Water for Africa is a UK based charity which has developed a successful model over the last 12 years in providing communities in Africa with water, sanitation and health provisions. For the launch of their online campaign, which allows donations to fund the installation of boreholes via Facebook and its website, we have chosen the International Paris Marathon to illustrate the distance African women must walk every day to get clean water. The platform became “The Marathon Walker”.

We have asked Siabatou Sanneh, a 43 year old Gambian woman, to fly across the world to tell as many people as possible that access to clean water is a major problem for her family, her village and millions of others who live in Africa.

Alongside Siabatou, the idea was to symbolize the everyday marathon distances her and many others in Africa walk to access water. With a bucket full of water on her head, Siabatou walked part of the International Paris Marathon with a sign noting the shocking truth: “In Africa, women walk every day this distance for clean water. Help us shorten the distance www.themarathonwalker.fr”.

Our challenge was to inform about this situation in Africa and invite people to make donations to the cause directly online where donators can shorten the distance by funding sustainable water sources in Siabatou’s village and thereafter in villages all over Gambia. To address this, we capitalized on the strong storytelling around Siabatou to drive conversation on media and social media.

Raise interest

On March 22nd for the World Water Day, we sent a media alert as a teaser with key figures about water problems and gave them an appointment on April 12th.

Announce the initiative

From March 22nd until April 12th, we did an under embargo pre brief with key media based on a press release and videos to illustrate difficult life conditions in Gambia.

Spread the news

A French TV channel (TF1) covered the departure. AFP media alert and our post event press release have been sent to reveal the initiative with pictures of the day.

Real time actions

We organized interviews with Siabatou to explain her initiative, the reason why and highlight the association and its online platform.

Reveal the end

We sent pictures and videos to illustrate Siabatou back in her village and set up interviews to maintain interest and raise funds for other villages in Gambia.

One hour after Siabatou started her symbolic race, we collected enough funds to build the first borehole in her village. In just 3 weeks, the campaign has allowed us to start the construction of 4 more boreholes, and change the lives of thousands of African people. The campaign got over 25 million impressions and 4 million euros in earned media with a budget of next to nothing. And this is just the beginning. We are finishing a documentary that will continue to raise funds throughout the upcoming year.