Academy for Educational Development

More than a billion people throughout the world lack access to safe drinking water. To raise awareness of the issue, AED, under the Procter & Gamble (P&G)-funded Mswakini Safe Drinking Water Program, hosted Summit on the Summit in January. As part of this fund-raising initiative, a team of activists and celebrities visited the program and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to explore firsthand how the global water crisis impacts families in Tanzania.

The Safe Drinking Water Program is improving access to safe drinking water in Mswakini village, a Masai community near Arusha, Tanzania, where more than 80% of households obtain their drinking water from open, unprotected sources. Through the program, community members receive PUR, an easy-to-use household product that removes pathogenic microorganisms and suspended matter from water [view demonstration here]. Mswakini residents also participate in household and community-level education sessions aimed at improving safe drinking water, hygiene, and sanitation practices.

As part of Summit on the Summit, actors Jessica Biel, Emile Hirsch, and Isabel Lucas and musicians Kenna, Lupe Fiasco, and Santigold, among others, visited the village. There they met with children who demonstrated how to use PUR. They also spoke with teachers, health officials, program volunteers, families, and community elders about drinking-water issues facing the community and how the program is addressing these challenges.

While in the village, the Summit team sent a video greeting to viewers of the People’s Choice Awards, encouraging them to donate via text message to help provide safe drinking water in the developing world. A documentary of their journey aired on March 14, 2010 on MTV. The campaign has continued on the Summit on the Summit  Web site, where visitors can donate and view the team’s blogs, pictures, and videos from Mswakini and Mount Kilimanjaro.

Furthering the cause in Tanzania, AED is also making PUR and related water, hygiene, and sanitation education available to 140,000 home-based care participants with HIV and AIDS through T-MARC, a USAID-funded project.