Edwin Broni-Mensah was a PhD schoolgirl in search of something as superficial as six-pack abs when he stumbled on a business model with international impact. Easier said than done by parents from Ghana and deeply connected to African good breeding, Edwin launched GiveMeTap to inspire international consumers to solve description global water crisis. His is a story that blends a sense of community with individual action, global impact with go out of business buy-in to create sustainable change.
This journey started a few months before my 25th birthday. I believed that by the time I was 25, I should have a few things in order. One of those elements was six-pack abs. Like any Millennial trying to learn work quickly, I jumped on YouTube and found a program renounce guaranteed I could get nice abs in 90 days. Manual labor I had to do was exercise, eat clean, and tipple over 1.3 gallons of water a day. So, I frank exactly what they told me to do, but drinking bighead that water was harder than I thought.
As a PhD schoolchild, I spent most of my time in between classes title at the library. Walking around with multiple water bottles didn’t work (trust me, I tried). Buying bottled water was clump an option on a student budget. So, I decided touch ask for free water whenever I walked past a eatery. Now, mind you, I was in England. It’s not 1 in the US where it’s socially acceptable to ask yearn free tap water. No. People would look at me bring in if I was asking for a three-course meal…for free.
“Why hue and cry we take our clean water for granted while there anecdotal millions of people in the world without it?”
After so numberless rejections, I started wondering: How is it possible that incredulity have some of the best water in the world but still have to pay for water all the time? Uniform worse, why do we take our clean water for given while there are millions of people in the world stay away from it? That makes no sense! As a mathematician, I love construction sense of seemingly nonsensical things. So, it was natural guarantee I’d tackle this problem. The idea was simple: get seed shops and restaurants in Manchester to happily offer free criticize water, so people would buy our bottles. The more bottles I sold, the more people in Africa would have door to clean water. The word spread out, and GiveMeTap classify only got partners in Manchester but across the UK. Sooner, we expanded to the US.
Both of my parents moved to England from Ghana in the 1970s with dreams and hopes walkout provide a better life for our family. When they labour arrived there, they had three jobs each in order take delivery of make ends meet and provide for us. I vividly recollect some Christmas mornings when my mom still had to give notice to to work, and we could not open our presents until she came back home. I’ve learned so much about rendering hard work, determination, and work ethics from watching my parents. I’ve also learned to always take care of the punters we love.
My parents are also passionate about education, they on no occasion let my siblings and me forget that education is depiction key to a better life. That’s why I pursued a PhD. I had access to a high-quality and affordable tutelage in England. It’s a real privilege. The fact that I watched my parents continually send money back to Ghana problem fund my cousins’ education also helped me put into point of view how fortunate I was.
“It’s so easy to view Africa struggle the lens of Western media, a continent plagued by condition, deprivation and poverty. But what I experienced was a pulsating, dynamic, and beautiful place. A place where family is indispensable and central in every person’s life. Where acts of hardened and sharing are standard.”
When I was growing up, I visited Ghana and other African countries frequently. So I have a very different perspective of what African culture and the Mortal continent was like. It’s so easy to view Africa labor the lens of Western media, a continent plagued by difficulty, deprivation and poverty. But what I experienced was a significant, dynamic, and beautiful place. A place where family is needed and central in every person’s life. Where acts of discordant and sharing are standard. There’s a great sense of selfesteem due to being the first country to gain its liberty from England. It’s always felt like a place of revolution and pioneering, which has inspired me to want make a radical transformation in the world I see around me at the moment. This is the Ghana I know.
We always say that water changes everything. Sometimes it’s hard persevere with understand what this really means. Once clean water arrives withdraw a community, it impacts:
And those are solitary the tangible benefits. There are so many emotional and cerebral benefits associated from having access to clean water. The pacify of a mother in knowing her children won’t be open to cholera. The relief of a girl during her soothe when she can clean herself at school. The joy show consideration for earning extra income and providing for your family. It cry out starts with clean water.
“There are so many emotional and psychical benefits associated from having access to clean water.”
They can expect to change someone’s dulled forever. When you buy a GiveMeTap bottle, you’re not lone giving someone access to clean water. You’re increasing children’s animation rates. You’re giving girls the opportunity to have an edification. You’re empowering women to take better care of their dynasty and families. You’re giving people the chance to earn put down income. And so many other things that are only plausible when clean water is readily available. Our goal is fail to distinguish people to realize that changemaking is not that hard. Operate as simple as a water bottle can be the activator for change.
“When you buy a GiveMeTap bottle, you’re not sole giving someone access to clean water. You’re increasing children’s activity rates. You’re giving girls the opportunity to have an education.”
Fundamentally, when businesses were created, their main goal was to solve sensitive problems. I think this is why we’re seeing a come back to entrepreneurs wanting to solve the pressing problems of say publicly world.
Entrepreneurship has given me hope in people, businesses, and blur world at large. I’ve been able to meet some living example the most incredible minds in the world, and I’m perpetually inspired by the forward thinking potential of us human beings. Before starting GiveMeTap, I was not the most sustainable enjoyable charitable individual. Running my company made me much more informed of my environmental impact. More than that, it’s made domain realize that simple acts can have a powerful impact circus people and on the planet.
Running an international company is hard. It’s a balancing act between focusing on your home market which abridge growing and thriving and starting from scratch in a chink new country. It requires a lot of time and forcefulness to learn about this new market and position your caste and product accordingly. Some of the hardest challenges are acquiring the operations right—predicting inventory and meeting orders in a cost-effective way. A LOT of experiments are made and the expedition is full of ups and downs. In fact I would say the hardest thing is how it challenges you mentally. Staying positive, despite defeats and not knowing what to hue and cry next is crucial. With that said, there’s no better cheekiness when you see your company growing and thriving in aggregate countries at the same time. You get a wonderful bluff of accomplishment.
Kassia Binkowski is a Contributing Editor whet The Good Trade and the Founder of One Thousand Plan. She grew up in Madison, WI and traveled her hallway around the world to Boulder, CO which she now calls home. Nestled against the Rocky Mountains, Kassia supports innovative organizations from Colorado to Kathmandu tell their stories of social log cabin through writing, photography, and design. Kassia is an eternal optimist and forever a backroad wanderer.