Buy a Lady a Drink

Most of us take everyday things for granted, such as clean air to breath, food to eat and water to drink. Around the world nearly 750 million people do not have access to clean water. This adversely affects women who are the ones walking to collect the water for their families, over 200 million hours a day. The struggle these women go through are truly remarkable, collecting 44lbs of water per day just to be able to wash clothes, cook food and bath. For some families in India, it could take 20 trips BY FOOT to collect the amount of water a family in the U.S might use in a day. The hours these women put in week in and week out forces them to lose out on living. Because of the time they have lost, they are unable to get an education or even spend time with their families. Imagine hiring a babysitter for the day just so you can go get water.

Stella Artois, a Belgian based brewing company has taken notice in these women’s struggles and has partnered with Matt Damon's water.org to help stop these journeys with their ‘Buy a Lady a Drink’ campaign. They have donated 1.2 million dollars for the cause and are even trying to get their customers involved by offering a limited edition chalice for purchase. For every chalice sold, Stella will donate an additional $6.25 to water.org which in turn will provide 5 years of clean water for 1 person. The funds raised buy this campaign goes directly to aiding these women, on the water.org website the story of Anita can be watched, they had “a water tap installed in her home a year ago. Having water available at the start of every day has allowed Anita to work on the family business and plant crops, avoiding the long journey to the center of Nagpur to shop at the market for vegetables. More importantly, Anita’s children no longer miss school because of the need to line up at a local water source, only to wait for water that may never come.” (buyaladyadrink.com)

What is great about the commercials is that even though a beer company is sponsoring this movement, not a single drop of beer is shown. The end of the commercial doesn't have Matt Damon taking a gulp of Stella from one of the chalices, there is no Stella 18 wheeler delivering water bottles to the countries affected. Instead, real stories from real women can be read and scene in the ads and on the website, which clearly states who much of the proceeds are actually going to the cause. The "Buy a Lady a Drink" motto cleverly catches the eye and the stories make you want to contribute. Something has to be going right for the campaign because of the 20,000 beer glasses put up for sale, there are none left.

Water.org has a strong track record, they go beyond just digging a well (which eventually might fail) but instead look to aid assistance programs to gain access to municipal water taps and build private toilets. ”Considering the fact water scarcity is one of the biggest threats to global economic and political stability, more efforts such as this Stella Artois-Water.org partnership need to be on the drawing board.” (William Kaye, Triplepundit). 

buyaladyadrink.com

http://www.triplepundit.com/2015/01/stella-artois-wants-buy-lady-drink/?doing_wp_cron=1426792071.3303210735321044921875