Dear Colleagues,

EnterpriseWorks sits proudly at the crossroads of invention and development, a fact that was made clear to me at the recent screening of Michael Douglas' new Showtime documentary "Child Soldiers," presented by the United States Institute for Peace.

In post-conflict countries such as Sierra Leone - where Mr. Douglas traveled as a UN Messenger of Peace to witness the reuniting of abducted child soldiers with their families - demobilization of soldiers young and old presents a full spectrum of challenges.  How to connect former combatants of working age with gainful employment that supports a stable and peaceful future is one of the most difficult.  At EnterpriseWorks, we're working on a "guns for pumps" initiative, in other words, trading weapons of war for treadle pumps (used for irrigating small plots of land) or other instruments of economic activity.  In fact, all of our projects with their emphasis on employment creation at a grassroots level can provide a brighter future to returning combatants from youths to adults.

In this issue of WhatWorks, we explore EWW inventor Carl Bielenberg's role in enhancing the treadle pump and inventing numerous other pieces of appropriate technology that change lives in developing countries, and we see that once they are introduced, innovation continues at the user level.  You'll read about a resourceful pig farmer, doctor and head of household in Ghana who are all saving time and money using a treadle pump for purposes other than irrigation.  And in Tanzania, we share how our program of assisting entrepreneurs to establish fruit and timber nurseries is generating a 3X return on investment for USAID.

With development programs that reach the right people at the right time, the next profitable pig farmer could be a young man recently returned from combat in Sierra Leone.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts about this and our other initiatives around the developing world.

Sincerely,

Nancy Bearg
President & CEO
EnterpriseWorks Worldwide