Spa/UNICEF Campaign for Safe Drinking Water in Burkina Faso
I’ve been working with Backbone Marketing in the Netherlands to provide them with a feature photograph to be used in a second year fundraising campaign that they’re developing for Spa – the big Dutch mineral water brand – in conjunction with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). They were looking for a photograph of children in Burkina Faso, and had picked out 3 of my Burkina images for consideration. During the 9-week campaign, every liter of Spa purchased by the consumer in the Netherlands helps the children in Burkino Faso, through a donation from Spa to UNICEF. The campaign has just launched, and the final photograph is being used on 600,000 Spa water bottle sleeves, various point of sale materials, and the campaign website.
Now, the really cool thing about this campaign is that it was very important for UNICEF that the children in the final selected photograph benefit in some way from the use of their image. Well, all five children in the photos they were considering are Fulani, which is an ethnic group that is traditionally pastoralist. What they know how to do is raise livestock. Three of the five children happen to be relatives of my husband, Idrissa, and live together in the same compound. We would also be able to contact the families of the other two children, should their photograph be picked. Well, we couldn’t speak for the other families, but we know that my husband’s family has many needs; Idrissa and I already pay for their school fees (though unfortunately, the schoolteacher of one of the children is awful and just sits and drinks tea all day), and we contribute to their food. They have no bank account, and if you give cash to the parents, it will just go towards immediate needs. Therefore, in consulting with Idrissa, he suggested that we give the family money to purchase a cow to be owned jointly by the children (plus a mosquito net for each child). That’s the best thing that we could do if we want the money to specifically benefit the children (not the adults), AND be a long-lasting benefit. When the cow grows older and gives birth, eventually, both children will have cows for themselves (building wealth), rather than sharing a single cow. Plus, when the cow gives birth, the children will have milk – which is high in protein – for the two years following each birth.
Well, in the end, it so happened that Spa and UNICEF picked one of the photographs of two of our relatives (without knowing which photograph was which), and UNICEF went WILD over the proposal to purchase a cow for the two kids. So after the deal was sealed, we sent the money for the cow by Western Union to my husband’s family. Idrissa was worried that if they knew the money was for the kids, that the parents would simply spend it, so he initially told them that the cow was supposed to be for us. Then, after buying the cow, he announced that the cow was actually for the kids, AND he sent someone out to the location where the family was spending the rainy season to VIDEO the two kids receiving the news! We’ve sent along the video – with the kids saying “Merci Spa, Merci UNICEF” (thank you Spa, thank you UNICEF) – to Backbone Marketing. And best of all? It turns out that the money was enough to buy TWO cows!!! Now how cool is that???!!!
