Healthy drinks specialist Calypso have joined forces with Save the Children in the launch of a new water brand, Thirst Aid, which will raise funds to provide clean drinking water in Ethiopia.
Monday 4 August 2008
Following the July launch of Thirst Aid in 330ml and 500ml bottles, Calypso aim to raise £55,000 within two years through UK sales.
That money will fund an initiative in which Save the Children will work with the local community in Sayint district, 590km north of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, where 40% of the population gets its water from unclean sources.
In Ethiopia nine million children are at risk of catching diseases from dirty water. The objective will be to create new springs and wells, protect existing ones and provide ongoing education in basic sanitation and good health practices.
Thirst Aid will be available to the multiple retail, independent and food service channels, with 5p per 500ml bottle and 3p per 330ml bottle going directly to Save the Children. It will be supplied in outers of 24 and carry recommended retail prices of 60p for 500ml and 45p for 330ml bottles.
“Thirst Aid may not be the first ‘ethical water’, and we don’t claim that we’re going to be able to solve Ethiopia’s drinking water problems on our own, but we do believe that recognition of Save the Children as the world’s foremost independent children’s charity will be hugely important in attracting consumers and generating funds,” said Richard Cooke, Calypso’s Sales and Marketing Director.
Cooke continued, “Each year, an estimated 472,000 Ethiopian children under the age of five die, 20% of them from diarrhoea which can often be the result of drinking dirty water – so this is an initiative that really will save young lives.”
Money raised through sales of Thirst Aid won’t simply be ploughed into equipment and exported to Ethiopia:
“Save the Children will work closely with the communities of Sayint on the Thirst Aid water project,” explained Ken Caldwell, Director of International Operations at Save the Children.
“We want the people of Sayint to get involved by contributing local materials and their own labour so the 14 new water systems and 4 new wells can be set up, maintained and repaired within the community. This way the benefits of healthy drinking water should be felt for generations to come, and more children's lives will be saved.”
Thirst Aid will be bottled at Calypso’s own approved source of natural mineral water in North Wales and enters the UK’s bottled water market at a time when plain bottled water remains the second biggest volume seller in the soft drinks market.
Calypso will be exhibiting the new ethical water at the Local Authority Catering Association’s School Meals Catering Exhibition in July, and at the Out-at-Home Exhibition at Earls Court, London in November. Save the Children will also be featuring Thirst Aid at a number of festivals throughout the UK over the summer.
Visit http://www.thirstaidwater.co.uk/ for more information.