How Far Would You Walk For Water?

Hetal Baman (00:00:02) - Each year, about 2 million people died due to waterborne diseases. And most of these deaths happen to children under the age of five. In low resource communities within countries like Zimbabwe. There's a huge societal burden when it comes to water collection, and this burden is often put on the backs of women and mothers, women and mothers who are disadvantaged in terms of nutrition and food security, disease risks, reproductive health, personal safety and access to education. They wake before the sun rises to trek miles and miles to seek water that may not even be clean or potable. Sometimes all they find is mud water. Today, I get to speak with Lumbie Mlambo, a trailblazing woman who just happened to stumble into the field of philanthropy and never left. Inspired by her orphaned father, who never went to school but served as a revered humanitarian in his local community, Lumbie took the leap to continue her father's legacy. As a result, she started a 501 C. Three nonprofit called J.B. Flow. After her father's namesake, JB Randall's mission is to make it easy for marginalized communities to access natural resources essential for life like water.

Hetal Baman (00:01:30) - When she took this leap, she didn't realize just how much work it would take to just provide water, and she didn't realize just how precious it was to the communities she was serving. What signs do you look for when you seek water? Where do you drill? What equipment do you need? Can rock formations or vegetation give you clues? In this episode, Lumbie explains to me not only how she became a philanthropist for clean water equity, but also just how much it takes to do the seemingly simple job of providing water to the people who need it most. My name is Hetal Bauman, and this is the Global Health Pursuit. Welcome to the Global Health Pursuit podcast 2.0. I'm so excited to have you. I'm thrilled, actually. I have to tell you that every time I go on to LinkedIn, I see a post that's like, I've just gotten nominated for another award and this award and that award and I'm like, Oh my gosh, this woman is just like killing it out here. So I just want to say, just recently I heard that you got nominated for the 2023 Women Changing the World Awards.

Hetal Baman (00:02:54) - So I want to say congratulations. That is huge. And think it's huge because, well, first of all, it's presented by Oprah Winfrey's all time favorite guests, Dr. Terry Trent, which is like you basically know, Oprah by association now, Like, I'm just going to say that. Well, thank you.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:03:13) - Thank you so much. It's always good to talk to you. You know, I'm excited. It's like that nomination is really huge for me. You know, Terry Trent, Oprah Winfrey's all time favorite guest. You know, for women, changing the world awards is huge because it puts me on a platform that has so much visibility and I get to connect to so many women and also get to learn what other women are doing and how we can collaborate. So it's huge for me is huge. I'm excited, I tell you, it's just been you see one thing after another. Yes. Like when it rains, It rains. You know what I mean? Oh, yes, it pours because and when it doesn't rain, it just doesn't rain.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:03:56) - So a good thing is just moments where sometimes there's a lot of rain, good rain. Then I go through the moments where there is no rain at all. And I'm wondering, can anybody see me out there in the world? I mean, can can anybody hear me? You know, I'm here. You know, it's just one of those of course, maybe it's a season. I think this is my season and it's been exciting. It's a blessing. I think that is hearing many people's prayers. And for that I say amen. Oh, gosh, yeah.

Hetal Baman (00:04:27) - Amen. What you said is so true. You know, when it rains, it pours. It's crazy. I just want to talk a little bit more about the award, because for anybody who.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:04:38) - Doesn't know.

Hetal Baman (00:04:38) - About the women changing the world award, I want to just give a little bit of background on what it is. So essentially, the award is to celebrate and recognize women who are achieving outstanding success in all of these areas, such as sustainability, humanitarian work, leadership, advocacy, tech, product development, education, health and innovation.

