What is a social enterprise?  What is a social entrepreneur?  What makes something truly innovative? Are leaders born or created?  How do you measure social impact?  What is a social return on investment (SROI) and how do you place value on social impacts?  For an organization like BARKA Foundation, what is the role of reciprocity, inter-cultural dialogue and bridge-building?

These are the questions we have been examining thanks to the Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship Program, which brought BARKA co-founder Esu to Cambridge University King’s College and Judge Business School this past summer.  How does BARKA plan to earn sustainable revenue?

The answer is a simple, sustainable, low-tech solution for addressing the need of household water filtration for rural Burkinabe: ceramic water filters. With these filters, one can take unsafe drinking water that kills 1 in 5 children before they reach age 5, and make it safe to drink- on demand and at home. They’re inexpensive, made from locally-sourced clay and sawdust, easy to use, and effective at filtering pathogens that cause life-threatening diarrhea. We’re so convinced this is part of the solution that BARKA is currently looking into the feasibility of constructing a filter factory in Burkina Faso.  Esu’s business plan presentation which goes into some detail on this endeavor won first place in a competition among Fellows- a clear sign that becoming a financially sustainable social enterprise through mission-based revenue streams is the right path for BARKA’s future.