Eric Stowe wants to kill off his charity. The founder of Splash, a Seattle-based organization that brings clean water to communities, defines the success of his work as reaching a point where everyone has access to clean water.
His TEDxSeattle talk this June explains how Splash is working to spread clean water in countries like Nepal, China and India.
Stowe says that Splash will soon provide clean water in every orphanage in China. The organization’s community based approach means that they will collaborate with local schools and community leaders to ensure that clean water coverage extends to every person. A map illustrates the way he hopes clean water spreads across China in a way that looks almost like the outbreak of an infectious disease.
Quoting Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Stowe says that aid work is rooted in justice. That means working with communities to find solutions that not only work, but can bring an end to Splash.
“Cause keeping myself in a job and keeping whole communities dependent on us for their own solutions are dying models of self importance. They are at their core unjust. Because our work is not about us,” he says in his concluding remarks.
