WEBVTT - Matt Damon & Gary White ON: Seeing Problems and Taking Action & How to Help Others in Crisis 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.240 About eleven years ago, we were in Haiti and I 0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:04.600 was introduced to a little girl who was thirteen. She 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:07.680 spent three to four hours every day collecting water. So 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:10.040 I say to this kid, I'm like, well, hey, you know, 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:11.719 I kind of joke and say, now you have more 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:14.520 time for homework. And she looks at me totally seriously, 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:16.960 and she's like, I don't need more time to do homework. 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:19.480 I'm the smartest kid in my class. And I said, 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:20.680 all right, well, so what are you going to do 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:23.840 with all this time that you just found? You your 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:26.120 new found four hours a day. And she looked at 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:35.199 me and she goes, I'm gonna play. Hey everyone, welcome 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.159 back to On Purpose, the number one health podcast in 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:40.320 the world. Thanks to each and every single one of 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:44.360 you that come back every week to listen, learn, and grow. Now, 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.159 I know that our community add on Purpose. All of 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:51.199 you are activists. Our community is dedicated to making positive 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:53.279 change in the world. I know that all of you 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:57.000 have got behind so many causes that we've prioritized and 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:00.400 given a platform too on this podcast, and this is 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:02.720 one of those episodes. So if you've been looking and 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:05.640 waiting to do something positive in the world, to feel 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:08.240 like you're a part of the solution. Then I want 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:09.679 you to listen to this episode. I want you to 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.039 share it with all your friends and family that are 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:15.720 of the same energy and spirit, because this one's going 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.160 to make a huge difference. Today I'm sweeking of two 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:22.000 incredible guests, Gary White and Matt Damon, who are co 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:26.679 founders of water dot Org and Water Equity. While everyone 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.840 knows Matt as an actor and producer and screenwriter, in 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.399 two thousand and six he founded H twenty Africa Foundation 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:38.280 to raise awareness about water initiatives on the continent. Matt's 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:41.319 active participation in the work of water or dot org 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.800 and Water Equity has positioned him as one of the 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:49.080 world's experts on water and sanitation issues now. In nineteen 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:53.520 ninety one, Gary launched Water Partners, now the international NGEO 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:57.680 known as water dot Org. Today, he leads two organizations 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.960 in creating and executing mark driven solutions to the global 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:06.240 water crisis, driving innovations in the way water and sanitation 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:11.640 projects are delivered and financed. Welcome to on Purpose, Matt 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.440 Damon and Gary White. Matt and Gary, thank you so 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.560 much for being here. And I know today we're talking 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:21.160 about your book, The Worth of Water, our story of 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:25.160 chasing solutions to the world's greatest challenge. I highly recommend 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:27.399 everyone goes and grabs a copy of the book while 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.360 you're listening or watching, but we will be diving into 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:32.840 that and discussing it. Gary and Matt, thank you for 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:34.960 being here. It's so good to see you. Good to 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.880 see you. Thank you for sharing your incredible platform with 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:40.960 us too. This is really awesome. We appreciate it for sure. 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:44.360 Thanks jay No, thank you for doing the work. You know. 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:48.480 I spent three years living as a monk in India 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.440 after business school, and a lot of the work we 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:54.560 did was around building sustainable villages and a big part 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:58.399 of that was making sure that clean water reach those places. 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:00.840 So I have a personal affy to the work that 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.040 you're doing, and so when this came across my desk, 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.320 I was, to be honest, just super enthusiastic and excited 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.040 to talk about it. I'd love to start off from 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:15.639 both of you individually telling me about what is the 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:18.120 water crisis and water issue right now for those who 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.920 are unaware or those that have kind of seen it 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:23.840 but kind of think, oh yeah, like isn't aren't. There 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:25.560 are a lot of people dealing with that, and you know, 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:27.079 it's kind of been talked about for a while. I'd 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:30.480 love to hear from both of your perspectives personally as 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:34.800 to what you believe the issue is right now. Well, 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:36.680 if I can go ahead and jump in, that's all right. 