We're a small team with a stubborn belief.

Jonathan Ringger went to Laos in 2006 with a vision of supporting local entrepreneurs bringing water to rural communities through well digging and water systems. The wells could be dug, but the water was not safe. Testing found bacterial contamination, including E. coli, in well after well. The problem wasn’t just access to water — it was access to water clean enough to not make families sick.

The answer turned out to be a clay pot. Through contact with Potters for Peace and Potters Without Borders, Jonathan and his partners encountered ceramic water filtration: a porous vessel, fired from local clay and rice husk and treated with colloidal silver, that removes bacteria from drinking water using nothing but gravity. No electricity. No cartridges shipped from overseas. No recurring costs for households. One filter can serve a family for years.

Four years of preparation followed, and Dan Rice joined to help launch the new endeavor. TerraClear Production was founded in 2010 near Pakse, in southern Laos. Production began with several wood-fired kilns, locally sourced materials, international quality standards, and a great deal of trial and error. Lao production, office, and sales staff were hired and worked alongside colleagues from North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia to build the business. Phil Minnich, Bryce Roszell, and Greg Classen all moved to Laos with their families and joined the work in these early days.

On-site laboratory testing and strict quality control were part of the operation from the beginning. The sales model took longer. It was developed over years, and in the early years it produced as many failures as successes. What held steady was the commitment to work closely with national and international NGOs to reach communities, households, and school classrooms that would otherwise depend on unsafe and unreliable water.

In 2018, TerraClear Production launched TerraKids, bringing filters into school classrooms alongside education on children’s rights, safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene. It began as a self-funded corporate social responsibility initiative. It outgrew that funding quickly, as district education departments across the region asked TerraClear for help.

In 2020, TerraCare was born out of a partnership with Service Fraternel d’Entraide, an international NGO committed to serving Lao communities. TerraCare brought together international funding, experienced local staff, and a commitment to families who could not afford a filter at any price. Working with village leadership to identify the households most in need, it pairs a subsidized filter with hygiene education and follow-up visits. Dawn Lewis joined to lead the project.

By then the limit was clear. A Lao social enterprise can build filters, run laboratories, and train sales teams — but it cannot receive tax-deductible charitable gifts from American donors, and it cannot easily reach the US foundations and congregations most willing to fund this work. The need had outgrown what the business could fund on its own.

TerraClear Foundation was founded in 2020 to close that gap. The Foundation is a US 501(c)(3) that raises funds in North America and puts them to work in Southeast Asia. TerraKids and TerraCare continue to be run on the ground by TerraClear Production, and the Foundation purchases filters and program services from the company that has been making them since 2010 and now employs more than 70 Lao staff — local manufacturing, local employment, local accountability.

Jonathan still lives in Laos with his family, directing manufacturing and technology for TerraClear Production. Twenty years after he arrived, the mission has grown past the filter that started it.

Alongside its work in Laos, TerraClear Foundation now funds community water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programs in Stung Treng province, Cambodia, through water catchment systems, sanitation facilities, and water filters. It also responds to disasters in the region, and supports long-term development through partnerships with local and international agencies.