On my way back from annual leave in the Philippines, I took the opportunity to visit the work of TSPI – one of the original Opportunity partners in the Philippines. I was very impressed by a lot of what they were doing, but there was one project that stood out to me as quite compelling. Working with David Bassau (TSPI board member and one of the founders of Opportunity International), TSPI have created a project called TSPI Water Hope.

In short, the business uses a series of complicated water filters produces high quality clean drinking water:
The sale of this water is the (in effect) franchised out to TSPI clients. The best client sells around 500 large bottles of water per week – making this quite a good business for them to be in (with a profit per bottle of around 2 pesos – this nets around 4000 pesos ($90) per month – which is a pretty good addition to the family income).

On top of that, the Water Hope station is also making a small margin, the profits of which are intended in time to completely fund the attached community centre, which is used as a pre-school / day care centre:

I think this is a really impressive idea: a sustainable community-serving enterprise creating income for TSPI clients and funding a much needed community service.

If you are involved in an innovative programme or project, tell us about it by leaving a comment below…