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.640 It's it's so complex, it's kind of hard to distill 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.000 it it. I'll give it a shot. I think that 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.160 for us, we tend to think of the water crisis 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:49.640 is something that's looming. We know that, you know, a 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:53.600 climate change, water resources are getting more scarce, and that 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:56.160 is a looming crisis, and it is important we should 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.360 be focused on that. But for seven hundred and seventy 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:03.360 one million people around the world today, the crisis is 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.640 already upon them. Right. They're the ones that when they 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:09.520 woke up this morning, they didn't necessarily know where they 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.480 were going to get water for the day. They didn't 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:14.080 know how much time they were going to have to 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.800 spend walking to collect that water, or sometimes they have 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:21.480 to buy it from these these urban slum vendors who 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.479 sell it for prices that are ten to fifteen times 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:26.279 more than what they would pay if they had a 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:31.360 water connection. So to them, the water crisis is a 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:36.799 daily struggle to make sure that they have enough water 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.160 in order to kind of live the day. And then 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:42.400 when you're struggling day to day like that, that water 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.200 crisis becomes like a family health crisis, it becomes an 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:51.360 education crisis, it becomes lack of employment crisis because your 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:54.679 focus so much on getting water or paying for water 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.720 that you're not in school, you're not healthy, and so 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:02.320 it is basically something that's right now robbing hundreds of 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.880 millions of people of their futures because until you have water, 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:09.279 nothing else matters. Thank you for that, Gary, I really 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.560 appreciate that. And the main thing that I'm hearing there 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.200 is just we think of people just not having water 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:17.680 to drink, and then it's almost like, well, wait a minute, 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.840 let's think about the act of getting water and what 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.320 that takes away time from i e. Their economic space, 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.560 their home space, their family, the cooking, the feeding that, 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:30.560 you know, everything that it expands out to. So thank 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:32.520 you for that. I want to extend the same question 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:34.600 to you as well. I'd love to hear about for 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:38.240 you personally, what you see is the issue so well, 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:40.600 I think Gary just did a pretty good summary there. 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.400 But to follow on to that, I would just say 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:48.720 that the effect of that, right, leaving aside the needless 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.159 disease and death right that occurs when you don't have 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.440 access to clean water and sanitation, you know, because we're 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:58.039 losing a million children under the age of five, you know, 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:03.279 to every year to completely preventable illness, right and and 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.200 and so that's its own tragedy, right. But but when 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:10.039 you look at the other effects of not having access, namely, 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:15.080 you know, because this disproportionately affects women and girls. Uh, 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:18.880 so many girls aren't in school because they they have 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.080 to for the sake of the survival of their families, 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.720 be out looking for water every day and so and 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:28.200 so you can imagine what that does to the to 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.760 the outcomes of their of their lives and to their potential. 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:35.000 So it's not only this this needless disease and suffering. 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:38.799 It's it's also robbing people of their potential in ways 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:42.120 that are really incalculable. Um. And that was the very 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:46.240 first water collection I went on. Um this is fifteen 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:49.719 sixteen years ago, and I was in Zambia in this 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:53.160 really rural village and and I was it had been 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:54.960 arranged for me to meet this girl when she got 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.799 home from school, and we walked together to this well 0:06:57.920 --> 0:06:59.760 and and and I talked to her. It was about 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:03.000 a mile away. And in the course of our conversation, 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:05.800 I said, you know, I said, are you going to 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:07.960 live here for the rest of your life? Is this 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:10.080 where you want to live? And she got really shy 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:11.520 and she goes, no, No, I don't want to live here. 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:13.280 I want to go to the big city. We're in 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:15.080 this really rural area that she goes, I want to 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.560 go to Lusaka. I want to be a nurse, right, 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.720 and and I totally just connected to her because I 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.360 remembered being fourteen and I was going to go to 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:25.040 the big city with Ben Affleck and we were going 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:27.080 to be actors. We were going to New York and 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:29.720 and uh and that's like what a fourteen year old 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.239 should be thinking about, right, They should be dreaming about 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:36.120 their futures and the possibility that awaited them. And it 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:38.720 wasn't until I got in the car and was driving 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.160 away that I realized, had it not been for the 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:43.480 foresight of someone to sink a borewell a mile from 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.680 this kid's house, she wouldn't have been in school, you know, 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.280 she wouldn't she wouldn't dream of someday being a nurse 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.880 and contributing to the economic engine of her country, and 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:54.800 and and and helping people, you know, being a health 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:57.560 frontline healthcare worker, you know, all the things that and 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:01.520 living her dream really right, and so and so that 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.560 was kind of an epiphany for me. And and and 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:08.360 just the far reaching effect of lack of access, because 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:12.320 I really found that it underpinned everything, It undergirds every 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:14.840 issue of extreme poverty, It touches all of them. And 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:17.880 so the fact that nobody was really talking about it, 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.120 and it was this vastly interesting and complex thing, massive 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:27.160 problem that that was what first got me really interested. Yeah, 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.080 that's beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that. And 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:30.440 I think there was a line in the book that 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:32.920 really struck me. And you said that for that girl, 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:36.440 water was life, and it was also a shot at 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.240 a better life. And when you make that comparison of 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:42.600 what you were thinking about at fourteen, what she's thinking 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:44.560 about at fourteen, now I'm thinking about what I was 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.320 thinking about at fourteen. And I would encourage our listeners 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:49.560 and viewers right now. And Gary, I'm sure you've thought 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:52.080 about this many times, but I'd like everyone who's listening 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.080 and watching to think, what were you thinking about at fourteen? 