Gemma Bulos is co-founder of Global Women’s Water Initiative, which teaches grassroots women to build simple water and sanitation technologies so they can become self-reliant and improve their communities’ health.
Among many honors in her career, she was recognized by Reuter’s Alertnet, which named her as one of the Top 10 Water Solutions Trailblazers in the World and was selected for the prestigious Social Entrepreneur Fellowship at Stanford University. Gemma is also an internationally renowned singer most well known for building The Million Voice Choir, a global peace mission to unite people around water through song.
What’s the biggest change you’ve made in your professional career?
Oh, you mean the pendulum that is my career? I’ve done all sorts of kooky jobs here and there going from bartender, roller skating waitress, pre-school teacher, blackjack dealer, mentor for at-risk-youth, cabaret/jazz singer and others. And all of these seemingly unrelated experiences have somehow led to this accidental life.
Your accidental life?
My sister and I recently revisited a favorite story of ours called Fatimah The Spinner and The Tent. It’s about a woman who, having gone from tragedy to major life change, travels the world and learns random skills like spinning, weaving, mast making, spinning. She somehow ends up in China where there had been a prophecy that someone like her would arrive and build a great tent, something no one else knew how to do. But because of these seemingly random skills she learned from all her misfortunes, she was the only person who could do it. I believe we all have accidental lives. And every experience we’ve had has led us to be the only person in the world who can do what only WE can do in our own special way! You can learn more from my TEDx Talk.
Your mission to bring clean water and sanitation to more than 200,000 people in Asia and Africa started with a song. Can you tell us more about that?
I was a pre-school teacher and professional jazz singer in NYC before I started working in water. I was supposed to be in the World Trade Center when the planes hit and instead called in sick. In response, I wrote a song called WE RISE, inspired by the amazing people of NYC who came together and exposed their inherent goodness and generosity during this tragedy. I had this crazy idea to build a Million Voice Choir to sing WE RISE in an effort to bring people together to heal and find peace.
Speaking of change, you chucked it all, didn’t you?
I left life as we knew it, gave away all my belongings, took my guitar, backpack and what little savings I had and traveled around the world inviting people to be part of this global peace movement.
The seed for your cause was actually a line in a song, wasn’t it?
One of the main themes of the song was the notion that ‘it takes a single drop of water to start a wave’, and I started to get invited to sing at places like the United Nations Water for Life Conference because I was the ‘lady singing for water.’ I learned about the water crisis not only at these kinds of conferences, but also first hand when I traveled to many developing nations and witnessed it. After mobilizing more than 100 cities in 60 countries to sing WE RISE from all over the planet on September 21, 2004, it became clear that I had found a cause that resonated with me.
And you didn’t let experience, or lack of it, get in your way, did you?
My mission evolved from raising the awareness of the global water crisis to actually addressing it. Having had no background in international development, engineering or water, I learned how to build a simple technology that could clean water just using local materials.
Can you describe the simple water and sanitation technologies you help women build?
We train women with no background in construction or engineering to build what we are called ‘appropriate technologies.’ Most of the women we train have never picked up a shovel before and now they are getting hired to build water technologies in their communities. Pretty cool.
Why is water such a gender issue in the developing world?
Women are disproportionately affected by the lack of water and sanitation. It is estimated that on a single day women worldwide can spend more than 200 million collective hours fetching water. One in 10 girls drop out of school or miss one week per month when they start menstruating because of the lack of water and toilets.
So, any big changes recently in your personal life?
Well since you asked, yes, I’ve got a new crush and his name is Musical Improv! Sorry John Cusack, you are so unstalked!
Musical improv?
I had been traveling the world for 10 years straight with no home address. Although the work I was doing was incredibly inspirational, it was emotionally draining to acknowledge that no matter how hard I worked, the cause I decided to devote all my energies to was likely not going to be resolved in my lifetime. I came back to the U.S. exhausted and in need of some really good laughs and lighthearted company. So I took an improv class. I started performing within a year and found out how much I loved musical improvisation.
Change is hard—any tricks you’d like to share for making it easier?
Not knowing what happens next is when all the magic can happen because you have NO expectations! Be willing to say ‘yes’ to what you don’t know because you are almost guaranteed to have a different and new experience!
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I’d have hobbit feet so I could walk barefoot everywhere. I think I may be one of the only women in the world under 50 who doesn’t care about shoes. Oh, and metabolism that would allow me to be the foodie that I want to be.
What are you reading right now?
Fatimah The Spinner and The Tent by Idriess Shah and Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham
What are you watching?
Face Off, Season 6. I love that they have a backstory for their all their make-ups/characters. Story is at the core of their inspiration.
What are you listening to?
Bossy Pants audio book by Tina Fey and Immersive French, another audio book.
Rock, paper, or scissors?
Rock. It has so many uses. Paper weight, hammer, construction, rock art, and despite its hardness, can be shaped by the relentless flow of water…
Who’s the most progressive nonprofit or business leader you know?
Oh my gosh, I can’t even begin to try and pick one. I’m inspired by so many. All of my fellow Echoing Green Fellows are doing extraordinary work and I seek inspiration from so many of them often. From Cheryl Dorsey, EG Pres, to Katie Orenstein of the OpEd Project, to Jessamyn Waldman of Hot Bread Kitchen, to Andrew Youn of OneAcre Fund, to Emily Arnold Fitzgerald of Asylum Acess... oh, the list goes on and on.
Any secret you’d like to share?
If I had not been stalking John Cusack at his gym in West L.A., I never would have gone on the Scrabble the game show (because the auditions were right next door to the gym), won $3,000, and moved to NYC where the mission to build a Million Voice Choir emerged.