There are 2.5 billion people on earth without access to a toilet. That is one in three of us.

When we hear the statistic, it can sound so big as to be overwhelming. Or at least impossible to solve. We’d prefer not to think about what it means. We throw up our hands. We look away.

We forget that these numbers represent people just like us. I’ve ruined more dinner parties than I can count telling stories of toilets. I start with that stark data point then tell stories about some of the places I visit regularly. Nairobi’s slums are infamous for poor sanitation. They are overcrowded, muddy and sorely lacking in public infrastructure. There are public latrines, but they are often dangerous and filled to the point of overflowing. People would rather defecate on a piece of plastic inside their homes (which also lack running water) and then throw the waste onto the rooftops outside. These are known as “flying toilets.”

These people have no other option. Yet many of these individuals work hard outside the slum — some as waiters or drivers, some as retailers, selling secondhand clothing, or operators of tiny restaurants along the streets. So they do have income, just not a lot. What if we saw these individuals as potential customers? Because it turns out they will gladly pay for decent service if it is priced fairly. What if we turned the miserable state of what is — terrible, unhealthy sanitation — to an opportunity that starts with imagining what could be? What if we saw potential where others see despair?

This is what three MIT Sloane School of Business students did. Lindsay Stradley, David Auerbach and Ani Vallabhaneni analyzed the problem of global sanitation and devised a system that treats the poor as business owners, customers and employees rather than as a problem to fix. In 2010, they started Sanergy, a company that sells clean toilets to local entrepreneurs who borrow through microfinance organizations (including the online lending group Kiva). These toilets are airy and fresh, and they stay that way. They are well constructed, complete with a vanity station outside and appropriate air vents. The toilet itself is a “squatter” design that divides waste into wet and dry. After each use, the customer throws a bit of sawdust in, and the waste is collected daily in sealed containers that do not smell. In order to maintain and grow their customer base, the entrepreneurs typically clean the toilets after every use. I can personally attest to the quality of the experience. In fact, the toilets have become so popular that there are a good many now inside local pubs.

And this approach — of building companies from the perspective of the very poor — is definitely paying off. Already, the company boasts 320 franchisees, who operate 626 toilets with the help of more than 272 employees. Already, they have moved more than 8,215 metric tons of waste out of the slums.

But the progress doesn’t stop there. Sanergy is creating a business model that turns waste into gold: it composts the waste collected daily and converts it to fertilizer. It has taken Sanergy more than five years to develop a viable market for their fertilizer, but today, demand is high enough that the company needs to build more toilets to ensure it has adequate supply of, well, raw materials.

And that is a good thing.

Sanergy’s entrepreneurs had the moral imagination to envision a better deal for their customers and the grit to fight complacency and realize it.

When we look at the poor not as people to fear or to fix, a world of opportunity opens. And the more we view low-income people with respect, as customers, the greater opportunity we have to learn about our own potential as well. One of the women franchisees at Sanergy, Leah, has grown her toilet business to three latrines. She loves her customers. The income they’ve provided has enabled her to buy a home and educate her three children in private schools. But she is just as proud of her contributions to the community.

“Before Sanergy,” she told me, “there was so much human waste right outside our homes. We would come home, especially in the rainy season when the mud can come halfway to your knees and your boots would become covered in an awful mix of it all. Now, the pathways are clean. Disease has fallen. I know I’m helping to make my community cleaner, better. It makes me proud.”

How we are perceived by others can deeply influence how we perceive ourselves. It doesn’t matter whether we are rich or poor. Yet often, we are much more judgmental of the poor — even the well intended charity organizations who come “to help.” What if, instead, we recognize the enormous human potential we all share?
 
In 15 years of running Acumen, I’ve been privileged to collect hundreds of stories from women and men like Leah. What consistently amazes me is the true generosity of those who the world sees as having little, but who nonetheless give as much as they can, as soon as they earn even a little. Imagine the world if we each gave more than we took from it. And if we measured success not simply by the income we make or profit we earn but by the level of human productivity our work enables.

As humans, we yearn to be seen. All of us do. We too regularly underestimate the capabilities of low-income individuals — and the poor themselves do, too. If entrepreneurs provide quality services that treat the poor as decision makers in their own lives, there is extraordinary potential to create a sense of belonging, of citizenship, in ways that matter to an entire society. Endeavors that enable the poor to see themselves as vital participants in solving problems, rather than as impositions, are critical to developing solutions to poverty.

Markets are not the only answer, but they play an important role in revealing human preferences. Acumen’s most successful companies are customer-oriented, with high standards of excellence. This is the case with Sanergy, and it is why we are so proud to be the company’s partner.

It will take all of us to make things right for those who have been too long excluded from opportunity in an upside-down world. And how we see each other is a mirror to how we see ourselves. In our interconnected world, developing an understanding of our shared humanity has become a critical skill, one upon which our shared future ultimately depends.

This is the second piece of a month-long series on what it takes to change the way the world tackles poverty and how we, as a society, can shift the narratives around the poor. Read the full series on Acumen Ideas.