Water changes everything. Clean water can improve health, increase access to food, grow local economies and help kids spend more time in school. In Africa alone, women spend 40 billion hours a year walking for water, and diseases from dirty water kill more people annually than all forms of violence combined, including war. For these reasons, the Caterpillar Foundation and Cat Footwear, a division of Wolverine Worldwide, are making a bold commitment to bring clean drinking water to every person on the planet.
Caterpillar Foundation and Cat Footwear are partnering with Charity: Water, a non-profit organization that brings clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations, in an effort to raise awareness and bring an end to the water crisis that impacts communities worldwide. The initiative launched today at the SXSW Marketplace in Austin, TX, where Cat Footwear co-hosted a booth with the charity. The booth featured a “water walk” where attendees could carry two jerry cans weighing up to 40 pounds down a walkway to experience a small portion of what it’s like to walk for water. Each person who experiences the walk for water through either the “water walk” or Virtual Reality participation will unlock a donation, made by the Caterpillar Foundation, that will bring clean and safe drinking water to one person.
Onder Ors, president of Cat Footwear, notes that there are 663 million people on the planet who don’t have clean water. “The need for clean water is something that the Caterpillar Foundation has been supporting for years, and there is still so much work to be done,” he states. “That’s why we’re asking our Earthmovers to take a walk for water to help us solve the water crisis for good.”
Throughout the remainder of the year, Cat Footwear and the Foundation will continue to promote efforts for clean water, including a social media campaign and promotions at its 171 Cat flagship stores around the world. On social media, consumers will be invited to #ShareBoldly; where every three likes or shares will equal clean and safe drinking water for one person. The Caterpillar Foundation will donate $30 for every three social actions to charity: water, up to a maximum of $250,000.
The Caterpillar Foundation’s mission is to alleviate poverty and place people on the path to prosperity. Through their collaborative impact platform Together.Stronger they are uniting businesses, non-profits, governments and citizens to combine their strengths to help 50 million people rise out of poverty by 2020.