Hetal Baman (00:05:01) - So it's like a whole slew. But the awards are designed to recognize the growing number of women who are leading the way in making the world a better place for us all. And then on top of that, inspire other women to answer the call to action. And I think. Like you said, it's a platform where. You're not only recognized for the great work that we're going to talk about today that you're doing, but also it exemplifies the the power of being a woman in this world. I find it so inspiring. And the fact that you're so humble about it, it just it makes me it just touches my heart. So, Libby, I want to start off this podcast just by asking you to briefly talk a little bit about your story and tell us what you do.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:05:58) - Yeah. And what you said really about women changing the world awards, you know, like kind of bringing to light the visibility, the women that may be celebrated, but people don't really know about those women and people may not even know what they do.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:06:13) - So I like the elevation and kind of bringing to focus those women. The way I look at it is like whether I win or not, I'm already a winner. Just to be nominated and to have my name mentioned is huge. That means somebody sees me. So winning it doesn't really matter, especially for non profits. Who has nonprofits? We don't compete. We work together to achieve a common goal. Because as a nonprofit, we all want to see you. Choose to see how we live now, be the best and be what? How you wanna see the world. Now, in the future, we choose to make people happy. We choose to make everything right. We choose to do things that are gonna make this world a better place. Let me say so. It's not about sustainability. It's not about making sure that what we do today outlives us, outlast us. You know, it's for our children, our grandchildren and great grandchildren. So therefore, what I do has to do with that.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:07:20) - I make sure that I provide women and girls with clean water, sanitation and hygiene so that they can have an equitable lives. Because when you think about it, women are the ones that have the task of collecting water. And women are the the users of water more than anything else, more than anybody else, because we just need water. For our sanitary needs, for everything, for cooking and everything. Not that men don't. They do, but not as much as women do. So my mission and my vision has always been to make sure that I make that resource, that natural resource, be available to all wherever they are. So that is never an issue, so that when people look back and when when they look at everything, they appreciate the life that they have. And where they've been and understand that without water there is no life. Because really without water there is no life. So that's what I'm doing, making sure that through provision of water, everybody has a better life. It gets out of poverty.

Hetal Baman (00:08:30) - When you started Vindaloo. Were you set on the fact that this organisation is going to. Circle its mission around water versus any other issue?

Lumbie Mlambo (00:08:46) - Not at all. I mean, he was not even in the picture. I never dreamed of it. I just it's something that just you know, one of those things that you just stumble upon and you just ask yourself, is this really happening? Why would I even get an interest in this? I mean, why would that be interested in this thing? So it started out with. Oh, can you just go help this community, this clinic at a clinic? Can you just go help those women so that they have beds for delivery and delivery? And I was thinking, actually, that it's a very small task. Just smaller. Just do it in one day. But when I got there, I found out that, you know, they were actually shocked to see me, like, what are you doing here? Who has to come and help us? You know, we know your father, but you I mean, they're kind of shocked and kind of also wondering why the best for women, Why not water? So they asked me for water and I was that.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:09:46) - I mean, you telling me that you want water over a clinic, a functional clinic? You want water? Why would anybody decide that? Why would anybody even say that? We look like kind of crazy. I was so naive to I mean, I wasn't even a philanthropist then. I was fresh out of school, just going out into the world, you know, just going to see what's going on. Just trying to finish my father's mission, you know, make him happy, make him proud, you know, in heaven where he is. I was just excited to go finish his work.

Hetal Baman (00:10:18) - What was his work?

Lumbie Mlambo (00:10:20) - His work was to refurbish a clinic so that women had beds for delivery and maternity in recovery and to make sure that the clinic was pretty much renovated. So when I went, I was under the impression I was going for that. I was not under the impression that I was going to be asked to provide water. In me being naive, I thought, well, you know, since another kind of challenge kind of was sort of like a challenge to say you either give us water or leave us alone.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:10:49) - So I was like, okay, fine. Why don't I just give you water? I'll just come back here same day or tomorrow and give you water and then maybe let me finish up my father's work, you know, and stuff like that. And little did I know that just to provide what I is a huge task. Huge. It took me years. It took me years when I finally did it. I thought to myself, Oh my God, now I understand why. How could these people leave without water? How could the clinic function without any water at all? What do they take? What do they use to take their medicines? Do they just chew tablets? And just how do they do it? That's when I realized, I mean, that that was a need not just for the clinic, but also for the entire community. They needed clean water because when we installed that filtration system. It was really surprising to me how many people came around just to look at it.

Hetal Baman (00:11:44) - I think you told me in a past conversation that people were taking pictures.

