HOST JENNIFER (00:02):

Hello, welcome to this podcast called FINDING INSPIRATION. It's a 20 or so minute weekly podcast where we interview someone with a fantastic story. After the show, I know you're gonna feel energized, invigorated, and inspired. I'm Jennifer Weisman. Welcome to finding inspiration. Today's episode is gonna inspire you. Innovation. Africa has helped over 3 million people in Africa. How do they do it? They bring Israeli technology to the small villages, put up solar panels, and help them find fresh water. They bring electricity and fresh water, and it is changing lives. This story is gonna blow your mind. Take a listen. I'm very excited today to be speaking with Michal Smith, a key member of the company called Innovation Africa. I wanna jump right into it. Africa in many ways has been left behind the rest of the world. Why is that?

GUEST MICHAL (01:06):

It's an incredible question. We don't know. We don't know why. I mean, Africa as a continent has so much potential. It is rich in natural resources. The people are phenomenal. And yet we see 620 million people living predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa without access to electricity. The simplest of things like being able to turn on a light bulb. How can technological advances take place if the simplest of things like electricity or access to clean water is unavailable?

HOST JENNIFER (01:36):

That's where Innovation Africa comes in. You have identified that --  energy is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty.

GUEST MICHAL (01:43):

Absolutely.

HOST JENNIFER (01:44):

What exactly does Innovation Africa do?

GUEST MICHAL (01:47):

Innovation Africa is a non-profit non-governmental organization with a very simple mission to bring Israeli, solar, water, and agricultural technologies and provide light to schools and medical centers across Africa and crucially pump clean water that exists just meters beneath the ground. Now we were established in 2008, Sivan Yaari.  She was spending time in Africa, and that's where she saw what absolute poverty meant especially for children. It's not just that they don't have much; they don't have anything. And without access to electricity, they cannot improve their education or medical care. And without electricity, we cannot harness the energy to pump the water. As I say, that's in aquifers across Africa. And so, being Israeli, an entrepreneur, and not saying no to anything, Sivan knew there must be a solution. 

GUEST MICHAL (02:41):

Sivan took a few solar panels, and the rest is history. She raised the funds to bring electricity to a health center. And that's where it all began going center by center, then to schools, and then identifying what the real issue was that people were still getting sick. Why?  Because the children were still not attending school because they were too weak and too ill. The kids were spending hours each day looking for water.  Contaminated water from sources that they knew would make them sick, but that was their only choice. We were able to provide solutions by harnessing the energy from the sun, drilling into the aquifer and pumping water, constructing a tower, and distributing water throughout the villages. And that's been our mission.

HOST JENNIFER (03:20):

You put up solar panels and harness the energy of the sun to power drills to get the natural spring water already below ground. 

GUEST MICHAL (03:33):

It's pretty astonishing to think that clean and safe drinking water exists just beneath the ground. We work with local contractors, and hydrogeologists to identify where it's best to drill. We then drill sometimes 80 meters, sometimes up to 200 meters.  We are often very successful at finding water. You know, we have a fantastic team working with us in the country. We have over 80 full-time employees working with us for Innovation Africa across six African countries.

HOST JENNIFER (04:01):

80 employees?

GUEST MICHAL (04:03):

Yes, 80 African employees. We're now over 112. Once we drill and find the water, we can install the pump. And that pump is what is powered by the solar panel. So then we're able to raise the water app into a tank, and through gravity, the water flows.

HOST JENNIFER (04:20):

I cannot imagine these small rural villages' changes, right? The children were not being educated. They were spending their days walking to find dirty, contaminated water. What do these rural villages look like today? Some of these countries include Senegal, Cameroon, Zambia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Malawi.

GUEST MICHAL (04:49):

Lives are completely transformed. Children are able to wake up and go directly to the school.  Each school now has a light, meaning they can study safely in classrooms. They no longer have to have kerosene lamps or candles to guide their studies, but they have light in their schools. They can do afternoon programs. They even have evening study for revision classes to achieve improved academic success, thereby helping to break the cycle of poverty again because they can then go on to further education. In health centers. We have mothers delivering babies under the light at night. Again, they no longer rely on harmful fumes to guide their deliveries.  Even vaccinations. During the past two years of the pandemic, we've seen everybody saying, get vaccinated, look after yourself, and take your medication. How can these rural communities get vaccinated when they have nowhere to store vaccines? So simply using solar energy, we're able to power vaccine refrigerators. We can provide improved medical care course drinking, clean water, and everything. People are healthier. And we've seen that agricultural initiatives are established in brickmaking in the villages themselves. We no longer see mud homes, but we see brick houses. Everything has changed. The last part that truly inspires us all is to see the independence and the economic prosperity that comes simply from having clean water, people are able to set up markets to sell their products again, helping to break the cycle and improve their quality of life.

