World Vision welcomes Asda and P&G’s Safe Drinking Water Programme

World Vision implementing P&G’s program by distributing water purification sachets across the developing world

Spice Girl Mel Chisholm visits a World Vision project in Ghana to see how clean water improves lives

Global humanitarian charity World Vision today welcomes British supermarket Asda and consumer goods company P&G’s effort to bring 75 million days’ worth of clean drinking water to communities in the developing world.

From today, 27th February until 19 March 2014, Asda will donate one days’ worth of clean drinking water to communities in developing countries for every one P&G product bought from any Asda store – including its Gillette, Pantene and Lenor brands among others.

As the largest non-governmental provider of clean drinking water in the developing world, World Vision is an implementation partner to P&G’s Safe Drinking Water Program. World Vision distributes these simple sachets directly to people within communities across Africa and Asia where access to safe, drinkable water is difficult.

To raise awareness of the P&G/Asda programme and World Vision’s collaboration, former Spice Girl Mel Chisholm recently travelled with World Vision to a community in Ghana, where the water purification sachets are used, to find out for herself how they help reduce disease and save lives. She said: “My trip to Ghana was a humbling experience, and one that I will never forget. Having seen first-hand the vital difference, clean water makes to the lives of children, women and the wider community, I hope that people will get behind the campaign and help us make a difference.”

Dr. Greg Allgood founded the P&G Safe Drinking Water Program while he was an employee of P&G, and after retiring, joined World Vision in 2013 as head of its global water programme. This includes the distribution of the water purification sachets as well as World Vision’s work establishing clean drinking water wells in many parts of the world.

“Our staff has seen first-hand how lives change when you bring clean water into a community,” says George Gitau, national director of World Vision in Rwanda, one of the countries where World Vision distributes water purification sachets. “It’s an immediate impact — the number of child deaths and malnutrition drop, the number of girls able to attend school rises, and we see more women able to participate in the economy, freed from the time-consuming and back-breaking work of fetching water.”

To organise further comment from World Vision’s experts, interviews, or for more information on the programme, please contact the World Vision UK communications office at +44 (0)20 7802 3461 or +44 (0) 7889 631613.