Partnering for Positive Impact
When EOS circuit riders enter into partnership with community water boards, affirming an agreement that EOS will provide direct support and training and water quality monitoring and that the water board will assume ongoing responsibility for maintaining the drinking water system, there are no lawyers present. There are no notaries, no solemnly swearing, no oaths.
Yet, there is an understanding. There is a handshake. And whether the agreement is signed at a table, atop a water tank, astride a horse, or by taking advantage of the sturdy surface of a motorcycle seat (or a grain sack or a bucket lid), it is a testament to a shared vision — the thing that moves, motivates, and drives both parties in the same direction. It is a commitment to clean water for communities through collaboration.
The best partners share a common ‘why.’
When Uptime — an organization that delivers results-based funding to keep drinking water flowing for millions of rural people globally — expanded its support of rural water services into Latin America in partnership with EOS earlier this year, we gained an innovative and forward-thinking funding partner.
While water users pay for their water through water tariffs, it is often not enough to cover the full operating cost. Uptime’s results-based funding addresses this gap by linking funding to performance metrics. Uptime delivers funding to EOS in support of water users that are paying a share of service costs AND keeping water flowing and treated in their communities over 96% of the time.
Uptime connects funding to drinking water results through verifiable data provided by service providers like EOS. At EOS, we believe in the power of people, but we also love data! In collaboration with communities, we have been collecting water flow data, water quality data, and water user data, and sharing it with community leaders, the Ministry of Health, water sector partners, and researchers to identify trends, improve services, and prioritize drinking water resources for the past decade.
In partnership with Uptime, we are excited to leverage our passion for data in a new way — one that not only tracks, reports, and responds, but also rewards.
The best partnerships are based on no small amount of passion.
When Fernando De Leon, an organizational development specialist, was matched with us through Rippleworks, we were pleased to be coupled with his charisma, skills, and deep-thinking nature. Currently of California and entrenched in the Meta (formerly Facebook) ecosystem, Fernando was born and raised in Guatemala and understands the value and importance of clean water in Central America.
Rippleworks works with social entrepreneurs by providing executive-level mentorship and practical support to help social ventures scale and grow and tackle operational challenges. They support fast-growing social ventures that are improving the lives of people around the world, and we are proud to be counted among them!
As an expert in thinking through the learning journey of employees, Fernando ventured to Honduras to join circuit riders on their rounds in order to best inform and adapt the training/learning methodologies he would deliver to best suit the circuit rider experience. Through partnership with Rippleworks and under the mentorship of Fernando, we have developed, expanded, and formalized training processes and strategies for our Circuit Riders and for community water boards that will be invaluable as we scale our work program to increase the number of communities reached while continuing to motivate and empower through the delivery of information and training.
We are grateful for the support of Rippleworks and the opportunity to invest in areas that will help us as we grow.
The best partners want to invest in you, because they believe in you.
At EOS, we firmly believe that partnerships power positive impact.
Whether leveraging Change for Children’s decades of experience working in the BOSAWAS, Nicaragua to expand our drinking water services, collaborating with El Porvenir in the El Sauce region to establish a sustainability plan for communities, assisting Project Schoolhouse to build a water system in Rio Blanco, or empowering the next generation in the US Forest Service’s Youth Conservation Corps to improve community watersheds across Honduras, we are proud of the impact of our partnerships.
We are always seeking out new partners to provide drinking water to new communities. If you would like to partner with us, please feel free to reach out. Also, check out EOS’ partnership page for our list of partners that continues to grow.
The best partners power positive impact!