Hetal Baman (00:11:48) - I know.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:11:48) - I know. It was beautiful and which was a kind of blue. It was a beautiful blue color. People would touch it and just smell it and sit on it and bring their food and eat by it and have conversations around it. They had no idea what it was other than what was coming out of here. We don't know what this thing is, but there's water inside, you know? It was just exciting. It was exciting to watch, you know, people's reactions. And it made me happy, to be honest with you, that we gave this to the clinic by the entire community, Even the greater community came around just to support and celebrate. So that was huge.

Hetal Baman (00:12:33) - That is huge. Yeah. Now, in terms of the community that you first served in and the rate of waterborne diseases, I want to talk about statistics around waterborne diseases and honestly, how far many people need to actually walk to obtain clean drinking water. One of the statistics is 2 million people die each year due to waterborne diseases, most of them children under the age of five.

Hetal Baman (00:13:08) - And in one of your communities that you work in hills. Yes, hills. You say that 67% of people living in rural Zimbabwe. The amounts 10 million people don't have access to safe drinking water due to severe droughts, poor rains, floods. And while only 35% of Zimbabwe's population has access to improved sanitation. And when you are able to witness this, what is life like, like on the ground in Zimbabwe?

Lumbie Mlambo (00:13:44) - It's amazing because the statistics don't lie. I mean, that's the fact. I used to think that is not it's just the people in the rural area, you know, like in the countryside that didn't have water or clean water at all. And I realize now that it's actually the same everywhere, all across people in town, these big cities in Zimbabwe, they don't have water. It's the same. So I almost feel like this needs to be updated. The statistics should be updated to include not just people in the countryside, but people in the city in urban, because when I was there this time, several times I was there, I was very disappointed.

Hetal Baman (00:14:21) - Tell me more about that.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:14:22) - Because actually thought that in the countryside they were much better than in the city. Looking at the life, how it is and how shortage of water and that people go for days without water in the city. To me, that was amazing. But if you had what was just like drops of water, not even water, what they call water was not even water. But nonHetaless, I did realize that especially in mature hills, people would walk up to 18 miles a day. That's like both ways.

Hetal Baman (00:14:50) - Both ways. 18 miles.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:14:53) - Yeah. And that's like the whole day. Literally just the whole day. Because, I mean, if you're spending that much, spending like almost ten hours just to find water, just.

Hetal Baman (00:15:01) - Walking.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:15:02) - Just walking.

Hetal Baman (00:15:03) - And you don't they didn't know where they would find it. They would just.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:15:08) - Well, they knew where to find it, but it's not that close, right? Yeah, but wherever they're going is like, who is telling them that where they're getting water, That water is clean and safe to drink because it looks clear.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:15:22) - It doesn't mean that it's good to drink. So that's one of the things that I could see that people were just going because maybe the water over here is muddy. They were drinking like black water, like mud water. That's why they drinking mud. It is so dry. It's like a very, very dry region because of lack of rains or flooding, Rocky Mountains and just very hard to find water. So we found out ourselves, you know, looking for water in all kinds of places and not finding it and people getting very disappointed. I think like 3 or 4 times we've been there in my trouble Hills We couldn't find water. We'll be there the whole day. We can find water. And just a look of people, people's faces. When you say there's no water. I mean, it's really devastating because you don't want to deliver the news to them. So that's what we've drilled or have done this and there's no water. It's very disappointing. You just want to say, you know what? We'll be right back.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:16:26) - And maybe not this time. Maybe next time we'll find some water. As I speak to you today, right now, as we speak in Zimbabwe, in a sea, we're trying to find water for a school, primary school that has 300 students actually were there today when they early this morning, we did a borehole sighting and it proved to us that there's water. However, that water is like 75 to 95m deep. So we decide, okay, let's let's go down and see if we can get to that water. It's 75m. We found out there's no water. So now we don't know if at 95m there really is going to be water. This call, I mean, is so desperate. There is no water at all at that school. And this water that we're going to find, the system that we're going to build for them was supposed to supply two schools that would have been 500 students. So I'm just waiting to get the results from the team down there. What they're saying, if they found water or there's no water.

