Why I support Agua del Pueblo

In 1978, beginning my second year of grad school, I attended an informal presentation on Agua del Pueblo by Bruce Clemens, one of its founders and a mid-career student at my university.  I was considering a career in international development, and had spent the previous summer on a consultancy with USAID.  Although USAID does (or did) an enormous amount of great work representing the US abroad, I decided that I didn’t want to start my career in a huge organization.  I wanted to start closer to the coalface, getting my boots muddy and trying to understand what poverty actually looks like in the developing world.

When I graduated the next year, I went to Guatemala as a volunteer with Agua del Pueblo.  Sooner than I’d expected, I found myself busy as hell, writing grant proposals, learning hands-on management skills, and handling some of the consulting projects AdP had taken on to disseminate its community-driven method of operation.  I stayed with Agua del Pueblo for four years, in Guatemala and later in Washington, where AdP opened an office in 1982 to participate more directly in the UN Water Decade.

Those years at Agua del Pueblo were life-changing, informing the subsequent 40+ years of an international career by demonstrating the effectiveness of giving communities real agency in the projects meant to help them.  And introducing me to lifelong friends who shared my values.  I’m still close to all three of the people with me in this picture from 1981 (I’m the skinny gringo in the white shirt).

That’s why I’m on the board of The People’s Consultants and why I give to Agua del Pueblo, nearly a half century after that first encounter.

Agua del Pueblo's Offices, 1981.  From left, Carlos Gomez Duarte, Director; Steve Cox, Program Director; Diego Leon, Rural Water Technician; and Matt Perl, Program Coordinator.