon region. These young entrepreneurs become trainers to distribute the filters plus training and educational materials to their respective communities and other villages nearby. The students will earn a commission on each purification system they sell. Our target customers include schoolchildren, families living in remote areas, mothers with children under the age of two, and families that live on less than $1 per day.

FUNEDESIN has designed an innovative business model that focuses on training and educating young entrepreneurs so that they can meet the healthcare needs of their communities and raise their families’ incomes above the poverty line. There are currently no competing initiatives to address this urgent need for safe drinking water, supported by an educational institution, within this demographic group.

To ensure that we reach our target customers, we will partner with local individuals and organizations that have pre-established working relationships with the local people. Students enrolled at the Yachana Technical High School are from all over the Ecuadorian Amazon region, and they have direct access to remote communities where safe drinking water is essential and nonexistent. Different municipalities in the region have funds specifically for this type of project. The oil industry services a large number of communities throughout the Amazon region. They are interested in helping an estimated 1,000 elementary schools that do not have access to safe drinking water. Finally, by working with institutions such as UNICEF/World Food Program, we can access a large group of people and provide information on the need for safe drinking water and help them receive the simple, low-cost filters.

The initial capital investment for the business will come from profits from Yachana Lodge, corporate sponsorships and charitable donations. The project will be self-financing within the first two years, and will turn a profit within three years.

The Yachana Technologies — Water Purification Systems microenterprise will provide direct employment for over 200 young entrepreneurs, plus indirect employment for approximately 500 community health providers throughout the Amazon rainforest. Entrepreneurs will be trained in business management and marketing and will make a commission of $0.75 for every filter system they sell. Most students enrolled at the Yachana Technical High School come from low-income families that live on less than $1 per day (per family), and the commissions the students make by selling the water filters will be a valuable source of added income.

The water systems will improve the standard of living in the country by providing access to safe drinking water to elementary schools serving over 75,000 schoolchildren, the most vulnerable victims of water-borne disease. The total number of people who will benefit from the water filters can be calculated with a multiplier effect, given that the students will then transfer the skills and knowledge onto their families (at an average 8 members per family) as secondary beneficiaries. Family-owned, subsidized water purification systems will greatly reduce the proportion of children under the age of five who die as a result of diarrhea. This initiative will have an indirect impact on as many as 600,000 people within the first three years.

The water systems will be introduced in an additional 700 schools in the fourth year, with the aim of reaching half of the country’s 15,000 rural elementary schools without access to safe drinking water within ten years. FUNEDESIN’s goal is to reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, and we aim to work toward this goal by working first through the schools, and subsequently through family water systems.

Poverty and environmental degradation are closely interrelated. FUNEDESIN’s goal is to provide people living under the poverty line with improved access to education and healthcare so that they are able to engage in sustainable livelihoods. This is a model for sustainable development which can be replicated throughout the country, the greater Amazon region, and around the world.