Next we visit another family in Sudipta’s neighbourhood, also Spring Health customers. Simeon, a small, older gentleman, is in the tiny cement front-room of his house, where he spends much of his time on a bed. Simeon has limited mobility due to leg problems that relate to a tumor he had removed years ago.
“Good water, nice water,” says Simeon of Spring Health’s product.
He even explains that the pain in his leg has gone down because of the Spring Health water. When they used to drink the well water, Simeon and his family would get jaundis and diarrhea. Things have changed for them because of Spring Health. Dr. Polak sits beside Simeon on his bed and our group together with Simeon’s family members gather around. Simeon shows us how he uses his walker to get around, even as he is largely paralyzed in his lower half. A truly impressive moment.
Over our three days of field visits, we visit a 13 different Spring Health entrepreneurs or customers in villages near Bhubaneswar. Included in those we visit are:
- Spring Health entrepreneurs with other businesses or jobs of various kinds, from selling tea to banking-related business to farming.
- Women who must spend much of their time at home, out of the public eye, getting Spring Health water to use.
- Poor families of lower caste who stay together in a separate part of their village. One of these families is now buying Spring Health water
- People with bright eyes but some very difficult circumstances. Survivors.
- Spring Health associates who ensure that water is purified and delivered each day
- Delivery men who drive auto rickshaws full of water bubbles and jerry cans through the countryside each day
As Spring Health currently operates in 218 villages, we do not have time to visit each entrepreneur and customer, but we begin to get a picture of how the organization is bringing its vision to life. One particularly memorable image of Spring Health working with people who face extreme poverty is our visit to a settlement of eleven homes where people of a lower caste are living somewhat removed from the rest of the village. In some cases the roofs of their homes are thatched. Community members young and old gather around as we speak with one young man in particular (whose name unfortunately I did not learn). Some young women watch our conversation but keep their distance.
There are six people in his family and he buys 10L of Spring Health water daily. He is a farmer, but no one in this area has their own land, so he works in other peoples’ fields. He does not have guaranteed work for each day, still he chooses to use some of the money he does have to invest in clean water for his family. We ask a girl standing nearby what she hopes to do in the future. She says that he hopes to complete the additional two years of education that are available for students following secondary school, but it will depend on what her parents think.
It is an honor for us to meet members of this community, and Dr. Polak and others on the Spring Health team hope to see more and more communities like this one reached by Spring Health. Spring Health staff and entrepreneurs are aware of the importance of effective marketing and promotion in reaching communities with the offer of clean water. From performing dramas in villages to teaching about sanitation in schools to visiting people door to door, efforts are underway.
One autorickshaw driver has even developed a marketing strategy that involves him using a beautiful golden microphone to promote Spring Health on his delivery route by talking up the benefits as he drives. In partnership with local entrepreneurs and other leaders, Spring Health is moving forward as an agent of sustainable change in rural India to empower communities, in terms of health improvement as well as economic opportunity. I’m new to this, but to my eyes, the potential to reach further into Odisha and beyond is great.