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Stamford, CT, July 27 2004 – AmeriCares, in collaboration with the Procter and Gamble (NYSE:PG) Health Sciences Institute, has delivered one million PŪR™ water purification sachets to the Sudanese refugees in Chad, Africa.
More than 150,000 refugees are desperate for clean water, as they suffer from the relentless desert conditions of northern Chad. Forced to flee the ethnic violence in Sudan, they have no shelter, no food and no medicine. They must walk hours to find water and when they do, the water is brackish and makes them sick. The common side effect of drinking dirty water is diarrhea which may be causing and exacerbating the already epidemic levels of malnutrition, according to a United Nations report from Chad.
“Over the past several months AmeriCares has airlifted enough PŪR water purification packets to clean 10,000,000 liters of water,” said Curt Welling, AmeriCares president and chief operating officer. “Clean water is one of the top public health concerns and we’ve determined that PŪR is a practical option for providing safe drinking water in an emergency situation.”
The P&G PŪR technology is quite simple. Within minutes of mixing the contents of one small “teabag-sized” packet into a container of water it separates out the dirt and other contaminants. The water is then filtered through a cloth, resulting in clean, safe drinking water.
“PŪR acts like a dirt magnet. The research and testing clearly show that it works,” said Greg Allgood, PhD, associate director of the P&G Health Sciences Institute. For the past three months, Stamford-based AmeriCares has been airlifting aid into Chad and trucking it hundreds of miles across grueling terrain to makeshift camps along the Chad/Sudanese border. Working with the International Rescue Committee’s mobile health clinics, AmeriCares has supplied 27 tons of medicines for diarrhea and cholera, IV fluids and other essential drugs, and relief provisions, in addition to the PŪR.
A recent health intervention trial published in the American Journal of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine demonstrated that PŪR can significantly reduce diarrheal illness in children.
ABOUT AMERICARESSince its founding in 1982, AmeriCares has provided more than $3.5 billion of short-term and long-term assistance to more than 137 countries. When a country is faced with hardship as a result of hurricanes, floods, earthquakes or civil strife, AmeriCares responds immediately with life-saving relief assistance and continues support as long as there is a need. AmeriCares works hard to ensure that it is effective and accountable, and has been awarded the four-star rating from Charity Navigator. For every $100 donated, more than $2,800 of aid is delivered.To help AmeriCares with its relief effort for the Sudanese refugees in Chad the public can make a donation online at: www.americares.org or by calling AmeriCares directly at 800-486-HELP (4357).
ABOUT P>wo billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the largest and strongest portfolios of trusted, quality brands, including Pampers®, Tide®, Ariel®, Always®, Whisper®, Pantene®, Bounty®, Pringles®, Folgers, Millstone, Charmin®, Downy®, Lenor®, Iams®, Crest®, Actonel®, Olay® and Clairol Nice ‘n Easy®. The P&G community consists of nearly 98,000 employees working in almost 80 countries worldwide. Please visit www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.More information on P&G’s safe drinking water program can be found on www.pghsi.com. P&G is providing PuR at cost to global relief groups for providing emergency water.