Doing something for the first time creates an interesting mix of challenge, creativity and chance.
Add to that mix, an overachieving, highly motivated academic from Boston, a world crusted technical expert with international celebrity status and an educator riding the wave of inexperience with unbridled determination. Then, put 23 people representing 18 different organizations in the room with these three. The result: jaws dropping, questioning arms thrusting and a momentum for change.
The topic has the capacity to create hope, preserve dignity and save lives and seems insanely common sense, but there was not one organization in that room that was directly addressing this issue in their existing programs.
The topic: Safe Water for People Living with HIV/AIDS.
In preparation for the session, we decided to visit a few peri-urban communities on the edge of Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia.
What we found in Mazyopa and Chigala was what we expected, which is why we went there to collect the evidence.
According to the World Health Organization, one way to categorize safe water is by the level of fecal contamination (CFU/100mL) or how much bacteria from poo is in 100mL.
Water that has a level of 0-10 is reasonable quality and may be consumed as is;
10-100 polluted - treat if possible;
100-1000 dangerous - must be treated;
over 1000 very dangerous - reject or must be treated.
Our findings (which as I said we were expecting, but wanted to collect for message impact):
Hand dug well at the school: 1500
Hand dug well 200m down from the school: 4000
Stream (picture below): Too Numerous To Count
From the Biosand Filter: zero
The source of the water that was put through the Biosand filter was from the hand dug well that had the 4000 count.
So, let me repeat, from the Biosand Filter: zero
Put that data together with the countless kids (and adults) that are drinking, bathing, living with this water. These kids, that for the most part, are orphans or from single parent families because of HIV/AIDS.
When this evidence was presented to the 23 individuals in the room along with the research that overwhelmingly concludes that people living with HIV/AIDS die most often from diarrheal diseases, which are most often caused by contaminated water, people sat up a lot straighter.
Although it seemed impossible for them to be more blown away, when the next key point was made that if people are suffering from diarrhea their ability to absorb the expensive Anti-retro viral drugs is significantly decreased, they almost slouched in their seats from the immensity of these evidence based proclamations.
After the initial defensive remarks that filled the room this comment spoke volumes:
"In our programs supporting people living with HIV/AIDS we focus on providing drugs and food, but never even consider the impact of water."
For the first time, representatives from both the water sector and the HIV/AIDS sector put their heads together about what they were going to do about this. And the three of us, after taking a chance watched them collectively and creatively put their heads together to begin to address this challenge.
And I fiercely hope that they follow through so that little ones like this precious giggling little girl from Mazyopa will have a chance at life.
