Unilever Partners with PSI and Facebook to Launch Waterworks™

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• Publié par: unilever-plc
• Nombre de lectures: 90
• Langue: English

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Unilever Partners with PSI and Facebook to

Launch Waterworks™

PR Newswire

LONDON and ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands, June 22, 2012

LONDON

and

ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands

,

June 22, 2012

/PRNewswire/ --

Programme will deliver clean drinking water to communities in need

Unilever, through the Unilever Foundation, in partnership with PSI (Population

Services International) announces the launch of Waterworks™, a non-for-profit

programme that will provide safe clean drinking water to communities in need

around the world. Waterworks™, which operates through a ground-breaking

Timeline application developed jointly with Facebook, will connect people with

means directly with people and communities in need.

Water is the source of life, but almost 800 million people don't have access to

clean drinking water. Preventable water-borne diseases, such as dysentery and

diarrhoea are a particular threat to the weakest members of society: a child

dies from water-related illness every 20 seconds.

Keith Weed, Unilever's Chief Marketing Officer, explains, "In

July 2010

, the

United Nations declared that safe and clean drinking water is a human right; we

share this belief and have made a public and ambitious commitment through

the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan to provide safe drinking water to 500

million people by 2020. But to overcome a challenge of this scale, we cannot

achieve this change alone; we need to work in partnership."

"At Unilever, we believe that small, everyday actions can add up to a big

difference; and that the power of social connections can drive real change

around the world. On Facebook, nearly a billion people take small actions every

day, they connect to the individuals and organisations that matter most to them

and they discover new things through their friends. We want to leverage the

power of the social graph and the ripple effects that each person's actions can

create, to inspire and enrol many more to make a difference," adds Weed.

Initially launched as a beta pilot, Waterworks™ is among the first Timeline

applications for charitable giving, connecting Facebook users around the world

with real individuals and communities in need. People will be invited to sign up

to Waterworks™ and connect the application to their Facebook Timeline. They

will partner with a PSI-trained Waterworker and choose a small daily donation -

as little as €0.10. Their funds will directly support the water-poor communities,

where Waterworkers will provide education about the benefits of clean drinking

water and distribute life-saving Pureit water purifiers and sachets to families in

need.

"PSI is excited to be working with innovative partners like the Unilever

Foundation and Facebook to launch Waterworks™ - a clean water program

rooted in community-based knowledge and action," says Karl Hofmann,

President and CEO of PSI.

"Our Waterworkers will be women from the communities in which they will

work- mothers, sisters, and aunts who will be able to

have trusted conversations with their families and friends about health issues

that affect the community.

Through participation in Waterworks they will gain not only a steady income but

also receive training on communication techniques and local health issues, as

well as access to clean water for their own families."

In its initial stage, PSI will train 75 Waterworkers who will educate the neediest

people in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh,

India

about the need for clean water and its

opportunity to improve the health and wellness of their community. They will

distribute life-saving Pureit sachets and purifiers to these families.

Each Waterworker will be given a mobile phone, preloaded with a custom

Waterworks™ J2ME application that will allow her to take photos and record

stories. She will share these updates back to her Partners on Facebook,

demonstrating how their funds are making an impact in her community, and

inspiring her Partners to continue giving and supporting her work.

Since the Waterworks™ app is 'social by design', a community of support will

form around each Waterworker, as powerful stories have the opportunity to

impact and influence friends and millions of friends of friends. The

Waterworks™ application, developed by Betapond, makes it easy for Facebook

users to discover the big difference their small donations make. The application

makes charitable giving more social, more personal and more relevant. It

sends personal notifications to donors, enabling a real connection between an

individual Waterworker and the Facebook users who supported her.

"Through Waterworks™, the Unilever Foundation is showing that the right

combination of people and technology can lead to social solutions that

effectively combat some of the largest and most difficult challenges we face,"

said Joanna Shields, VP and Managing Director, EMEA at Facebook. "Unilever is

a fantastic, highly innovative partner and we're excited to help them continue

to build their presence on Facebook for both their brands and charitable

endeavours. Unilever understands that when people are given the platform to

share their experiences and affect change, amazing things can happen."

http://www.joinWaterworks.com

http://www.facebook.com/Waterworks

Notes to Editors

About Unilever

Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods

with operations in over 100 countries and sales in 190. Consumers buy 170

billion Unilever packs around the world every year, and our products are used

over two billion times a day. We have more than 171,000 employees, and

generated annual sales of €46.5 billion in 2011.

Working to create a better future every day, we help people feel good, look

good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them

and good for others. Our portfolio includes some of the world's best known and

most loved brands including thirteen €1 billion brands, and global leadership in

most categories in which we operate.

The portfolio features iconic brands such as: Knorr, Hellmann's, Lipton, Dove,

Vaseline, Persil, Cif, Marmite and Pot Noodle.

Unilever's ambition is to double the size of our business, whilst reducing our

overall environmental impact (including sourcing, consumer use and disposal).

We are also committed to doing what we can to improve health, nutrition and

hygiene, with a target to help more than a billion people take action to improve

their health and well-being, as well as sourcing all our agricultural raw materials

sustainably by 2020. All of these goals are itemised in around 60 time-based

commitments in our Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

Unilever has led the Food Producers sector in the Dow Jones Sustainability

World Indexes for 13 consecutive years. We are included in the FTSE4Good

Index Series and attained a top environmental score of 5, leading to inclusion in

the FTSE4Good Environmental Leaders Europe 40 Index. In 2011 Unilever led

the Climate Counts Company Scorecard and was named #1 in the list of Global

Corporate Sustainability Leaders according to the latest survey findings from

GlobeScan Inc. and SustainAbility Ltd.

For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit

http://www.unilever.com

Unilever Foundation

The Unilever Foundation is dedicated to improving quality of life through the provision

of hygiene, sanitation, access to clean drinking water, basic nutrition and enhancing

self-esteem. The Foundation is one action Unilever is taking to help meet its goal of

helping more than 1 billion people improve their health and well-being, and in turn,

create a sustainable future. For more information, visit

http://www.unilever.com/foundation

PSI

PSI

is a global non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health of

people in the developing world by focusing on serious challenges like a lack of

family planning, HIV/AIDS, maternal health, and the greatest threats to children

under five, including malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition.

http://www.psi.org;

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/PSIHealthyLives; Blog:

http://www.psi.org/HealthyLives

Press Office

Lucila Zambrano, [e-mail], [phone]

Unilever PLC, 100 Victoria Embankment,

London, UK

Email: [e-mail]

Web: http://www.unilever.com