Lake Atitlán Flush-To-Waterless Toilet Upgrade Project
Sell to Role Models
Role Model Primary Marketing Strategy
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Countries like Guatemala have a long history of receiving foreign “aid” in the form of primitive technologies that the foreign do-gooders would never use themselves. These well-meaning foreigners are often surprised and disappointed when the new technologies are not adopted long-term. In this modern Internet-connected world, even Guatemalans living in poverty know what a modern toilet looks like. Many work in hotels and the homes of the wealthy, where they have to clean modern flush toilets. This is why it is crucial that the new toilet be so attractive and technologically advanced that everyone, especially the wealthy, will want to have it. As long as the role models of luxurious living continue to use the outdated, wasteful, and disease spreading flush toilets of the developed world, that is the technology that those living in poverty will aspire to. Change cannot be imposed by strangers but it can be motivated by example. Those living in poverty are the most harmed by inappropriate sanitary technology. However, the problem cannot be fixed until everyone, including the most privileged, changes their ways. This is why we believe that the first step in the implementation of this change must be directed at the most wealthy, especially those who are viewed as having nothing but the very best. If toilets donated to indigenous Guatemalans living in poverty do not have intrinsic universal value, they will inevitably join the many other artifacts of foreign “aid” that end up as planters or sources of salvage materials.
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