Inside Outdoor Summer 2017

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Inside Outdoor | SUMMER 2017 20
Since 2013, LifeStraw’s
Follow the Liters program has
ensured that, for every product
sold to a consumer, a school
child in a developing community
receives safe water for an entire
school year. Prior to the program,
LifeStraw had been working in
Kenya with humanitarian prod-
ucts long before it launched prod-
ucts at retail. In fact, in 2011 the
company implemented a program
covering more than 800,000
households with safe water in
western Kenya.
Follow the Liters was con-
ceived during a trip to a health
clinic the company supports in
Kakamega, Kenya. After imple-
menting the household program,
staff realized some kids were still
getting sick and coming to the
clinic while they were at school.
At the same time, LifeStraw
had begun piloting retail sales
in North America and wanted to
connect those sales with its hu-
manitarian work.
A few months later, Follow the
Liters was born – enabling con-
sumers to have a tangible impact
on school children in developing
communities, and it took a vil-
lage – starting with community
connections in Kenya and con-
tinuing with the help and support
of LifeStraw’s distribution teams,
retail partners and consumers
around the world.
In November 2014, the com-
pany launched the school pro-
gram in Kenya using the high-
volume LifeStraw Community
purifiers. In less than 4 years,
LifeStraw has now provided
more than 630,000 school chil-
dren with safe water.
LifeStraw is unique in that
the company implements these
programs itself and does so
with a long-term commitment to
the schools and the surround-
ing communities. LifeStraw has
more staff in Kenya than its oth-
er offices around the world com-
bined (it takes a village). There
are 35 full-time dedicated staff
that work on the Follow the Li-
ters program there.
LifeStraw also makes a five-
year commitment in every school
such that for every one LifeStraw
product sold, a school child re-
ceives safe water for a year, but
for every five products sold, that
same school child has safe wa-
ter for five years.
Everything is tracked
– LifeStraw uses a mobile
phone-based electronic moni-
toring survey platform whereby
local staff upload data from
school visits every term, track
progress, make repairs and
provide additional health,
hygiene and sanitation educa-
tion. GPS coordinates of all
the schools covered by the
program are readily available
on the LifeStraw website.
LifeStraw recently received a
Halo Gold award for Follow the
Liters – one of the highest corpo-
rate social responsibility honors
in North America. But its biggest
success is yet to come – the
company is making a commit-
ment that by 2018, it will reach
one million kids.
LifeStraw strongly believes
that connecting consumers with
communities around the world
can help to facilitate social
change and enable the unique
conversations that drive innova-
tion forward. In that vein, the
company is releasing several
new products this fall; all of
which will, of course, be tied to
the Follow the Liters Program.
To get more involved, visit
.
Tara Lundy is head of program
development for Vestergaard
(LifeStraw’s parent company).
‘It Takes a Village’
GORP
LifeStraw’s Follow the Liters Program
“LifeStraw
also makes
a five-year
commitment
in every school
such that
for every one
LifeStraw
product sold,
a school child
receives safe
water for
a year.”
Photo courtesy Chris Brinlee Jr., LifeStraw
By Tara Lundy