Together Procter & Gamble and World Vision provide 1 billionth liter of clean drinking water

SEATTLE, March 4, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The partnership between World Vision and Procter and Gamble  (P&G) has resulted in 1 billion liters of clean drinking water shared with more than 6.5 million people in need around the world.

A family at a World Vision program in Gberami, Ghana, received the billionth liter from the partnership. A pond is the water source for Sikira Ahmed, her husband Ahmed Abdulai and their sons – 5-year-old Rasheed and 6-month-old Failu.

"It's miraculous that the partnership between P&G and World Vision has now grown to the point that it's provided 1 billion liters of clean water reaching 6.5 million people," said Dr. Greg Allgood, Vice President of Water at World Vision.

"At P&G we are committed to making every day better for people around the world," said Allison Tummon Kamphuis, Leader of the P&G Children's Safe Drinking Water Program. "We are grateful for our partnership with World Vision, helping  bring clean drinking water to millions of people with our P&G water purification packets in more than 34 countries. Together our work is propelling us closer to our goal to save one life every hour by 2020."

More than 100 million P&G Purifier of Water packets have been given to families throughout World Vision communities in 34 countries. Within 30 minutes the small packet transforms brown, dirty and dangerous water into clean and healthy water for drinking.

In November, 2012, The Economist magazine recognized the packets as one of the world's most impactful innovations.

P&G and World Vision also are launching an initiative to provide clean drinking water in West Africa, a result of one of the largest grants by the P&G Children's Safe Drinking Water Program. The new program will provide 180 million liters of clean drinking water in seven countries over the next year and benefit an estimated 1 million people.  

"The new effort to reach 1 million people in West Africa in the next year is particularly heartwarming because we'll be reaching the neediest people on the planet – people for whom clean water is a matter of life or death," Allgood said.

The World Vision/P&G partnership has continued to expand in the past year, including:

• Hosting Chelsea Clinton in a World Vision water program in Myanmar and both Chelsea and President Clinton in Rwanda. They learned about the challenges of not having clean, easily accessible water and participated in demonstrations of the P&G water purification packets in order to highlight P&G's Clinton Global Initiative commitment to scale up the CSDW Program to save one life every hour by 2020.
• Making World Vision a beneficiary of the P&G and Asda Clean Water Campaign, which hopes to provide 75 million days of clean drinking water to some of the world's poorest communities by the end of 2014 including World Vision water programs in seven countries in West Africa.
• Providing life-saving clean drinking water to survivors of the recent typhoon in the Philippines.

World Vision is the largest nongovernmental provider of clean water in the developing world – reaching one new person with clean water every 30 seconds.

Through its "For Every Child" campaign, World Vision is investing $400 million over six years to address the global water crisis and reach 7.5 million people alone with safe water, sanitation and hygiene.

More than 1,600 children die each day from diarrhea caused by unsafe water, and more die from diseases caused by unsafe water than by HIV/AIDS and malaria combined.

In just the last two years, World Vision has quadrupled its capacity to provide clean water in the developing world. Water is one critical element of World Vision's comprehensive, holistic development program. 

About Procter & Gamble
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.

About World Vision
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender. For more information, please visit www.WorldVision.org/press or on Twitter at @WorldVisionNews.

SOURCE World Vision U.S.