WaterAid – Page 2 – SOCIAL MEDIA FOR DEVELOPMENT

World Water Day and Mustafah Abdulaziz

March 21, 2014March 21, 2014 Admin Leave a comment

For the UN World Water Day tomorrow WaterAid have come up with another innovative idea to inject life into their social media channels. To highlight the 1 in 10 people around the globe without access to clean drinking water they have partnered with celebrated photojournalist Mustafah Abdulaziz. American-born Mustafah Abdulaziz is a Berlin-based photographer whose work has appeared in CNN Online, Dazed and Confused and others. Abdulaziz will also take over WaterAid’s Instagram feed for a full week with his stunning images from WaterAid projects in Pakistan.

Pakistan is one of six countries where WaterAid is working with the support of the HSBC Water Programme. The five-year programme aims to reach 1.1 million people with safe water and 1.9 million people with sanitation in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan in South Asia; and Nigeria and Ghana in West Africa.

Neil Wissink, Senior Photography Officer at WaterAid, said:

“We wanted to harness Mustafah’s passion for the subject and show water and sanitation issues from a different perspective. We’re really pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with a photojournalist like Mustafah.”

Follow WaterAid @WaterAid on Instagram from March 22 to view the project

Image Credit: WatwerAid / Mustafah Abdulaziz

WaterAid increases Instagram following with one Instavid

March 14, 2014March 14, 2014 Admin Leave a comment

WaterAid has increased its Instagram presence by over 20,000 followers in just one week after entering a single ‘Instavid’ to Instagram’s ‘Weekend Hashtag Project’ competition.

WaterAid’s film team entered the 15 second Instavid ‘WHP:fromwhereiwalk’, featuring a woman in the remote fishing community of Brubeng, Ghana walking to collect unsafe water in Lake Volta. The clip was selected by Instagram as one of their favourite submissions.

The unique was shot on a GoPro positioned on the woman’s head and angled down towards her feet. The innovative film offers point of view footage that highlights what it is like for millions of women around the world who walk miles to collect water each day and comes from a longer shot of water collection now featured on the charity’s YouTube Channel.

WaterAid Film Producer Catherine Feltham who shot the footage in Ghana said:

“We’re really thrilled to see that the Instagram community has responded so well to our submission; we have not only gained followers, but people are engaging more with WaterAid’s stories on the channel with likes and comments. When we spotted the brief we realised it was the perfect opportunity to be able to raise awareness of the challenging circumstances in which millions of women collect water each day around the world. I think this footage stood out as it was so different to the other entries; people do not expect to see women wading through a dirty lake to collect water in 2014, and yet the tragic reality is that 768 million people still live without access to safe water.”

This is a great example of how charities can increase their social media followers through a simple but innovative initiative.

To follow their updates on Instagram please visit: http://instagram.com/wateraid

WaterAid – Using video to engage with supporters

February 14, 2014February 14, 2014 Admin Leave a comment

On Sunday 16th February it will be the Brighton Half Marathon (BHM) and many people will be running on behalf of charities. WaterAid have created a simple but very effective short video to send with an accompanying email to the 250 supporters running for their cause.

The film was shot in 45 minutes during a lunch break with the help of two staff, Tadg O’Keeffe, Film Producer and Lauren Scarlett, Events Fundraising Officer. It featured Becky Donnelly (a WaterAid staff member who is running the BHM) and staff from their communities and events team Tom Benn, Lucy Cover, Connie Potter, Emma Blake, Hannah Whitcombe and Kirstie Davidson.

Tadg O’Keeffe commented “We wanted to make a fun, personal, and engaging film to encourage all the Brighton Half Marathon 2014 runners who are supporting WaterAid. If this film makes people smile and feel good about supporting WaterAid then we’ve definitely succeeded, particularly considering the terrible weather conditions they’ve been training in. Becky, who works for WaterAid and will be running in the event on Sunday was the perfect person to be the star of this film – I think she really adds the personal touch – and the events team that pop up later in the film show the enthusiasm we have for our supporters’ efforts. I wanted to create an image of the runner being surrounded by the support and encouragement of the WaterAid team – I think the film’s thumbnail illustrates this well.

We want everyone who has been training in the wind and the rain to feel appreciated and thanked for raising so much money for WaterAid. This film aims to be a fun, personal way to incorporate some peer-to-peer encouragement; something I’ll be developing in the future.”

For anyone who’d like to see more of WaterAid’s films, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/WaterAid