In May 2008, Ariel announced the launch of a brand new initiative to donate 80 million liters of safe drinking water to children in developing nations. Working in partnership with the Children’s Safe Drinking Water program and PSI’s Five & Alive initiative, Ariel will donate 10 liters of safe drinking water for every special pack purchased in the UK from 1 May — the equivalent to a week’s supply of drinking water for a small child in the developing world. Respected British actress and mother Joely Richardson is supporting the campaign to inspire the British public to help get safe drinking water to families in countries that need it most. Having witnessed first hand the life-saving efforts of the Children’s Safe Drinking Water program in Malawi, Ms. Richardson will help to educate people on how their support of the Ariel campaign can truly make a difference abroad. Since its launch in 2003, the Children’s Safe Drinking Water program has provided more than one billion liters of clean drinking water for children and their families in need around the world. It has provided clean drinking water to people in 30 developing nations with the introduction of the PUR purifier of water. Since 2004, the Children’s Safe Drinking Water program
has supported Five & Alive’s programs with an annual contribution of $1.4 million dollars to help further programs such as distribution of PUR to orphanages in Uganda, a school program in Kenya, clinic programs and an emergency relief response network for Latin America.

Five & Alive, an initiative of PSI, reaches children five and under to prevent and treat malaria, water-borne illness, pneumonia and malnutrition by providing children and their families with the education, products, services and care needed to improve health and save lives in more than 30 countries. In 2006, Five & Alive program treated over 8.6 billion liters of drinking water, averting 4.1 million cases of water borne illness and saving lives of 6000 children through its safe water programs alone. P&G and Five & Alive have been in partnership for the last three years with the goal of providing safe drinking water in the
developing world through household water treatment using P&G’s PUR Purifier of Water. P&G and Five & Alive work together to provide safe drinking water with PUR in Uganda, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Malawi, Haiti, Pakistan, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia. Ariel’s safe drinking water donation will be supplied to the countries using PUR technology – sachets of a powder that cleans and purifies water to World Health Organisation standards for safe drinking water, importantly reducing diarrheal illness.
Each 4g sachet can purify 10 liters of water, with the campaign aiming to donate a total of 80 million liters of safe drinking water to children in developing nations.

Text and photograph for this highlight courtesy Population Service International, a partner and Cooperating Organization with dgCommunity Youth for Development.