Homeland star supports new CAFOD campaign

David Harewood

Award-winning actor David Harewood is giving his support to CAFOD's new campaign aimed at ending global water poverty for good. ‘Thirst for Change’ calls for action to tackle the millions of deaths each year in developing countries caused by unclean water and unsafe sanitation.
 
Despite the Millennium Development Goal which commits the world’s most powerful countries to halving the number of people without access to clean water and sanitation by 2015, 884 million people in the world still do not have access to clean water. The charity is urging supporters to write to David Cameron calling on him to put water poverty back on the agenda at this year’s G8 summit before another year is lost.
 
David Harewood, star of the Golden Globe nominated drama, ‘Homeland’ recently returned from filming in America to pledge his support for ‘Thirst for Change’. While signing his message to the Prime Minister, David explained why the issue is so important to him: “I think it’s an absolute scandal that in 2012, one in eight people in the world does not have access to clean water. Something we take for granted in Britain and America is just a distant dream for millions of people in the poorest countries. I could not believe it when I read that diarrhoea is the single biggest killer of children in Africa – how can we possibly stand back and let something so easily preventable carry on?
 
“We know there is enough water in the world for everyone so we really have to put the pressure on world leaders to address the problems of access and distribution of this precious resource.”
 
David also appears in a short film about the campaign alongside people from the poorest countries describing the impact that being denied ready access to clean water has on their lives.
 
Speaking out about the global water crisis CAFOD director Chris Bain said: “Access to clean water is one of the most fundamental human needs, and it should be one of the most automatic human rights. Yet every day hundreds of millions of people are still going without clean water and sanitation; and for millions more, every day is consumed by walking and queuing for hours to carry water home.
 
“A decade ago, the world made a promise to halve this problem, but even that target is off track. It doesn’t have to be this way: what we lack is simply the political will and the financial commitment from the world’s most powerful countries to get clean water and safe sanitation to the people who need them. That’s why we’re calling on David Cameron to put water poverty on the table at the next G8 summit, and we ask everyone who can to add their voice.”
 
Throughout the campaign, CAFOD supporters will be backing ’Thirst for Change’ by sending their own personal messages to David Cameron. There will also be a range of events taking place around England and Wales to raise funds for the charity’s overseas water programmes and to raise awareness of the urgent need for action.

For more information see:  www.cafod.org.uk/take-action/thirst-for-change/thirst-for-change-resources