Fast Company, October 2006
Written by Josie Swindler
"There's an unfortunately predictable formula for infrastructure
projects in developing countries: A well-intentioned nonprofit comes
in, spends a small fortune installing promising equipment, then moves
on or runs out of money. Inevitably, a screw comes loose, and with no
one there to fix it, the whole project crumbles."
Peter Haas knows this better than most. He spent years after college
volunteering on several continents--and watching too many projects
collapse. "It just killed me to see these systems fail that I had the
knowledge to repair and the people in the community didn't," he says.
So in 2004, bored with his consulting job and aching to travel, he
created an organization to incubate self-sustaining businesses that
would make and service low-cost technologies in developing countries.
His nonprofit Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, or AIDG,
opened its first company last August: XelaTeco, staffed by 10 local
workers in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Ideally, XelaTeco will support
itself with contracts from NGOs doing work in the area; already it has
received a $20,000 contract from the United Nations Development Program
to build a microhydroelectric system. And if the system needs parts and
service, XelaTeco will do the job. When the shop turns a profit, it
will repay AIDG the initial investment, and Haas will put that money
into another manufacturing venture. He's scouting locations for a
Haiti--Dominican Republic shop set to open in early 2007, followed by
one in Thailand. The goal: a network that's continuously spawning new
ventures--and a trail of infrastructure projects that never break down.
This article is available online at www.fastcompany.com/magazine/109/next-no-loose-screws.html
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