Discover how Innovation Africa is transforming lives by providing electricity and clean water to rural African communities in our conversation with Michal Smith, Director of Communications for the organization. Learn about their incredible impact on over 4 million people across 10 African countries since 2008, and how their dedicated team members, Israeli technology, and local contractors are key to their success and sustainability.
In the second part of our episode, Celia reveals ways to get involved with Innovation Africa through fundraising and travel opportunities - even small contributions can go a long way! We also discuss the importance of freedom and our role in helping others achieve it, both locally and globally. Listen in for our words of wisdom for those looking to make a difference in non-profit work, and how you can contribute to anti-trafficking efforts and support rural African communities in their journey towards a better, safer future.
Discover how Innovation Africa is transforming lives by providing electricity and clean water to rural African communities in our conversation with Michal Smith, Director of Communications for the organization. Learn about their incredible impact on over 4 million people across 10 African countries since 2008, and how their dedicated team members, Israeli technology, and local contractors are key to their success and sustainability.
In the second part of our episode, Celia reveals ways to get involved with Innovation Africa through fundraising and travel opportunities - even small contributions can go a long way! We also discuss the importance of freedom and our role in helping others achieve it, both locally and globally. Listen in for our words of wisdom for those looking to make a difference in non-profit work, and how you can contribute to anti-trafficking efforts and support rural African communities in their journey towards a better, safer future.
You know the why human trafficking work is needed To fight for the freedom of modern day slaves. But love, passion, commitment isn't all you need to be an effective and successful anti-trafficking advocate. Learn the how. I'm Dr Celia Williamson, director of the Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute at the University of Toledo. Welcome to the Emancipation Nation podcast, where I'll provide you with the latest and best methods, policy and practice discussed by experienced experts in the field, so that you can cut through the noise, save time and be about the work of saving lives. Welcome to the Emancipation Nation episode 180. I'm Dr Celia Williamson. Today we have Miquel Smith and she is Director of Communications of a fabulous program called Innovation Africa. And so we think about human trafficking. We have to think about all the ways that make people vulnerable to human trafficking. So Innovation Africa is doing wonderful work to supply people with the things they need in their daily life so that they can become stabilized and not vulnerable. So welcome, miquel. I'm so happy you could join us.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. I'm truly honored to be a part of this incredible podcast series.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and your voice is amazing And, as we can guess from now, you have a London, uk accent. Yes, i do, yes, but your work is in Africa, so tell the audience what Innovation Africa does.
Speaker 2:Thank you. So Innovation Africa is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization with a very simple mission to provide electricity and clean water to rural African communities. Since our establishment in 2008, we have brought light to schools and rural medical centers and pumped clean water to over 880 villages, impacting more than 4 million people across 10 African countries.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is amazing. I can't believe that you say it so calmly, but wow, what a worldwide impact. And when did you start, or Innovation Africa, start doing this? And how were you able to reach that many people?
Speaker 2:It's an excellent question. So we were founded in 2008, and this year will be our 15th year anniversary. So happy birthday to IA and our incredible team members. And I think that that really is the secret source to success It's having incredible team members to implement the work and ensure it's successful operations. Across Africa, we have over 130 full-time employees, the majority of whom are experienced engineers. We have civil water electrical engineers working with us across our countries in Africa To ensure that we engage the communities. We work with incredible local contractors to drill, to construct and to install our solar and water systems And, of course, we want to make sure that it's long-term sustainability. So our success is true to our innovation, which is in our namesake, but, of course, using Israeli technology is really innovations, which makes us so successful in the work that we do.
Speaker 3:I want to interrupt the podcast to tell you about the International Human Trafficking and Social Justice Conference, which is the largest and oldest academic conference on human trafficking in the world. Join us for our 20th annual conference, hosted virtually this year on September 20th through the 22nd. You'll have the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with thousands of advocates, researchers, providers and survivors from all over the world. You don't want to miss it. Find out more and register today on our website, traffickingconferencecom. Now back to the podcast.
