LA GRAU-DU-ROI, France — In 2022, about 2.2 billion people in many countries suffered from a lack of safe drinking water. This represents a daily fight for these people who realize regular trips to faraway water sources. For his 26th birthday, the international football star Paul Pogba wanted to raise £26,000 for charity: water, an association that aims at providing clean water to developing countries. He promised to double the amount of money collected for the charity. Today the organization counts 111,709 water projects in 29 countries.
Charity Water and Its Action
Scott Harrison founded charity: water in 2006. It all started with a cold email sent to get assistance and advice from entrepreneurs to launch the charity. The first reply Harrison obtained was from Bebo’s co-founder, Michael Birch. This man presented the charity to many of the technology industry’s leaders in Silicon Valley and redesigned charity: water’s website.
In December 2012, charity: water received a subvention of $5 million from the Google Global Impact Awards to finance 4,000 controller installations to check the wells’ states in Ethiopia, Nepal and other countries in Africa and Asia. In September 2022, the association invited gamers and web creators to stream to raise money to provide clean water to 10,638 persons in one month. Many were present at the stream session as Ranboo, a 4.4 million followers channel on Twitch.
Playing Football to Raise Money
In 2019, Paul Pogba attended a football game aimed at raising money to provide clean water in Guinea. His two brothers, Florentin and Matias played in this match in front of 45,000 spectators. They chose this country because their mother is Guinean. According to her, they are trying to raise funds for children by providing drinking water, health and education. Many of Pogba’s friends were present such as the Miami Heats basketball player Jimmy Butler and the singer Akon. That gave this event a global impact.
“Before being footballers, we are men, we are humans, we are children. My mother who is here, who is Guinean and my father who was Guinean, we want to help our country, it’s the country of our ancestors, of our parents, we want to do something good,” Pogba said at the event.
In addition to Paul Pogba’s work with charity: water, other footballers support organizations or have created their own. One example is Inspired by KM Charity created by Kylian Mbappé to help French children to achieve their goals by offering them financial support. In 2020, for instance, children participated in a cooking workshop at the Pullman Hotel in Paris.
charity: water’s actions aim at providing clean water for people in need because access to drinking water means education, income and health. One in 10 people worldwide, or 10 times the population of the U.K. still live without clean water. Notably, as the frequency of droughts is increasing globally, more nations will struggle to have access to adequate clean water going forward. Unfortunately, this trend is leading to increased conflict over water rights in many regions across the globe, making the work of charity:water and other similar groups more important than ever.
– Olivia Roy Fritsch
Photo: Flickr