Limiting the time spent collecting water enables girls to pursue an education. By supporting water4Her, girls in East Africa can go to school and have access to handwashing supplies to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Photo: RAIN/Global Water Challenge

WASHINGTON, November 18, 2020 /3BL Media/ – 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.

In Africa, women and girls bear the burden of water collection and spend their days walking miles, waiting in long lines and experiencing harassment for water that is often unsafe to drink.  Evidence^[1] shows that access to clean water is linked to improving reproductive health, increased income, decreased gender-based violence, and reduced risk of water-borne illness.

“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.”

 Water4Her campaign funding will be deployed towards high-impact program collaborations including:

• Uganda - With 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 – including 12,750 women and girls and support 4,000 women and girls to become strong, empowered household decision makers.
• 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.
• Tanzania - With WorldServe International, a leading provider of clean water systems in East Africa, water4Her will increase water access in rural communities for up to 48,000 people with a focus on improved sanitation and hygiene facilities in households, schools and at health care facilities while helping women’s groups to engage in income-generating activities.
• Rwanda - With Global Grassroots, a community-based nonprofit organization that operates a social venture incubator for vulnerable women in post-conflict countries, water4Her will support the ongoing Women’s Water Leadership Initiative by launching 6-8 additional women-led water ventures to reach up to 25,000 people with safe, 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 - committing to five key actions:

• Understand the significance of how the lack of clean water access is a key barrier to women’s empowerment and share the urgency of the water4Her mission with others;
• Rally family, friends, colleagues, and networks to start a water4Her Giving Team;
• Contribute at least $25 to help provide a woman and her family with access to clean water;
• Participate in the Hike4Her event on Saturday, March 20, 2021, to raise awareness around World Water Day about the millions of women who struggle with the daily burden of collecting water; and,
• Take one additional action from the water4Her Involvement Hub on water4her.org/hub

For further information please visit water4Her.org to take the water4Her Pledge.

[1] Per the Water and Development Alliance’s recent Ripple Effect Study

CONTACT

Madeline Flamik
Global Water Challenge
madeline.flamik@getf.org
703-939-8235

About Global Water Challenge (GWC)

Founded in 2006, Global Water Challenge (GWC) is a coalition of leading organizations committed to achieving universal access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and women’s empowerment. With companies, civil society partners, and governments, GWC accelerates the delivery of safe water and sanitation and supports gender equality through partnerships that catalyze financial support and drive innovation for sustainable solutions. Through GWC’s innovative public-private partnerships, over 2 million people have been reached with clean water access, sanitation and hygiene training. For more information, please visit globalwaterchallenge.org.

About women for water™

women for water is a Global Water Challenge (GWC) campaign and action platform advancing gender equity by empowering women and girls in 10,000 communities through water access, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and life skills programs by 2030. Grounded on the pathbreaking Ripple Effect research, women for water galvanizes investment and collective action at the intersection of water and women’s empowerment and currently supports programs in 15 countries in Africa, North and South America, the Middle East and Central Asia.  Join the platform on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and visit womenforwater.com.

About Waterboys

Founded in 2015 by two-time Super Bowl Champion Chris Long, Waterboys unites professional athletes, coaches, veterans and fans from across the world in support of a single, shared cause: providing clean, accessible drinking water to 1 million people. By working together, players and fans can make a meaningful difference for communities in desperate need by funding sustainable clean water projects. These projects provide life-giving water and all that comes from it, including education opportunities, improved health, and economic stability. Initially starting with projects in East Africa, Waterboys expanded its work in 2019 to also include U.S water projects and operates five core programs that support its work; NFL Waterboys, Hoops2o, Conquering Kili, Hometown H2o, and water4Her. To date, Waterboys has raised over $5 million with the help of over 48 professional athletes, providing clean drinking water to more than 395,000 people as a result. Waterboys is the signature initiative of The Chris Long Foundation. To find out more, visit waterboys.org.

About water4Her Impact Partners

World Vision

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization conducting relief, development, and advocacy activities in its work with children, families, and their communities in nearly 100 countries to help them reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender. World Vision is responding to the devastating impact of COVID-19 in more than 70 countries (24 in Africa) and every 60 seconds, World Vision is helping more than 200 people survive, recover, and rebuild from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

WorldServe International

WorldServe International, working in East Africa since 1996, addresses the world water crisis through established long-term collaboration with powerful partners to bring clean water where it can be sustainably accessed and maintained over time. Set apart by the sustainability of their sites, each clean water project is carefully planned and drilled by a fleet of drilling rigs and support vehicles. WorldServe’s model is focused on working with village leaders - including women - before, during and after the drilling process to successfully transform villages.

Mama Maji

Mama Maji is a non-profit organization that works to empower women through water access across the Maasai and Luhya communities in Kenya. Their programs provide women the necessary tools to turn their greatest burdens into pathways to success. Through targeted training in water infrastructure development, business, and health and sanitation, Mama Maji leverages a human-centered design to involve the community both locally and abroad, particularly the women, in every step, from formulation to celebration.

Global Grassroots

Global Grassroots is a non-profit organization founded in 2004 that supports Conscious Social Change, particularly through water and sanitation enterprises, for women and girls in post-conflict countries. Global Grassroots’ mindfulness-based social venture has trained more than 700 social change agents in post-conflict regions of East Africa. Since 2006 in Rwanda, Global Grassroots has launched 17 teams operating 26 active water sites, serving more than 75,000 people with clean water each year. This represents a 96% sustainability rate to date.

Global Environment & Technology Foundation (GETF)

Global Environment & Technology Foundation (GETF)

The Global Environment & Technology Foundation (GETF), established in 1988, is a leading 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to accelerate sustainable development through partnerships that deliver impact at scale. GETF builds and manages high impact public-private partnerships improving the lives of over 10 million people in 65 countries through water access, sanitation and hygiene, health systems strengthening, entrepreneurship, women’s empowerment, sustainable agriculture and climate resilience. Partnership platforms under GETF’s management include the Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN), The Coca-Cola Foundation’s signature community water initiative, the Water and Development Alliance (WADA) and Project Last Mile Partnership (PLM) both partnerships between The Coca-Cola Company and USAID. GETF serves as the Secretariat for two high-impact water coalitions – Global Water Challenge and the US Water Partnership.  For more information visit http://www.getf.org.

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