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:56.080 What was your choice that you were having to make? 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.439 And you just realize how far off it is from 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.319 someone who doesn't have access to water and clean water, 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:05.720 and that just makes you start pause and think and 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:07.960 go wow, Like I may think I may not have 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.520 this opportunity, or I may not have enough money to 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:12.520 move to a city, but it's like here we're talking 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.720 about not even having water and clean water to have 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:19.800 access to, let alone all those choices. One thing that 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:21.280 comes to mind, and I want to hear this from 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:23.680 both of you because you know this has been work 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:25.719 that you've been doing for a number of years. This 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.600 is not something that you know, both of you've just 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.600 got involved with. Then you know it's it's it's your 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.760 life's work. It's it's it's something you're truly passionate about 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:37.920 when you first saw the pain for both of you, 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:40.400 when you first when I hear those numbers, seven hundred 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:42.959 and seventy one million people, is that right? Did I 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:44.480 get that a number? Right? Gary? Like seven hundred and 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:47.559 seventy one million people you know don't have access to 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:51.280 clean water. When I'm hearing Matts you share the statistic 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.640 just right now, we're losing a million children at Yeah. 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.680 When I'm hearing those numbers, they are so high, right, 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:00.800 they're astronomical. I hear a lot to people when they're 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:04.840 exposed to that much pain. Our natural inclination is to 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:09.120 feel like we can't do anything, And our natural inclination 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:12.080 is to feel a bit helpless, to feel sad, to 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:16.360 feel disheartened. We feel like our empathy takes over and 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.679 we go, well, what can I do? When you first 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.760 saw that, what gave both of you the feeling a 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:26.040 that you had to do something, but be that what 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:28.800 you do could make a difference. Let's start there, and 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:31.480 then I'll follow up with another question. Let's start there, 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.280 and Garrett, you can go first again. For us, I 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:38.360 came at it from a kind of an almost analytical 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:42.440 perspective after I had that emotional response to it. Right, So, 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:45.840 when I was in Guatemala as an undergraduate, you know, 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.240 in university, doing a volunteer project there, just seeing this 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:54.079 girl going and collecting this filthy water out of a drum, 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:56.080 you know, in the slums, and walking back through this 0:10:56.440 --> 0:11:02.800 sewage filled lane that that to me was one person, right, 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:04.880 and then coming back and then learning that this was 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:09.680 the story for hundreds of millions of people, I didn't 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:12.520 get discouraged. I just like could see that one person 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:14.720 and it's like, okay, if we can just kind of 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.640 tackle this, you know, even one person at a time, 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:20.920 that was kind of the idealistic view of it. And 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:24.800 and so to me, what's been important about this journey 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:27.280 that we kind of chronicle in the in the book 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:30.599 is that you know, you have to have that in 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:33.959 goal in mind, and that can be daunting to see that. 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.680 You know, our vision is that everyone in our lifetime, 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:41.240 you know, has access to say water, and that the 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.240 challenge that becomes to match the scale of the solution 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:46.920 to the scale of the problem. Right, And I knew 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:51.000 that philanthropy alone wasn't going to be that solution. Philanthropy 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:54.040 has a role to play, but it was only by 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:57.319 traveling in meeting women who were in these circumstances. I 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.760 met a woman in India who had gone to a 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:02.800 loan shark and was paying one hundred and fifty percent 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.560 interest to that loan shark just so she could build 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:08.240 the toilet that she wanted other people who are doing 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:12.320 this to taking out loans for water connections at exorbitant 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.120 rates and then using those insights and saying, well, what 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:17.360 if you know, we could turn the problem around and 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:19.720 look at like getting these people access to these small 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.559 loans what we now call water credit that would then 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.480 unleash them to get the solutions that they wanted. So 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:27.320 I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here, but my 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.520 point is that you just have to take the problem 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:33.560 a step at a time and find a solution that's there, 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:36.880 evolve it, get the insights, and move on, and that 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:38.800 is the journey. And I think that's one of these 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:41.480 kind of the subplots I guess of the book is 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:46.480 that any of these seemingly intractable, big social problems do 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:51.520 have solutions. If you're tenacious, if you innovate, and you 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:55.800 work hard at it, you believe that we can get there. Yeah. 