Treat a sick fish
Hello! I hope you're having a great day this August.
As I thought about how to talk about “health” in today’s email, I remembered a meme I saw (shared from Being Brigid). It made a big impression on me. I liked it so much that I shared it with a few friends—and decided to make it the focus of today’s message.
The meme compares taking care of our health to cleaning a fish tank. Instead of treating a sick fish, the idea is to clean the water the fish lives in. This is a helpful way to think about our health and the work our partners are doing.
Most people agree that the best and most affordable way to stay healthy is through prevention.
Our bodies are made of the same basic elements as the earth (think of the periodic table). So everything we eat, drink, breathe, or are exposed to—like the electromagnetic fields from phones or Wi-Fi—becomes part of us.
For people living in poverty, prevention is even more important. It’s cheaper, easier, and more effective than trying to fix health problems after they happen.
Luckily, organizations that truly care about people’s health can make a big difference by teaching simple steps to stay healthy—before anyone gets sick. That’s often faster and cheaper than trying to build clinics or treat diseases after they appear.
There’s a well-known saying, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” It’s often linked to Hippocrates, the founder of modern medicine. While he didn’t write those exact words, he did believe that food could heal—or harm—depending on how it’s used.
Even though today’s doctors often use drugs to treat illness, research now shows how powerful a good diet can be. Eating well can help prevent or manage diseases like diabetes, heart problems, and even some infections.
I’m pleased to say that all our partners are doing creative work to share healthy eating tips and set good examples. They also teach people about the dangers of drinking dirty water or eating food grown with polluted water—both of which can cause sickness.
Raising awareness about the environmental value of keeping water clean is something all our partners talk about. It’s a shared value in their programs.
But here’s the challenge: as a small organization, it’s hard for Natik to get funding for education like this. Big funders often want to see “proof” that something works—but how do you measure sicknesses that didn’t happen?
So today, we’re asking you: 1) How can we show the benefits of things that never happened—because the prevention worked? 2) Do you know of any funders who support health education in poor communities?
If we could get funding to grow the programs we already have, the impact could go far beyond the direct influence of our partners. As community leaders, they already know how to do a lot with limited resources—so their tools and ideas could be shared online to reach many more people.