Hetal Baman (00:17:33) - Can you talk about the process of finding water and what you have to do for that? Right.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:17:41) - The process is very intense in that it's not guaranteed. It's like I really want to work with NASA or any institution that uses science technology. I want to work with any institution that uses space technology because that would tell you with precision where the water is. Anything else that you use that is not space technology. It's almost like you just you're betting.

Hetal Baman (00:18:06) - That's like you're looking.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:18:07) - In the dark. Looking in the dark. Because what are troubles underground? Whatever sounds you hear, if you're using an instrument above ground to detect what a resource is going to catch everything that is moving underground. But that doesn't mean that it's right there, because those instruments are very sensitive and they pick up on any sound. So sometimes instruments that we use with our partners pick up of that maybe far away, like today, they use a different instrument that was underground and tells us that there's water like this many meters down. But when they try to sink a borehole that is 75m deep and they cannot find water, then it's a problem.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:18:50) - That means their instruments are sensing or hearing stuff that is one of is so far away. Reservoirs then are like maybe not even far away, but a distance away is. So in this case, I'm just waiting to find out because it will make me very happy if we do find water tonight. It will make everybody, the students, the teachers and everybody happy. That is why. Because it costs money to do that every time we don't find any water. We've already spent a lot of money doing that.

Hetal Baman (00:19:24) - And can you explain when you say you're spending a lot of money just trying to find. Right. This water, what are you spending that money on? Okay.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:19:34) - So money, for example, to transport. If the plan is to to drill, to get to the water system, to the resource, then we must dispatch a rig that is going to travel down there. We must have the casings, pipe casings, because with a friend, whether or not we still have to protect the ground.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:19:55) - Right. We may need to still case it so that there's no damage. The people doing it, they're working really hard. Not everybody's going to volunteer to do that. So we have to pay for those people because it's a very dangerous job. If you saw a rocky place, the rocks could come out there. When you're trying to to drill, you know, they could teach you in the eye or could do anything could happen. It's very dangerous. You have to be very careful with those instruments, with those tools. And then once you do that, it costs a little money just to come up with the pipes, because once they know how deep you're drilled, you have to know how deep the pipes are. That costs money. And then once you have water, the weather isn't just going to come out from there. You know, you're going to have the pump to pump it out there, pump it out to a tank. So we've got to also build the tanks or purchase the tanks like the above ground water tanks, the tank stands and all that stuff build the tank stands.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:20:47) - So it cost money just to do that. So if you do not find any water, you've already lost because you've spent some money, you know, to get there one thing the whole day because it takes a whole day. You've already sent a team to go down there. They've already started doing all that stuff, clearing the land and everything they've done. The poor will say to you or advises they've spent money already to detect reservoirs. So that's where the money is going.

Hetal Baman (00:21:14) - You know, it's so interesting because think that a lot of times people underestimate the amount of work that it takes to do something right like this. I'm sure you have encountered many people who think like this because it's like, well, I got to pay for the labor. I got to pay for the equipment, I got to do this, I got to do that. And then at the end, you don't even know if it's going to work. That is a big deal. Yeah, that is a big deal.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:21:39) - It is.

Hetal Baman (00:21:40) - I want to go back to when we were talking about how far women usually need to walk. And you were saying it's miles and miles and miles. Can you talk about some of the side effects of walking for water? Because these women are not just going from one place to another. They have to be physically fit. They have to make sure that there's no danger. Can you talk more about that?

Lumbie Mlambo (00:22:03) - Right. So the dangers are in I like to use my tribal hills. It's very hilly. Okay. It's very rocky. So some people live like up the hill, some people live down the hill by just walking. Some of us women could be dehydrated. There's no water and it is hot. That's one thing. It is scorching hot. So imagine working in the heat with no water. You could collapse. You could faint. Right. Just contracting diseases, you know, from lack of hydration, heart disease, you could end up with high blood pressure for no reason. And other diseases that, you know, anything kidney related diseases.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:22:45) - But that's just one of the things. It's a health issue for women. And also, as women walk down that far and coming back late, sometimes they leave early in the morning when it's dark before it starts getting hot. You know, the risk is that, you know, those people that prey on women trust them, you know, like sexual assault in all kinds of things, abuse. So those are kind of some of the things that happen. We may know about it sometimes it's like, you know what? They have no choice because sometimes you feel like you're going to fight these people. If you run into any anything like that, you're going to fight your way. But sometimes you're not you're not successful. Sometimes you just have to submit yourself to those kind of situations because to avoid any conflict you just have to say, whatever happens, I'm okay with it because I really need to get some water. So if it means me getting assaulted, so be it. So there's all kinds of things.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:23:41) - People end up losing hope and just self esteem and dignity.