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.160 That's I would just say it's interesting because because I 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.920 had the exact same kind of reaction that Gary did, 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:06.319 which was to say, Okay, well, I'm this is a 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:09.520 this is a complex issue, and I don't understand it entirely, 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:12.640 but I know that if I raise money, if I 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:17.720 create an organization and raise money and start start doing 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:20.720 his direct impact. We're building wells, right, I've seen the 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:25.720 power of one well, so if it if a thousand 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.200 people have access to that one, well, then I've helped 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:31.000 a thousand people. So why don't I start there? Why 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:33.800 don't I just start moving forward? Why don't I start 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.319 as Gary's you know, take that first step. I don't 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.560 know where the road is going, but I know I'm 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.559 not getting there if I don't start walking. And so 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.680 so that was what and so I did, I'm sure 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:49.400 incredibly naive things. And I didn't you know, and and Gary, 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:51.319 you know when we met in the two thousand and 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:53.560 eight Gary, you know, we talked about in the book, 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:56.760 Gary led with all of his failures, right, which was 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:59.640 an incredible attractive thing, incredibly attractive thing to me because 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.480 I think that is how, you know, we can't be 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.240 afraid of failure, We can't be afraid of you know, 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.960 that can't stop our momentum, right, And it's how we learn, 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:13.320 and it's how we grow um. And and and so 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:17.000 I I knew that I had to partner with somebody 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:21.240 who had a more sophisticated understanding of of of this issue, 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:25.880 and I looked around for the the best person available 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.360 and uh and when they would not take my call, 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:37.960 I found Gary, So no I and and and that 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:40.440 was really the one thing that I did, and this 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:45.360 all of this work, that was really I'm really happy 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:47.440 that I did that. It was that it was really 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:49.760 one of the smartest choices I've ever made in my life. 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:53.760 And because of this water credit that Gary is talking about, 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:56.800 which was this idea that that came from his experience 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.560 and his lifetime of experience of being in these communities 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.720 and talk to people and understanding what life was like. 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:06.000 He also understood that people in the poorest communities were 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.680 paying for water. They were already paying for it, and 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:11.440 in most cases paying way more than the middle class, 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:13.840 way more than the people staying in the fancy hotels, 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:17.680 you know, who take it totally for granted. They weren't 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:20.240 connected to the infrastructure and as a result, their life 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.200 was built around trying to get it. And uh. And 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:27.400 so that insight led him to this hypothesis that these 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.680 loans could actually be paid back quite easily. And that's 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:33.240 what you know, forty three point seven million people later, 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:36.640 you know, these loans have paid back at over ninety 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:40.160 nine percent. So it's really the book is really us 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:42.760 trying to bring the story of these women because you know, 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.960 you know, over ninety percent of our borrowers or women 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:52.280 and this kind of incredibly heroic women like an individual 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:54.920 with you know, one by one by one, you know, 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:56.920 to the tune of millions and millions of them have 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.880 paid these loans back at at over ninety nine percent. 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.160 And it's just a it's a beautiful story and it's 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:06.840 and it's about philosophically how we feel about about trying 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:10.360 to help. It's not a kind of paternalistic here's your solution, 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:14.680 You're welcome. It's like it's going into the communities and 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:19.280 and and and listening and then ultimately nudging a market 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:22.720 towards people and letting them solve their own problems. And 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:25.680 that's what we've seen happen now over forty three million times. 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:29.760 And that's really cool. Yeah, that's that's an incredible impact. 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:31.840 And I love the way you're thinking about it and 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.520 the idea that there isn't just a one size fits 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:36.680 all solution. It's not about throwing money at it. It's 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.600 actually giving people the tools and the skills and the abilities, 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:41.960 as you've rightly said, to solve their own challenges so 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:45.520 that they feel empowered in the process rather than dependent 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:49.720 again on another outside source. In another way, I mean, 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:53.680 can you expand more for those who don't know how 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.360 the lack of access to water impacts girls and women's 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:59.560 more than boys and men, and and when you uncovered 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:01.320 that tell us some of the reasons, because I don't 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:05.280 know if everyone knows why or how that exists as 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:07.879 a discrepancy, but also tell us some of the stories 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:09.600 of some of the women that you've worked with as well. 