When Piers Clark set up Isle, he did so with a social conscience. Every year, one third of Isle’s profits go towards REEF (the Revolving Economic Empowerment Fund), an Isle foundation aimed at giving soft loans to water projects around the globe.
Isle sends staff to Clearwater Farms in Zambia
When Piers Clark set up Isle, he did so with a social conscience. Every year, one third of Isle’s profits go towards REEF (the Revolving Economic Empowerment Fund), the Isle foundation which offers financial assistance to water-sector entrepreneurs in developing countries.
ClearWater Farms is one of the REEF supported companies, it is an innovative farming business in Zambia. The farm includes an aquaponic fish and lettuce system, using pumps to recirculate the water and grow lettuce and herbs in the same water body. This system has capacity to produce 5 tons of fish and 40,000 heads of lettuce each year. They also have poultry houses for 10,000 chickens. In the fields they grow cabbages and tomatoes, with sprinkler irrigation. The farm is powered by a 7kW solar system, and water is pumped from 2 boreholes (wells).
On Friday Matthew, a technology consultant, and Shaunna, Business and Marketing Manager, are taking the 18 hour trip to Zambia. They will be visiting and staying on the farm for two weeks to share their water knowledge with the farm and it’s wider community. They’ll also help to run an outreach program from the village clinic and carry out assessments of early developmental levels on the children.
Matt says “I am really looking forward to getting involved at ClearWater Farms where they are using modern technology and processes to provide food and jobs to the local community. The opportunity fits well with Isle’s value of harnessing modern technology to supply basic needs and the chance to be involved and get my hands dirty on a Zambian farm is really exciting for me. I’m hoping to learn a lot about both the processes on the farm as well as the local culture whilst giving what I expertise I have to the community”.
Shaunna says, “it looks like Isle’s input has made a significant, lasting and credible change to the ClearWater Farms business thus far. Hopefully, even for the short amount of time that Matt and I will be in Zambia, we’ll also be able to make some meaningful change too”.
Stay tuned to get an update on their progress or read about some other REEF companies WaterHarvest, in India and DloHaiti, in Haiti.