HOST JENNIFER (06:16):

Can you share any stories of mothers or fathers who have sat you down and said, Hey, you brought water? You brought electricity. What were their lives like before?

GUEST MICHAL (06:37):

We are proud to have impacted over 3.4 million people across Africa.  People share that before, they weren't living independently; they weren't living their life in pride with dignity. Instead, the fathers had to work wherever they possibly could to gain any source of income. But in these rural communities, they don't have the same opportunities that we've been afforded. And there's no reason for that. The mothers wake up at three or four o'clock in the morning, walk five kilometers in one direction, and carry a bucket of water from contaminated, open sources that they know are going to harm them. Now, imagine as a mother you're making a child sick.  It’s genuinely unimaginable that you would ever do something to put your child in harm's way. But they had no choice. This is the only solution for the millions of mothers, children, and fathers who now know that they're keeping their families safe and can send their children to school with pride. It's a story of transformation, truly. 

HOST JENNIFER (07:36):

Yes, it truly is inspiring. How do you select which villages get to have solar panels?

GUEST MICHAL (07:45):

We have a long list of criteria. We speak with local ministers, the minister of energy minister of water, and the countries where we work to identify where their local governments are assisting and where they're going to be extending the grid.  If they are going to the left of a country, we go to the right. We don't want to duplicate efforts. We want to go help communities that would otherwise be left unsupported. We go to the village, we identify whether it meets our criteria. As I say, does not have any access to electricity. And crucially, they will not be assessed in the near future pending on the criteria they meet. As I say, it's a very long list, but we meet with the ministers. We meet with the local chiefs. We meet with the heads of the village and the women's association to identify their needs and whether we can provide assistance. And once we do, we work closely with the community. Part of our work is really community-based. We are providing the services, but they'll own the project. We want them to be proud. We want them to have ownership of this project.

HOST JENNIFER (08:45):

Do they manage this after you come in and you drill, and there's lots of fresh flowing water? Is it then handed off to the local community, the villagers, and they manage it, or do you stay in the country?

GUEST MICHAL (08:57):

Well, it's both. Our local teams they're overseeing the projects, making sure the monitoring and maintenance take place where necessary. Um, and of course, we set up local committees. So we have a water or a solar committee. And we have those members who oversee it to ensure its sustainability and success in their own village. And we work closely with them. We are very proud to have our remote monitoring technology, which enables us to track remotely everything that's happening. So as part of our in-house Israeli innovation, we established a remote monitoring system, which allows us our donors. And of course, all of our local team and engineers track life at any time, how much water is being pumped, how much electricity is being used from any of our projects, and crucially, if a malfunction occurs, if a pump breaks, if the solar panels aren't working correctly, we receive an alert and our donors receive an alert it's fully transparent. Our local team on the ground is ready and willing to assist.

HOST JENNIFER (09:55):

How much does it cost to bring solar panels and then pump a well with fresh water into a village?

GUEST MICHAL (10:04):

So it's around $55,000 to $65,000 at the moment. To bring electricity to a school is just $20,000.  This relatively small amount of money is genuinely transformative and will continue to transform for generations.  Even though it's a one-time investment  --  hundreds of millions of lives will be saved.  And it spills over when one village becomes more robust, healthier, and more economically independent. So do neighboring villages, as they have access to the water and agricultural developments.  And it is a cycle that just keeps going. All we're doing is sharing the technology that we have in Israel and that we are fortunate enough to be able to share. And we believe it's our responsibility that we've been blessed and have an obligation to share it with those who have been otherwise less fortunate. Over the next five years, we're hoping to  expand and complete another 1,400 projects to impact 10 million people.

HOST JENNIFER (11:08):

Amazing, amazing, amazing!  Innovation Africa is changing millions and millions of lives. Thank you so much for inspiring us this week.

GUEST MICHAL (11:18):

Thank you for having me, Jennifer.

HOST JENNIFER (11:22):

Thank you for joining us this week on Finding Inspiration. Hey, I would appreciate it. If you would click on that subscribe button and share this podcast with a friend, see you next week. I'm Jennifer Weissmann.