KIGALI, Rwanda—(BUSINESS WIRE)—President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton visited Kanombe school in Kigali, Rwanda to see the P&G Purifier of Water packets at work as part of Procter and Gamble’s (P&G) Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Commitment to Action to provide clean drinking water to those who need it most. P&G continues to deliver on its commitment to save one life every hour by the year 2020 by providing 2 billion liters of clean drinking water every year.
“Let me say how grateful I am to both P&G, one of the greatest companies in the world in terms of its responsibilities to society and building into their business model lifting lives of people, and to World Vision, one of the great treasures of NGOs, and the fact that they’re doing this together means a lot to me,” said President Bill Clinton who met children who use the P&G packets to purify their water.
This visit to Rwanda follows Chelsea Clinton’s recent trip to Myanmar, where she traveled with P&G and World Vision to deliver the 6 billionth liter of clean drinking water purified by the P&G Purifier of Water packets. Rwanda is one of the countries most affected by the clean drinking water crisis, with 80 percent of diseases affecting Rwandans coming from the water they drink and 11 percent of Rwandan children dying before they turn five.
“At P&G, we want to use our innovation to make social investments that allow people everywhere to thrive,” said Allison Tummon Kamphuis, P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program (CSDW) Manager. “These packets are being used all around the world to make dirty, unsafe water clean enough to drink with simple tools – a bucket, a stick, a cloth and a tiny packet. We’re honored to share this work with President Clinton and Chelsea and grateful for the work with World Vision that is bringing us closer to our goal to save one life every hour.”
P&G has been working with partners to provide clean drinking water in developing countries for nearly a decade with its award-winning water purification technology. To date, clean drinking water provided by P&G has saved an estimated 32,000 lives and prevented 250 million days of diarrheal illnesses across 71 countries. The powdered water purification product is a simple and effective way to make clean drinking water for the entire family, as the packets turns dirty, potentially deadly water into clean and drinkable water very quickly.
“It’s one of the simplest things we can do to save lives,” President Clinton said.
As a part of its CGI commitment, P&G will be participating in the Flash Flood for Good – a new social media initiative to be launched at the CGI Annual Meeting in New York City on September 24th. This effort will focus the attention of global leaders, not-for-profits, NGO’s, academics, celebrities, private sector partners, corporate brand and the public at large on the need for clean drinking water. The funds raised through this initiative will be used to deliver life-saving clean drinking water to Myanmar, Rwanda and Ethiopia through implementing partner World Vision. Supporters of FlashFloodForGood.org can use their digital voice to amplify the call to action to raise awareness and donate funds.
About Procter & Gamble and the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program
P&G serves approximately 4.8 billion people around the world with its brands. The Company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Ace®, Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Duracell®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Fusion®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Iams®, Lenor®, Mach3®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, Prestobarba®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, Wella®, and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.
The P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program (CSDW) is a non-profit initiative that has provided 6 billion liters of clean drinking water to people in need since 2004. CSDW has partnered with a diverse network of organizations to help distribute water purification packets in developing countries. To learn more about the P&G CSDW Program, and see how the water purification packets work, please visit www.csdw.org.
About Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date CGI members have made more than 2,300 commitments, which are already improving the lives of more than 400 million people in over 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at $73.5 billion.
CGI also convenes CGI America, a meeting focused on collaborative solutions to economic recovery in the United States, and CGI University (CGI U), which brings together undergraduate and graduate students to address pressing challenges in their community or around the world, and, this year, CGI Latin America, which will bring together Latin American leaders to identify, harness, and strengthen ways to improve the livelihoods of people in Latin America and around the world. For more information, visit clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.