Hetal Baman (00:23:46) - So what's JB doing to protect those women? Where? In communities where the water hasn't come yet?

Lumbie Mlambo (00:23:55) - Well, there's really nothing much you can do right now because. I cannot stop people from trying to get water right where they can find it. But I think we've raised enough noise and talked about women, you know, being assaulted, sexually assaulted. We've raised enough, you know, of our voices and other people are hearing it. Maybe that's a deterrent when we keep talking about it. You know, if you're quiet, you're going to go to jail and keep talking about it. Maybe that thing is on as a deterrent so that, you know, women don't go have to go through all this trouble in all these assaults. I think really the only way to get the women out of this trouble is to have water. So for that reason, we don't all installs clean water systems with intentional placement within communities to benefit women and girls so they don't have to walk miles to find water.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:24:50) - That is the reason why we have to put water systems within the community because we don't want to just supply the water system for one person. So make it be a community water so that the whole community is responsible for this water. The whole community drains out of the same. They get the water from the same tank. It's enough for the whole community. To have water from that tent because the big tent, I think the biggest one that we've installed so far is the 5000 liter tank. Wow. So filling that up and people coming to get water and filling it up again when it's like halfway empty, we'll fill it up again. So there's always water in the tank. So that's what we've been doing.

Hetal Baman (00:25:34) - Yeah, I just had this thought where I know you're trying your hardest to get water systems in all these communities. But in the interim, I wonder if you could and this is just like me spitting out ideas, but I wonder if you could maybe hire a driver or somebody who can escort women to the place of water so that they can essentially stay safe.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:25:59) - Oh, that's a great idea. Actually, the the thing also is that the this person will have to work with women, I guess, because it's not like there's other roads or anything.

Hetal Baman (00:26:09) - Oh, okay. So it's also the infrastructure. You need the infrastructure to even drive a car.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:26:16) - Right. So this president will have to be committed to working that long every day. You know what I mean? Wow. Like not maybe had a community pay people to work with women, some men to work with women all the time to say when women are going to fetch water, there should be men working with them. And if any man does that, you know, we'll pay them. That'll be a good thing to do. It's an idea. Very good idea. I like it.

Hetal Baman (00:26:42) - Yeah. We're starting a new program.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:26:45) - I like it a lot.

Hetal Baman (00:26:46) - I want to talk about how JB Dundas is also focusing on the US too. A lot of times when we when we talk about this issue of water and security, it's like, oh, we're always thinking about like low resource areas, low resource, low income countries.

Hetal Baman (00:27:04) - But you brought to light, which I actually didn't know about some communities in the US that also need water. Can you talk about that?

Lumbie Mlambo (00:27:13) - Yeah, it's amazing for me because most of the times if you're thinking in your mind, you're thinking, well, I mean, this is an advanced country. This cannot be happening here. Right? But it's amazing to me that a lot of people here in this country do not have water. At all. You know, if you look at places like Flint, Michigan, for example, there that water poisoning with lead. If you go to Newark, New Jersey, is the same thing. Several places. I mean, many places in the US. You run into those issues where people don't have water. And I'm always amused by the fact when they talk about there is no water, no clean water, and they cannot cook and they have to drink out of bottled water. I'm always like really intrigued by that is to really how long can you drink? Can you live on water to bathe and cook and consume? I just I don't know how long you can live like that.

