Less than a month after graduating from Tufts in May, Jessica Laporte (Deerfield ‘09, BA Tufts ‘14) will be heading off to Haiti for a year, working for Community Chlorinators, a clean water business that will train entrepreneurs in Haiti to treat and test water, as well as educate their friends and family about water treatment. Through accessible education and affordable technology, Community Chlorinators empowers female entrepreneurs to provides clean water ‘for neighbors by neighbors’ to stop the spread of deadly waterborne disease.
Community Chlorinators is the first social enterprise launched by the Archimedes Project, an organization dedicated to stopping the spread of cholera through the creation of market-based solutions. To this end, the Archimedes Project brings together people from across sectors to collaborate to create a to design a large scale social venture focused on clean water and sanitation. The Archimedes project was launched in 2013 by a fellow Tufts student and Choate Rosemary Hall alumni Faith Wallace-Gadsden (Choate ’01, BA Bryn Mawr College ’05, PhD Tufts ’14).
Laporte first worked with the Archimedes Project heading up the development and fundraising team for their first design event in November 2013. The November event was attended by Ashley Laporte (Deerfield ‘06, BA Harvard ‘10) who brought her experience in marketing and brand management consulting to the table.
Since January Laporte has been working on developing the Community Chlorinators business plan, program design and monitoring practices. In March, Laporte attended the Clinton Global Initiative University Conference in Phoenix. There she competed in the Social Venture Challenge with the Community Chlorinators business plan and was selected as a Resolution Project Fellow. The fellowship will provide seed funding for the Community Chlorinators implementation in addition to a mentor and a growing network of social impact entrepreneurs.
For more on the Archimedes Project and Community Chlorinators visit, www.archimedesproject.com.
Jessica Laporte
2009
