Newsroom

Originally published by Things Not Seen

Last year, our guest Josh Goralski joined us on the show to talk about a new nonprofit he had founded to serve the people of Haiti called Unlocking Communities.

Now he is back to talk to us about the lessons he has learned since our last conversation. He talks about some of the challenges that he had not anticipated, as well as the opportunities he did not expect.

This conversation is a must-listen for anyone who is feeling a call to do something greater for those in need in our world.

You can listen to our previous conversation, about the founding of Unlocking Communities, here.

Listen to the podcast here. 

Originally posted by Catholic Chicago Radio

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Hosts: Fr. Greg Sakowicz and Mark Teresi.

Segment II: Josh Goralski, Founder and CEO of Unlocking Communities, a social enterprise that puts economic power in the hands of Haitians to create an environment of self-respect and sustainability.

Listen to the whole broadcast here (scroll down to February 27).

Originally posted by Good Press

Unlocking Communities founder, Josh Goralski, has spent an extensive amount of time in Haiti. He’s seen the challenges that Haitians face, and he’s working to elevate Haiti by putting the economic power into the hands of Haitians themselves.
Unlocking Communities provides resources and training for Haitian entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses. These entrepreneurs help create healthier communities by selling money-saving water filters and clean burning stoves to people within their communities.

Read the interview below to learn how Josh is implementing this social enterprise model, and his advice for other social entrepreneurs.

Tell me about your organization and the work that you do.
Unlocking Communities works to empower rural Haitians to start small businesses to sell water filtration systems and clean burning stoves. We chose those products because they are products that Haitians are spending a lot of money on — buying charcoal and buying water. There are simple solutions out there that have lacked getting into the hands of the people that really need them. So our model both helps to bring business education training to our sellers and also products to people who need them.

Read the full article here.

Originally published by Things Not Seen

When Josh Goralski was eight years old, a Catholic priest from Haiti came to the Chicago area, and stayed for a week with his family in his home. This visit opened a multi-decade connection of prayer and visits to the island.

Now, Goralski, has traveled to the country 14 times. As he has gotten to know the people and the communities of Haiti, he felt a calling to re-think the approaches that many have taken to their long-term economic problems. Instead of top-down aid, he wanted to see if resources could be directed toward developing an economic base through micro loans and targeted entrepreneurial training.

The result is Unlocking Communities, a nonprofit that gives Haitians hands-on experience in running a small business, using locally-sourced products like water purifiers.

A recent graduate of Loyola University’s Institute for Pastoral Studies, Goralski talks about his many efforts to find the right connection between his heart for mission, and the needs of the people in Haiti.

Listen to the podcast here. 

Josh Goralski (back row, left) pictured with community entrepreneurs in Hinche,
Haiti after they completed their business skills training.

Originally published by Quinlan School of Business

By Monica Sather | Student reporter

Loyola graduate student Josh Goralski is on a mission: empower rural Haitian communities through business education. And he’s moving closer to his goal with the help of the Quinlan School of Business and its students.

This spring, Goralski enrolled in the Social Entrepreneurship course taught by Seth Green, executive lecturer and founding director of Quinlan’s Baumhart Center for Social Enterprise and Responsibility.

One of the class projects: help Goralski scale the social enterprise he founded. The enterprise currently focuses on building water filtration businesses funded through micro-financing.

From idea to clean water

Water-related diseases take the lives of an estimated 5,700 people per year in Haiti, and 52.4 percent of Haiti’s rural population does not have access to clean water.

While Goralski was an undergraduate student at Rockhurst University, he and his classmates developed an innovative business idea to address this need for clean water and bring business education to rural Haiti: they would empower communities to set up a small business where water filters would be sold by local community members. The sellers would be trained and certified to micro-finance the water filters affordably for their community members.

“All of this is centered on empowering communities,” says Goralski. “We wondered, how do we work with a local community partner, provide access to business education training, and empower these
communities?”

Goralski expanded his beta testing under a pilot grant from Wine to Water, an international nonprofit organization focused on providing clean water to people around the world. To date, he has traveled to Haiti ten times and launched three water filter enterprises with Haitian community members.

Community work

In the Social Entrepreneurship class, Goralski, who is in Loyola’s Masters of Social Justice program, met MBA student Taylor Sticha. Sticha was excited about the potential impact of the social enterprise.

“This is a real problem, and this is a real way that we are going about solving it,” she says.

The ceramic water filters that the Haitian water enterprises sell can provide clean water for a family of five for up to 10 years with little maintenance, and save families $400+ USD over 10 years. The business is run by local community members, which contributes to the economic vitality of the community.

For the class project, Goralski, Sticha, and other Quinlan students brainstormed how to take the pilot to the next level and expand the enterprise. Then, with financial support from Quinlan, Goralski and Sticha traveled to Haiti for a week to conduct interviews with the water filters sales teams, discuss their challenges, and strategize. They shared business practices as well as information about water safety and cleanliness of water and hygiene.

Goralski and Sticha also taught English at the social enterprise’s local community partner, Happy Haitian Productions, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching Haitian students English.

Unlocking opportunities

Goralski and Sticha agree that Quinlan’s Jesuit-values based education compliments their career ambitions.

“My motivation for going to Quinlan for my MBA is making that jump into leadership, but have those Catholic, Jesuit values and that mindset of working for the greater good,” says Sticha.

Goralski adds, “What motivates me is grounded in my Jesuit education and those Jesuit values of the whole person. This social enterprise is helping unlock opportunities for Haitians and working hand in hand with them to see the vision they have for their communities become reality.”

He continues, “What I’ve learned in my social justice program combined with what I learn in my Quinlan courses that has really informed this project. You need both, and I think that’s part of what makes the Jesuit education really rich.”