Hetal Baman (00:28:10) - It's also an.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:28:10) - Expense. It's very expensive. Yeah. So we've had to go to those places like that, provide our services. If you look at Navajo Nation, for example, Navajo Nation is no like in Arizona where we went, who was supported. It is no different. No different from materials at all. I mean, you can put them side by side and like exactly the same. The terrain and everything was similar. And the issues that women face all across just the same. And this is in the US. So it doesn't matter which part of the world to me means like wherever you go, you're going to run into this problem. So which is why I gave it is international in that way. Here in the US, we try to help as much as we can because water is a global thing. It is a global initiative. Anybody who works on water issues understands why, you know what is needed everywhere. It doesn't have to be just one country. A lot of countries don't have water.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:29:11) - So we try to help as much as you can wherever you are. To make people feel comfortable, live better, have healthier lives and all that stuff. So yeah, we do go out there and here in the US and do the same whatever we're doing. Zimbabwe, we do it here as well. It's no different.

Hetal Baman (00:29:28) - I want to challenge our listeners to go six hours without water, maybe for feeling adventurous, a whole day without water. Yeah, see how you feel. Because a couple of years ago when our water completely shut off for only like three hours and I was like, oh, no, what do I do? It's like, oh my gosh, do you just take this for granted? I saw on your website when I was doing some digging that you do a lot of scientific testing and you use geologists to study and collect data, basically data on rocks. And I was wondering, what does rocks have to do with water?

Lumbie Mlambo (00:30:09) - Sometimes you want to look at the rock formation, what kind of rock it is.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:30:13) - If it goes in the ground, what kind of chances would you have? Do they break easily or are they solid and hard because you really want to study the land formation, then formation is very is very important. The scientists also look at the sand. Where does it look like? Is it like a desert type of sand? Because if it is, then you never find water. So it kind of gives them clues as to what kind of what are you going to get, if at all. But also it kind of gives us clues as to what kind of aquifers are there, if at all. So this study or that they test and what kind of diseases has there been any contamination, if there was floods ever in the region, what did those floods do? What was dropped in the region? So they look at all those things because it's important to know what kind of water, if you decide to provide water in that area, people need to know what kind of what are they going to be getting.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:31:07) - It also gives us an idea whether we're going to have to treat the water Once we find the water, we need to treat it. Is it safe to drink? Or is the water so contaminated that there's been chemical dumping there and it's went on the ground and all that stuff is improving, lead poisoning and all that stuff. We test for everything to make sure the water is safe.

Hetal Baman (00:31:28) - You know, I wouldn't have ever thought of that. I'm just saying, like, I wouldn't have ever thought like, oh, let's hire a geologist to figure out, like, if this is a good place to get water.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:31:37) - Exactly. Yeah. Because sometimes it's like, okay, if there's no groundwater, perhaps we can capture water, Atmospheric water. Maybe we can capture water in the air. So that study is important as well. How humid is it? Are there any trees around? Are people even planting trees or are they just chopping down the trees? Was it trees? The existence of trees actually helps anything, any type of growth in the area that is vegetation helps a lot.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:32:08) - Which is why we came up with that. Recently we launched something called the 100 Voices for Our Planet. Cause one people to live consciously and know that their actions in this world on this planet. After impact the availability of natural resources such as water. Because if you're going to chop down the trees, you're making it a desert where the chances are just going to rain. What makes it rain and what causes the rain? How does it come about understanding that what the importance of having a tree just trees or any plants having like leaves and other stuff, what it does to the atmosphere, It's important. And also it's important to know that when you throw things away like water rose or whatever on the ground, not disposing it correctly, that's contamination. Because some of us are not all. All forms of plastic is safe. Not all forms of stuff that you throw away, you see. So it may not be biodegradable. So you need to dispose it correctly. So the 100 Voices for Planet helps people understand that our actions impact the natural resources on this planet.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:33:18) - And in order for us to find water and to always have water, some of these men made incidents. We need to start acting on those to see how can minimize the manmade incidents and cut it down so that, you know, we have less of that but have more of human nature because we cannot control that mean like Mother Nature, we.

