Beyonce partners with UNICEF to provide water for Burundi’s children

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Europe

By CGTN's Jerry Owilli

Award winning music star Beyonce has joined hands with the United Nations’ children’s agency UNICEF, in efforts to provide safe, clean water to children in Burundi.

The American singer said the provision of clean water leads to good health and also enables the provision of education.

“Access to water is a fundamental right. When you give children clean and safe water, you don’t just give them life, you give them health, an education, and a brighter future,” Beyonce, 35, said in the statement.

Plans call for the project, BEYGOOD4BURUNDI, to help build wells and improve hygiene education and water and sanitation facilities in schools, UNICEF and the US star said in online statements.

Gloria, 13, carries water at her home in Musaga, in Bujumbura, Burundi in 2016. /UNICEF Photo

The statements added that two in five people in Burundi in East Africa have no access to clean water, and diseases caused by poor sanitation and unclean water are among the leading causes of death among children in the nation of 12 million people.

Beyonce also noted that more than two million people in the East African nation spend more than 30 minutes each day fetching water, forcing children to miss school and putting girls in particular danger, as they walk miles in search of wells.

UNICEF praised the plan, saying it will enable social change in Burundi.

“This unique partnership combines UNICEF’s decades of expertise in providing clean water to children in Burundi and around the world with the power and influence of the entertainment world to bring about social change,” said Caryl Stern, chief executive of UNICEF USA, in a statement.

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