Speaker 2:So I was fortunate to engage with the organization over five years ago now, when I moved to Tel Aviv and I was first exposed to Sivan, our incredible founder and CEO, and our team in the headquarters there in Tel Aviv. I have since traveled to African countries to meet with our local team members, our field officers and our managers across our countries and to really enjoy with the community members what it feels like to see light and access to clean water for the first time. And you mentioned earlier about vulnerability. I think that we can all attest to the fact that living without access to safe and clean water and or electricity in our homes, schools and medical centers would certainly make us vulnerable, and it's never more so true than for the young women that live in our communities. See, with over 600 million people across Africa living without access to electricity and over 400 million people living without access to safe and clean water. And it's predominantly the women and the young children's role to care for their families, to keep them safe and healthy, to make sure they're educated and, of course, to collect water. And it is these young individuals who will often have to wake up at 3-4 o'clock in the morning and walk kilometres in search of water from open and contaminated sources and they return back to their husbands and their children in the village in order to provide them with the water Water they know will make them sick, but yet there is no alternative.
Speaker 2:But see, the other solution is simple. The water exists. Safe and clean water is there just metres beneath the ground, in aquifers, and what we do is we use the energy from the sun that we can harness, using our technology, to power a soda pump that brings the water up from the ground and we can distribute it throughout the village. In turn, we know that the women will therefore be safer, healthier and they won't be so vulnerable anymore, because they no longer need to take these long and arduous walks where they could be victim of rape, kidnapping or attacks from animals that could be roaming in the night in these rural villages. Instead, they have safe and clean water and taps just metres from their home, and we know that everything changes once we know that the women of the community and these young girls can thrive.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, and so you're based in Israel, and who is this wonderful person that started this whole movement and why, did? she started it, of course.
Speaker 2:So her name is Sivania Ari. She is originally born in Israel. She was educated in France and in the States, and part of her education process she was learning about solar energy. And during her working experience in Africa, she was exposed to what true poverty meant. She was, at the time, working for a jeans factory in Madagascar And she saw young children walking around the village during the day and she saw many women who were sick And she asked the community members well, why are the children still here during the day, why aren't they attending school? And where are these women who are ill receiving medical treatment? And I said, the children, they're too weak to walk, they're too sick. And when we do go to receive medical treatment, there's no one to provide us with vaccines or medical care, because there's no light or electricity to store the vaccines or medicines. And so, being an Israeli entrepreneur and being the innovative woman that she is, she said but the solution is simple.
Speaker 2:The sun exists and there's solar power that exists on every single roof in Israel and across the States and the UK. We have access to this green technology and this renewable source of energy, which is relatively cheap and incredibly reliable, especially when the sun exists in Africa in multitude. And so she went back and she brought a few solar panels to the roofs of a medical center, this time in Tanzania, and still to this day, in Kidigozera Health Center, there are still electricity thanks to that solar system. And from there it went, village by village, understanding what the challenges are in each village, bringing electricity to the schools, primary and secondary schools and, of course, to the health centers. And from there we understood that actually the children are still too sick and there are still too many people needing medical assistance, all because of consumption of contaminated water. And so we pivoted and we understood that, whilst our solar systems in these off-grid facilities is critical, we also need to tackle the main challenge of energy for light as well as energy for access to clean water, which we now do.
Speaker 2:And we are very proud to notice that each time we go back to the villages we conduct regular monitoring and evaluation of all of our projects. We can see that the community are thriving. We see young men, young women, establishing their own businesses, be it brick-making businesses to build their own brick homes and to sell in local markets, as well as agricultural initiatives. With access to water, they can grow food And with that food they're not only improved their nutrition, but they can also sell the surplus in markets. So the entire ecosystem develops. You have healthier, better nutrition and you of course have economic independence. That begins to be established in these villages.
Speaker 1:Exactly because creativity is not only in first-world countries. Creativity exists all around the world And if we can provide people with their basic needs, then they will contribute back to their villages, their communities and they will create all kinds of opportunities for their communities, and people benefit all over the world because of this the simple necessities of life that allow people to use their brain power and their creativity and to be able to thrive. But people can thrive if they have access to clean water and electricity. That's amazing, and so how can people get involved? if you know this is 2023, new us, new projects? how can I support you know? how can I help other people? So how can people get involved in innovation in Africa?
Speaker 2:Thank you. Well, yes, absolutely. We do welcome, as a non-profit, any and all donations, big or small. So to provide light to a school or medical center in the entire off-grid facility is $20,000. And to provide safe and clean water and lifelong access to clean water, might I add, is $65,000. And that includes the surveying, the drilling, the construction of a 10-meter tower, the soda panels, the pump, the tap, the distribution throughout the villages and, crucially, our remote monitoring technology which enables us and our donors to track live, from anywhere in the world, how much water is being pumped, how much electricity is being used and any one of our projects at any given time.
