Sourced From: http://www.marketwatch.com
The PepsiCo Foundation recently announced that it will provide $5 million grant aimed at supporting the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) with the purpose of enabling rural communities in China to get access to clean water. The grant – which will be awarded over a three-year period and administered by Give2Asia, a U.S.-based non-profit organization founded by the Asia Foundation – will help fund the efforts of ACWF’s China Women’s Development Foundation (CWDF) to provide safe water access for 500,000 people in the central and western regions of China by 2015.
This is the largest individual grant provided by the PepsiCo Foundation to any program in China and builds upon its ongoing support of the CWDF’s “Water Cellars for Mothers” Project, an award-winning program that has benefited 1.7 million people.
“Water sits at the nexus of so many global challenges, including health, hunger, and economic growth. The only way to measurably and sustainably address these issues is through broad-scale collaborative efforts between governments, industry, NGOs, and other stakeholders around the world,” said PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi. “We are proud to support the important work of the All-China Women’s Federation, and we will continue to look for opportunities to do our part to alleviate water scarcity in China and other countries around the world.”
“Ever since its entry into China, PepsiCo has always put equal emphases upon strategic business growth and corporate social responsibility (CSR) fulfillment. The cooperation between ACWF and PepsiCo is now turning a new chapter with this further donation to Water Cellars for Mothers project,” said Mme. Zhen Yan, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the Secretariat of ACWF and Vice Chairman of CWDF. “ACWF highly commends PepsiCo’s long-term commitment to public welfare. We hope that more enterprises with a strong sense of CSR will engage in the interest of public welfare and contribute positively to the development of a harmonious society in China.”
In recent years, several regions across China have been facing severe drought and floods. Government, non-profit and developmental agencies have mobilized programs to better protect and manage China’s precious water resources. Since 1985, more than 160 million residents of rural China have benefited from various programs.
Supported by China’s Ministry of Water Resources, the PepsiCo Foundation’s grant will fund safe water access projects for people in rural villages and primary schools in eight provinces and municipalities, including Yunnan, Gansu, Guangxi, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia.
The grant was announced at a public ceremony in Beijing last Thursday. At the event, Chen Zhili, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and Chairman of ACWF, presented a certificate to PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi. Other senior leaders from ACWF and senior officers from Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Environmental Protection and China Beverage Industry Association also attended the ceremony.
The PepsiCo Foundation’s support for ACWF is part of the company’s global commitment to global water stewardship. As part of this commitment, PepsiCo has pledged to:
Provide access to safe water to three million people in developing countries by the end of 2015.
Improve water use efficiency by 20 percent per unit of production by 2015.
Strive for “positive water balance” in water-distressed areas.