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:13.000 Women and girls have been the ones and families that 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.640 have been charged with collecting the water for their households 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.560 almost universally around the world. So they obviously have the 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.960 greatest stake in this, and the greatest stake in trying 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:27.640 to find a solution, and the greatest stake in ensuring 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:33.240 that that solution is sustainable. And that to us, you know, 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:37.600 is like an insight, that's an observation. So it's like, well, 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:41.399 let's how are we going to shape our solutions to 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:44.880 meet their needs? And that's why you know, more than 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.879 eighty five percent of the borrowers under our water credit 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:52.040 program are women, and so they're the ones that are 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:56.200 repaying these loans at a ninety nine percent rate, and 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:58.680 they are the ones that have even more incentive to 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.760 make sure that if something breaks down, that it gets repaired. 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:04.760 And I think that's one of the beauties of water 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:08.520 credit as well, because oftentimes water projects do break down. 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:11.119 You know, some of the statistics are that about half 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:14.960 of the water projects fail after five years. And if 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:19.640 you have access to an ecosystem of finance for water 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:22.399 and sanitation, not just a one and done grant, but 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:25.480 you can access a micro loan to go get the 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:28.280 the you know, solution that you need to fix you know, 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.600 your your your water tap or whatever. That is an 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:35.000 important part of the whole model and giving people you know, 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:38.520 we talk about, you know, not necessarily seeing people living 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:41.560 in poverty as a charity problem to be solved, as 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:44.640 much as a market to be served. And in order 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:46.399 to kind of make the market work, we have to 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:49.480 kind of nudget towards the poor, which is what we 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:52.359 do with with water dot org to help, you know, 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:56.560 get microfinance institutions that we partner with around the world 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:59.280 the to de risk this for them because it's a 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:01.720 new thing to loan for water and toilets, and they're 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:04.200 not quite sure how it works. So we can use 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:07.600 our philanthropic capital to kind of help them do market 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:10.840 research to design these loan products so that they can 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:13.959 go out and make these forty three million loans that 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:18.200 have happened so far. And that is kind of the concept. 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:20.680 And you know, one way to just boil it down 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:23.399 with a story, right A woman I met in the 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:28.600 Philippines recently. Her name was Lunadiza, and she was paying 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.080 sixty dollars a month to a water vendor who was 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:33.240 selling water off the back of a truck, not even 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:36.320 good quality water. And she took out a loan from 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:40.679 one of our partners, and her loan repayment her payment 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:44.680 each month is five dollars. Her water bill each month 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.000 is five dollars. So right there, you see fifty dollars 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.159 back in her pocket. I mean, think about you know, 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:54.080 when you're living in poverty, fifty dollars is a lot 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:56.680 of money. You can now work to get your kids 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:59.280 into school. You know, you can now afford the medicines 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:01.280 that you might need for your for your family. You 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:04.239 can invest in your future and build a future. And 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:07.880 I think that's what we're trying to help people unlock, 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:10.520 and that's whose stories you know, we're fortunate to be 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:14.000 able to tell in the book. Yeah, Gary, that what 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:16.840 I find fascinating there, Matt, just before we come to 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:20.760 you that how have those obviously those water vendors who 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:23.120 are not selling the clean water or the best word, 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:26.800 they've built up a certain level of authority and control 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:30.960 and these markets, and like how is that is that 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:33.760 being dismantled as well by you doing this work? Like 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:36.119 where where are those people? Like? Kind of because I 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:39.480 feel like that is so difficult obviously if you're not 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:41.359 if you haven't traveled to these countries, it's hard for 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:44.480 people to understand how that even works. But but that 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:48.840 kind of like authority, influence and power and control, how 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:52.160 are they reacting to the dismantling of their economies? Because 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:55.000 I'm sure that there's you know, conflict or pain back 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:57.359 from that side, Like how does that all work? Sorry 0:20:57.359 --> 0:21:01.120 if it's an ignorant question, but it's just no, no, 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:03.720 no at all. And I think that I guess one 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:07.480 thing to understand is that even they are not making 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:11.040 a fortune off of this system, right, It's uh, it's 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:14.240 just really expensive to find water, to put it in 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:16.200