Speaker 2:We're very, very fortunate to win the United Nations Innovation Award for this technology.
Speaker 2:But it also helps ensure our transparency and long-term sustainability.
Speaker 2:Should a malfunction occur, should the pump break, should the panels be malfunctioning, we know we receive an alert, as do all of our donors, so we know that our local team of engineers will be able to rectify the issue right away and ensure that clean water and electricity continues to flow in our projects. But if you cannot adopt an entire village and you don't have the means to fund a whole project, we certainly welcome any donation, big or small, and in fact for $65,000, you're bringing water to an entire village minimum of 2,500 to 3,000 people large, which, if you do the quick maths, is around $25 a person. So for every $25 a donor gives, another person in Africa will soon have access to safe and clean water And, crucially, 100% of our donations go directly to our project costs. Our overheads, our travel expenses, our coffee is all covered separately by a generous group of private individuals, so every donation that comes through will be used specifically for project costs, so you can guarantee that everything you give will go directly to making the impact you set out to do so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and usually, you know, here in the US we're often hesitant because we say we want that money to go to the project that the commercial or the advertisement is telling us and we're suspect because we hear these reports of, you know, people having jets, the executive team having parties, and then that makes us hesitant. But in this particular case we know that if we give $25, $1,000, that 100% of that money is actually going to go to support the mission, the project, and that's awesome. I love that you get your, your donations to support your team and the workers through other means and you allow those donations to be used the way that they should be used Like. That's amazing. Do you have a website that people can go to to learn more?
Speaker 2:We do, thank you.
Speaker 2:It's wwwinnoafricaorg, so it's innoafricaorg, and there you will see a list of our projects, further information on our solar and water projects across Africa And, of course, my details if anybody would like to reach out to learn more about our projects.
Speaker 2:And Celia, i'd also like to add that often time we have people who say I want to raise money, i want to adopt a specific village or a project and I want to travel with you to Africa to open the taps or to turn on the lights and celebrate with the community, and we, of course, welcome that. We would greatly encourage and appreciate when our donors wish to travel with us to Africa, be it for their specific village or one that they fundraise with their friends and family. So we do have fundraising pages and campaigns that our individual donors can create and then share either with their school or their network, with their university campuses or with their friends and family, for everybody to contribute, because we know, especially in today's day and age, not everybody has disposable income to give however much you wish to, but here we know that a little, very much, does go a long way. So we would really encourage anyone who is interested. Please reach out. I would love to hear from you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would be a great thing for somebody to do in 2023. And you know, we always say that we're about the mission, we're about focusing on anti-trafficking efforts, and this is a way to prevent, again, people from being vulnerable, and this is a time for people in the audience to get active. If you're working in your own community, that's amazing. That's awesome. Keep doing that, because that's your neighbor right around the corner, but there's your neighbor around the world as well, so get involved internationally. This is a way for you to really you know the rubber beats the road in 2023. Start getting involved. Reach out. It's not just the people you see as you drive around your own community, but there are people around the world that also need our support, and so there's plenty, plenty of work to do. And you know, we always say in human trafficking And really the bottom line is about freedom.
Speaker 1:It's about freedom of choice, freedom to control your own thoughts and attitudes and control over your own body, and the best way to do that we take for granted is to have access to a warm house, to have access to a safe place And, in innovation, africa's idea to have access to clean water, to have electricity So you can participate in schools and you can visit medical centers and take care of your basic health, so that you can go off and live the life that you want to live. It's still a part of achieving a level of freedom, and so that's really really very basic, foundational, and that's the reason I really wanted to talk to you today. So there are also lots of advocates across the US and around the world and they wanna get involved, and they wanna get involved in a global effort like what you're doing. So how did you get started and what advice would you give people who wanna get involved in things like what you do, not as a donor, but as somebody who's employed at one of these agencies?
