“I am participating in a sponsored campaign hosted by Emergen-C®. I received compensation for this post. While all opinions stated are my own, I make no claims about Emergen-C® as a product or its effectiveness.” 
Imagine you live in a village in Ethiopia that does not have clean drinking water. Each day you must walk 3 hours to find water for drinking, cooking, and washing.
You are carrying a 40-pound Jerry Can full of water, so you walk more slowly. You are also tired, hot, and hungry.
Now imagine if the water you walked for miles and hours to fetch is full of contaminates that cause disease and serious illness, and that is the only source of water available to you and your family.
Unfortunately 633 million people around the world do not have to imagine this, it is their reality.
In most developing countries, the burden of fetching water falls on women and children. The effort of carrying a 40-pound container can consume 25% of a woman’s daily caloric intake. The heavy weight can create many health problems and disadvantages for them because they often spend every day hauling water. Finding and carrying water excludes them from education, earning income, and cultural activities.
The United Nations estimates that Sub-Saharan Africa loses 40 billion hours per year collecting water; that’s the same as a whole year’s worth of labor by France’s entire workforce! This is incredibly valuable time.
The good news… this is a solvable problem.
Emergen-C® has joined forces with charity: water, a non-profit whose mission is to bring clean, safe water to people in developing countries around the world. One hundred percent of public donations go directly to funding sustainable water solutions in areas with the greatest need. Over the past nine years, charity: water has funded 17,673 clean water projects in 24 countries, which will in turn bring clean safe drinking water to more than 5.6 million people.
Clean drinking water is at the core of the Emergen-C® product experience, so the partnership with charity: water is a natural fit for the brand.
All of the work Emergen-C® will be doing and the money the brand will be donating will be going toward building and supporting new, clean drinking water sources in Ethiopia.
It all starts with water
Access to clean water transforms lives:
– it improves health,
– enhances education opportunity,
– and empowers women in developing countries.
When we give to help build an accessible water well, we can make sustainable agriculture possible. We can allow children to get back to school instead of collecting water all day. The hours lost to gathering water are often the difference between the time to learn to read, earn a living, and not. 
As a mother to two daughters, just thinking of all the things they would miss if they had to take three hours out of each day to get water, makes me very sad. My girls have had a safe place to learn, grow, and achieve. I want other girls from around the world to have the same opportunities.
On World Water Day (March 22, 2016) Emergen-C® and charity: water kicked off a consumer challenge to demonstrate the burden that women and young girls have to carry on a daily basis.
The #40Pounds Challenge demonstrates the weight of water women and girls have to carry every day to provide water for their families. As long as this weight has to be lifted on a daily basis, women and girls will be held back from education, access to basic personal care and safety.
#40Pounds doesn’t just represent the physical weight of a full Jerry Can, it symbolizes the overall burden women and young girls, who don’t have access to clean safe water, have to carry every day.
Help “lift the burden”
With your interest and support, Emergen-C® and charity: water can help women move from a life of lost opportunities and illness to a far more positive future.
By snapping a picture holding 40 pounds of anything found around the house, posting it to Twitter and Instagram with #40Pounds and tagging @emergenc, we are helping to “lift the burden” that these women and girls face each day.
In this photo I am holding two tires. Each tire weighs about 20 pounds. I consider myself a strong, healthy woman, but I can tell you, it would be brutal to carry this much weight for hours each day. Just unimaginable!
It’s your turn!
Upload a photo to Instagram and Twitter with #40Pounds, tag @EmergenC and extend the challenge to friends or family members by tagging them as well.
For every #40Pounds picture uploaded and tagged @emergenc #40Pounds, Emergen-C® will donate $5 to charity: water in your name. All of the proceeds will go directly to funding sustainable water solutions in Ethiopia.
Visit charity: water to learn more about their work to improve water and sanitation. To learn how you can help, visit emergenctransforms.com.