Gemma Bulos and Kevin Lee

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2007

Gemma Bulos and Kevin Lee

A Single Drop for SafeWater

http://www.asdforsafewater.org/

Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, Philippines

Community Improvement & Economic Development, Environment

The Bold Idea:

Over 13 million Filipinos lack access to a safe water supply, which exposes them to serious health risks and fosters long-lasting conflicts around this scarce resource. Significant infectious water-borne diseases plague the country—diarrhea is the highest cause of morbidity and third highest cause of mortality in children under five.
A Single Drop for SafeWater (ASDSW) promotes water as a source of peace and equality in the Philippines. ASDSW combines low-cost technology with local community ownership to bring effective water systems to villages across the country. The BioSand Filter, one of ASDSW’s many technologies, is a household water treatment that removes 95 to 100 percent of disease-causing organisms, which helps families take responsibility to improve their own health. Through the creation of community water organizations, or Water PODS (People Offering Deliverable Services), ASDSW empowers the community members to implement this technology as well as to promote water education and self-reliance, while removing their dependence on outside funding sources. Water PODS will train surrounding villages to spread access to safe water rapidly to the millions suffering without it.

Biography:

Gemma Bulos, a Filipina-American musician and teacher, deeply believes in a connection between peace and safe water access. Much of her work in this area was spurred by her reaction to the tragedy of September 11th. While introducing new alternative water treatment technologies and studying water stewardship in the Philippines, she met Kevin Lee, a former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer raised in New Zealand with a background in mechanical engineering. Based on the concept that it takes a single drop of water to start a wave, they joined together in order to realize the power of community participation in building healthy communities.

Moment of Obligation: What experiences led to the desire to start your own organization?
GEMMA: As a pre-school teacher not on my regular 8:50 am train to the World Trade Center on September 11th, I witnessed a global community united through tragedy. In response, I wrote my song, “We Rise” calling out for peace and unity. Because the theme of the song is that “it takes a single drop of water to start a wave,” the metaphor made me think specifically about water which led me to learn more about freshwater issues. I discovered the power of water in our fundamental human relations, our global interactions, and in peacemaking. That’s when I devoted my life to water’s cause.
KEVIN: After working two years in Peace Corps, I noticed that there is a lot of talk about how aid work is done. As we all know, talk doesn’t fix much, so I had made a decision to stay in this type of work. Options were limited to working for an established agency such as USPC or USAID. Once Gemma gave me the opportunity to help her start the project here in the Philippines, I realized I could take the easy route and follow other people’s rules or do what I really believed. Here we are!

Gall to Think Big: What has given you the ability to dream big and take on deeply entrenched problems in our world?
GEMMA/KEVIN: We approach our work to “dream without limits.” We find ourselves learning from water by embodying some of its deep qualities that are most powerful and full of opportunity. When water hits an obstacle, it finds a better path. Water is the master solvent and accepts everything unconditionally, and has the power to transform and purify. Water always levels and always connects to other water. Although “it takes a single drop of water to start a wave,” when drops of water unify, they have the potential to create ripples and build waves.

New and Untested: What’s innovative about your new idea for social change?
GEMMA/KEVIN: Our innovative idea for social change can be summed up in our devotion to people, as opposed to great ideas and technologies. Our strategy is as follows: “Teach people to fish, teach them to have a business fishing, and help them teach others how to fish with practices that ensure that their children and future generations can fish in the same river.” Creating independent, self-reliant and self-replicable local hubs of water expertise or “Water P.O.D.S.”, as we call them, empowers the community to take responsibility for finding appropriate solutions for their own water issues.

Seeing Possibilities: What are the most important qualities to be a successful social entrepreneur?
GEMMA/KEVIN: We both believe that being fearless, creative, and completely open to listening to other people’s stories are some of the most important qualities for a social entrepreneur. We both see our work, those we work with, and our organization as being dynamic and having its own life, and we are willing to nurture its growth and potential just by serving its needs, not so much ours.

Which musical artists/albums get you going and keep you inspired?
GEMMA: Anything Seal, Pat Benatar or Stevie Wonder, Peter Gabriel “So,” Kate Bush “Hounds of Love,” Man of La Mancha Broadway Soundtrack: “To be willing to go into hell for a heavenly cause.”
KEVIN: BB King, Buddy Guy, Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, George Clinton and Harry Connick Jr. to name a few.

What books do you recommend?
GEMMA: The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Veronica Decides to Die, and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. All deal with seeing life as just a bunch of broken pieces of experiences that create the beautiful mosaic that is our lives. Oh, and America: The Book, Audio book version. Genius.
KEVIN: Space by James A. Michener got me started. Autobiographies of Nelson Mandela, BB King, and Lee Iacocca.

Which websites do you visit often?
GEMMA: Not a big web surfer. Usually what I spend most time surfing if I have the time are youth initiatives for peace, environment and reverential ecology.
KEVIN: Not really a web geek. Mail and NASCAR, all you need to know.

What advice or quote do you keep close to your heart as a social change leader?
GEMMA: Speak the language of possibility. See every experience in life and everyone you meet as an opportunity to honor that what is happening is bringing you some great lesson that you have asked for. To live life being fearless and faithless, fearful and faithful. And everything in between. To quote Seal, “Maybe we can be the vision of a prophet man’s dream.”
KEVIN: ”Lead, follow or get out of the damn way.” (A quote from my first boss out of college.)