On a school visit in Rwanda, a student's folded thank-you note set off a chain of events that says everything about the leader behind IRIBA Water Group. Yvette founded IRIBA to bring safe drinking water to schools where the taps run contaminated or the only option is rainwater collected in tanks. IRIBA’s Water ATMs filter the water until it is clean enough for any child to drink. Yvette’s goal is to reach 500 schools across Rwanda by next summer. Every $500 raised brings a Water ATM and ongoing maintenance to a public school serving more than 1,000 students. Right now, every gift is doubled, so $250 becomes $500. This is the story of the standard Yvette holds, and how you can help extend it.
But it turns out, it wasn’t from him.
It was written by another student, a young girl. I unfolded it like one of those secret notes passed amongst friends.
It was a note about how thankful she was to IRIBA for providing clean water.
Yvette, the CEO of IRIBA Water Group, read the note and found the girl. Her name is Fiella. Yvette asked about school. About her grades.
Fiella lit up.
She was ranked second in her class and was in her final year of primary school. And she had a dream: she wanted to go to FAWE, one of Rwanda’s top girls’ boarding schools.
It also happened to be the same school Yvette attended as a girl.
Something shifted.
Yvette didn’t smile and move on. She got Fiella’s mother’s phone number. And promised to stay connected to encourage her.
I watched a CEO turn into an advocate in real time, over one kid, one note, one conversation.
I study a lot of CEOs, big and small. Give me a professional development book. A course. A quiz. I eat them up. Instagram’s algorithm knows I’m the perfect audience for any reel about “how to scale faster.”
But in the end, Yvette’s actions reflect the kind of person I aspire to be. I want to back the leader who seeks the good in everyone. Who goes out of her way to help for the sake of helping. Even when there’s nothing in it for her.
Don’t get me wrong, strategy matters. Execution matters. But the best measure of a leader’s character isn’t how they act when something is at stake. It’s how they act when nothing is.
For Yvette, she can’t help it.
“I went to the same schools as the ones we’re supporting,” she later told me. “Public. Majority low-income. Same conditions.”
Decades later, she’s the founder and CEO working to make sure other kids don’t have to do the same thing.
And now, she’s also a mom.
Yvette has two daughters, ages three and five. She told me that motherhood has changed the way she measures everything IRIBA does.
“Becoming a mother established my standard. If my kid can’t drink this water, no child can. My baby must be able to drink it.”
That’s the bar.
I hope you’ll join us in helping her bring that same standard to more schools across Rwanda.
These schools have water. The problem is that the water isn’t safe to drink.
Schools are connected to either contaminated municipal water lines or the students drink rainwater collected in tanks. IRIBA’s Water ATMs can connect to either source, running the water through three types of filtration before it reaches a child’s cup: carbon and sediment filtration, reverse osmosis, and UV. So it’s crystal clear.
Each Water ATM can serve a school of 1,000 or more students.
Yvette’s goal is to reach 500 schools by next summer. If you can join us, we’d be so grateful.
A gift today can help get a Water ATM up and running at a school and put a local technician to work maintaining it. The school takes it from there, committing $100 each year to replace the filters and cover standard maintenance and repairs.
On average, every $500 we raise can hire the workforce needed to bring a Water ATM and ongoing maintenance to a public school serving 1,000+ students. As someone who has worked in the water sector for decades, I can vouch that this is an incredible ROI.
And right now, every gift is doubled by a generous donor, so we can reach schools faster.
$250 becomes $500 to help bring safe water to an entire school.
And, in case you’re wondering what happened to Fiella...
She scored 93.2% overall on her national primary examinations, an A in every single subject.
She wasn’t placed at FAWE in the end. But she started at GS N.D.A. Rwaza. It’s another excellent girls’ boarding school, where she will attend for free.
I often think about that little folded note.
Every child we met was grateful for the clean water. But Fiella went one step further.
So did Yvette.
And maybe that’s what I love most.
I think that’s how higher standards spread.
From a girl who went a little further to say thank you. To a CEO who went a little further to help her.
And to people like you, who decide that a child thousands of miles away deserves the same standard we’d want for our own.
Thank you for being one of those people.
Every dollar is doubled thru September. $250 becomes $500 to help bring water to one school.
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