Segment 1

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People seek dignity, not dependence. Choice, not charity. Which is why we invest in entrepreneurs who are building transformative businesses to serve the poor.

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Acumen Fund. Health, Housing, Water, Energy, Agriculture

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Nehru Nagar Colony. Andhra Pradesh, India.

PRABHAVATHI DASARI [Customer, WaterHealth International]

Earlier, my family had regular vomiting and diarrhea, but now it's under control.

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140 million people in India lack access to safe drinking water.

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Families, especially women and girls, spend long hours collecting water from local water sources, and end up with water that is not safe for consumption.

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WaterHealth International, an Acumen Fund investee, is changing this.

ALLURU BUJANGARAO [Plant Operator, WaterHealth International]

Earlier, there was no water purification system. The community would drink either pond or well water and would have a lot of difficulty. This water is not clean. It's dirty. It has fish. It has fungus. It has algae and also micro-organisms. This water, after being processed, is happily taken by the community.

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WaterHealth India

PRABHAVATHI DASARI

I have faced a lot of challenges in getting my children to this point. I worked as an agricultural laborer and stitched clothes to provide an education to my children. Now, I stitch clothes. Earlier, I started with pipe water, then we would get it from the pond or well. And then later, we would get water from the Panchayat [local government] tap. The water quality is bad, so we would boil it before drinking. But now, we are getting WHI water and are healthy. Earlier, when we would fall sick, we would spend USD$11 to USD$33 for medicine each month. Now, we're spending a lot less. Everybody should be healthy; that's why we require safe drinking water.

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Acumen Fund first invested in WaterHealth International (WHI) in 2004.

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By the end of 2009, WHI had built more than 280 community water systems in India, providing more than 300,000 people access to safe drinking water every day.

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