Drinkwell International is a Malawi-based business that
drills and maintains boreholes. They provide water to communities in one of the
poorest regions of one of the poorest countries in the world. I love this
business.
Isle has provided financial support to Drinkwell over the
past couple of years. We first learnt about the company through its MD, Jonathan
Hunter. Back in the early noughties when he was a fresh graduate (and I still
had hair), Jonathan was one of my colleagues at Atkins. Even then his commitment
to Malawi was obvious. He would do regular trips.
He reconnected with me in mid-2012 with a vision for
Drinkwell. I thought it was inspired. Brave, risky, daring…but inspired. I
particularly liked the fact that I personally didn’t need to do anything other
than provide some start-up capital. I am not a very practical person and my role
as an investor rather than a hands-on employee was perfect. I can cause much
less mayhem that way.
Over the past couple of years I have watched spellbound as
Jonathan, supported by his wife Jennifer, has steadily built the business.
Despite all the initial naysayers, they have successfully established themselves
in Malawi. They have employed locals, drilled new wells, got paid for
their services, built a reputation. The plan was to grow the business to
a scale where it could be handed over to local Malawians as a going concern -
not dependent upon charity, but a vibrant enterprise!
This summer Jonathan and Jennifer returned home to Scotland.
This was partly to see family but mostly (I suspect) to enable Jennifer to have
their fourth child (establishing Drinkwell was clearly not keeping them busy
enough). Upon returning to Malawi Jonathan has discovered the truly
heart-breaking news that his local partner has robbed him. There is clear
evidence that he has defrauded the company, taken (and probably given) bribes,
used company resources for his own purposes. The more Jonathan digs the more bad
news he discovers. This is clearly tragic and grossly unfair.
Do not mistake Jonathan for a soft touch. He is a robust,
clear headed, pragmatic man who now has to salvage what he can and rebuild where
he can. However the damage caused may be too much. Only time will tell. Jonathan
and Jennifer have every right to feel annoyed, angry and abused. They have done
what very few people have the guts or the vision to do, and right now it must
feel pretty sucky. My heart goes out to them.
So now I have a tiny favour to ask you: please send Jonathan
an email, congratulating him on the fantastic, ground-breaking work he has done
and wishing him good luck for the new year (jonathannhunter@gmail.com – yes it
does have two ‘n’s in the middle that is not a typo). Imagine how brilliant a
Christmas present it would be if he was to open his emails (which he only gets
access to once every few weeks) and see well wishes from people he doesn’t even
know. He knows about these Notes so you can make reference to
them.
There are too few people like Jonathan and Jennifer on this
planet and if we can help them feel a little less alone, a little less screwed
over, then that, surely, has to be something worthy of the Christmas period.
Best wishes for the holiday season, see you in the New Year.
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