Words by Smiley Team
women for water™, a clean water and women’s empowerment action platform, and two-time Super Bowl winner Chris Long’s premier athlete-led initiative Waterboys, announced today that they will partner on the water4Her campaign to empower 100,000 East African women and girls through clean water access.
water4Her will bring together a community of athletes, influencers and donors to raise awareness and funding for impact partners, World Vision, Global Grassroots, WorldServe International and Mama Maji, to deliver critically needed WASH access for women in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.
“Lack of sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene access, compounded by the COVID-19 crisis, is plunging women back into poverty,” said Monica Ellis, CEO of campaign co-founding partner Global Water Challenge (GWC), whose coalition efforts have delivered clean water to over 2 million people across Africa, India, the US and Latin America. “This issue is urgent, and when you invest in empowering a woman through clean water, you invest in her ability to live, learn, earn, lead and thrive.”
“This is a time, like no other, where we must come together to ensure that women and girls in need have WASH access,” said Megan Long, campaign chair, former collegiate lacrosse player and co-founder of The Chris Long Foundation. “Water4Her is a unique platform for people, athletes, influencers and sponsors to lend their voices and invest in critical resources to accomplish that.”
Alongisde World Vision USA, the largest nongovernment provider of clean water in the developing world, water4Her will support new water systems to supply water to 9 villages, reaching 25,000 people and 4,500 households across Uganda.
Meanwhile in Kenya - With Mama Maji, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping women launch businesses and innovate with water, including deploying their Shule Maji Mamas (Swahili for “school water mothers”), water4Her will maintain water infrastructure at 30 schools as a business, vending water and WASH products to ensure that the schools maintain their infrastructure and women have income, resulting in up to 30,000 people with clean water access.
The year-long campaign is a commitment by the partners to deploy their assets and networks to help empower 100,000 women through water – with a focus on social-digital outreach to mobilize 100,000 people to take the water4Her pledge at water4Her.org.
To take the water4Her Pledge, head to water4Her.org. You can also find out about creating or joining a giving team and other ways to take action now to end water poverty.