Speaker 2:Thank you. I studied political science and international relations at university, and it was there that I understood how big, but equally how small, our world can be If we all look and see each other as neighbors, as you said so beautifully your neighbors next door and, of course, your neighbors on the other side of the world that actually we have a responsibility now, in 2023, a company that feels futuristic, but in 2023 now, and we have developed so much technology and we have so much potential for good that we should be using this to advance the welfare of others. And so I then decided to become a teacher, as I thought well, i have this knowledge and this experience that I would love to impart on the next leader and the next future generations. And so I undertook what we call here in the UK teach first, but similar to the Teach for America program. And then I decided to make my journey to Israel, where I lived for the last five years, and I was actually listening to Sivan's TED Talk. That inspired me, and there she said is it too much, too little? How can we help? And that really triggered something with me Is enough, really enough? Is what I'm doing now, being a teacher? is that enough for me Am I satisfied with the contribution I'm giving? And I loved being a teacher, but I was equally so inspired by the mission, and I think that for me, is really doesn't feel like work. When you believe in something and when you align to a mission and when you love the people you work with, it really is a privilege to conduct this work, and so I give this.
Speaker 2:I guess my words of wisdom would be find something that you feel extremely passionate about, reach out to people at the organization, be it local or abroad, and find out what opportunities exist. You never know. It's exactly what I did. I heard the TED Talk, i felt inspired and I reached out, and I think that actually employees appreciate when people feel motivated and passionate to reach out to an organization. That isn't necessarily advertising for a role, because you never know what may come up. They keep you in mind And also there may be opportunities that aren't yet advertised. So people who are looking to get involved in non-profit work, i greatly commend you. Unfortunately, there are far too many needs out there, but if we start small and if everybody does their best to contribute to those around them, we will certainly together make a greater impact.
Speaker 2:Then I think CD of the notion of freedom really sinks true to what we do.
Speaker 2:Because we provide women particularly, who are burdened with the pressures of collecting water and looking after their children, we provide them with freedom from this pressure, freedom from this struggle, freedom to be the mothers and the young girls and the future leaders of tomorrow that they wish they can be, or simply by having clean water.
Speaker 2:And I really implore those listening to think about where you're collecting your water from today. Is it from taps in your home, or is it five to seven kilometers down the road, collecting it in 20 litre dairy cans and carrying it back on your head? And so those simple differences that we can understand exist but we also recognize shouldn't exist, certainly not in today's day and age. So I believe that we all have the power to make that change, and I appreciate anyone who wants to join us in our mission or share the word, spread awareness, follow us online and simply just help us promote the work that we're doing, because, truly, these young girls who are so vulnerable and these young leaders of tomorrow who don't have access to education, who are unable to get their vaccines and medicines, or simply because there's no electricity, so we know that we can and are making a difference and simply by sharing what we do, i hope as Director of Communications. In this role, i feel proud to be able to promote the work and hopefully go on a further support.
Speaker 1:Well, i certainly understand why you are Director of Communications, because you certainly communicate their mission beautifully, go straight to the heart of the matter, and so thank you so much for watching that TED Talk or for reaching out, for becoming a part of the solution, and I know there are many listeners that are a part of the solution, and I hope that they will reach out to you or be inspired themselves to pursue their true dreams and not live by fear, but live by hope and love and reach out and do the thing that they really wanted to do to make a difference in the world, like you're doing. So where would we see Miquel in five years from now?
Speaker 1:What can she be?
Speaker 2:doing Dancing in the villages, opening tanks of clean water, with all you wonderful listeners. That's what we're going to be doing. Yeah, i really thank you, cedir, for this incredible opportunity. You know, spreading awareness is crucial because the more people who understand the challenges that exist and the simplicity yet impact of our solution, the more we'll be able to move forward. I hope that maybe in five, even 10 years time, they won't need innovation Africa anymore, because we'll have brought light and access to clean water to all those people who are waiting.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, Miquel. I appreciate your time and please continue the great work that you're doing.
Speaker 2:Thank you, and to you and to all those listeners, thank you for being part of this mission.
Speaker 1:That was innovation, africa. You know water is pivotal to our survival. How can we live without water? We can't. We can live. Humans can live almost a month without food, but only three days to maybe up to a week without water. Actually, when we consider how important water is, it really should be a basic human right and not a privilege. According to innovation Africa, over 600 million people in the world don't have access to electricity. Over 400 million don't have access to clean and safe water. You know it reminds me of what trivia pursuit really is. What you worry about in your life has nothing to do, often, with the fundamental needs that human beings have to be loved, to be safe, to be free, to have access to water and energy. Stop being distracted by things that aren't important in this world and get focused on helping other people at least achieve and receive basic human rights. Until next time, the fight continues.