Hetal Baman (00:33:37) - Could go down this rabbit hole of how this impacts climate change and.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:33:43) - Wow, it does a lot. Once you mess up the climate, you've messed up the whole ecosystem. You know, the people, they start having problems with their health. Asthma attacks, all kinds of things going on. Diseases, unknown diseases, because everything is messed up. Why don't you start living eco consciously and intentionally and consciously? Right. So that, you know, we don't have these problems where there's lack of. Natural resources. We take care of the soil so that there's not so much soil erosion, how we grow plants, how we grow anything, how a farm has to change.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:34:23) - You know, we need to farm the right way. So that we don't damage the ground. So there's a lot of things we need to learn and small things that we need to just practice. Small, simple steps can make a huge difference in life.

Hetal Baman (00:34:40) - That's so true. It's so true. The Small Steps. I want to end this episode by asking you or actually talking to you about some really innovative ways that you've actually created community within and around the subject of water. And one of these ways was Voices for Water. I just found it so cool that you were able to be so creative within the team of. So can you talk a little bit more about Voices for Water?

Lumbie Mlambo (00:35:13) - Oh, absolutely. With the voices of water, I wanted to recognize people that are really committed to being the voice for water, not just saying, Oh, I'm just a voice for what I know. What have you done? What have you done to support this organization that is out there doing everything it can to make sure that people have clean water, they have access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene and all know those people, appreciate those people and thank them for their service.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:35:42) - That's the whole idea of the Voices for Water awards and give them certificates, you know, brag about them and have them feel good about themselves and continue doing what they're doing and encourage other people to to do the same. And I found out that, you know, when I started doing that, I became like a frequent guest on 90 Minutes in Africa with the journalist boy Elvis, who allowed me so many times to get on his TV show to talk about the voices of our planet. And not only that, but to talk about what technology is doing globally. I found out that, you know, because 90 minutes in Africa, which is everywhere in Africa, is huge. It's a huge audience. I found out that I was getting help from all over the world, people really wanting to help become even interns or help volunteer for the organization and just ask, what is it that I can do to help? And that became huge. And because those people became the voices for water themselves by spreading the word and telling the whole world what we're doing and just trying to get more people involved.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:36:50) - So it became huge. I'm really grateful to 90 minutes in Africa. They continue to do so and continue giving me that space, that platform to share what we do and to even someday the people going to broadcast the voices for water broadcasting on their TV show. I think that that'll be great, especially when we're talking about the music for water, because when we're looking for a song, Wikipedia and all that helps us out there, you know, talk about what we do and what we're looking for, we'll play that music. It is. It just ignites the world. Yeah.

Hetal Baman (00:37:22) - To talk more about music for Water, I thought that was so innovative that what you were.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:37:26) - Is it is just thinking about the people who have found throughout the world, you know, with their beautiful songs. Very uplifting, very inspiring. I mean, it really touches your heart. That's why you know that, you know, you are making a difference in the world because when you see what people are doing and how how much you're pouring their hearts just to give your songs and to create music is not an easy thing.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:37:53) - But somebody will sit in, create a song for water and say that this is a song for you. And all that is amazing to me. It makes me feel very proud. It's really huge and we'll continue to do that. But I have another one this year. Every year we have the Voices for Water Awards. We have the Music for Water Awards, and I love it. I love it. And thank you to you've actually given the platform when we had these shows, these events. Thank you for giving us the platform. Like right now what you're doing is huge. You're giving us a platform so many times, not just one time shared our content and spread the word. And at one point you actually participated.

Hetal Baman (00:38:33) - Not in the music side.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:38:35) - So I'm really, really grateful to you for doing that. I call you a champion for doing that. You are really a changemaker. A voice for water. Yes. One of those 100 voices for our planet, for sure.

Hetal Baman (00:38:47) - Thank you, Lumbie.

Hetal Baman (00:38:48) - It was such an honor to have you on the podcast.

Lumbie Mlambo (00:38:50) - Thank you so much. I really appreciate you.

Hetal Baman (00:38:55) - Thank you for listening to this episode. If you'd like to learn more about today's topic and guest, head over to the show notes linked in the description of this episode. There you can get access to resources, links and ways you can get involved in the pursuit for global health. And if you love this episode, don't forget to write me a review on Apple Podcasts and rate the podcast on Spotify. It helps me get in front of more people just like you, and continues to elevate the causes we are so passionate about. I'll see you in the next one.