Beyonce and Unicef want to bring safe water to schools in Burundi

Pop icon Beyonce is throwing her superstar power behind a new effort to bring safe, clean water to children in Burundi in a partnership with United Nations’ children’s agency Unicef, it said on Friday.

Plans call for the project, BEYGOOD4BURUNDI, to help build wells and improve hygiene education as well as water and sanitation facilities in schools, Unicef and Beyonce said in online statements.

Two in five people in the East African country have no access to clean water. Water- and sanitation-related diseases are among the leading causes of death among children in the nation of 12 million people, they said.

One in 12 children in Burundi dies before age five, according to Unicef.

“Access to water is a fundamental right. When you give children clean and safe water, you don’t just give them life, you give them health, an education and a brighter future,” Beyonce said in the statement.

Mothers in Burundi want to provide clean, safe water for their children. Let's help them, together: https://t.co/zxxNOtfq2Z #BEYGOOD4BURUNDI pic.twitter.com/olLsohhvvB

— BEYONCÉ (@Beyonce) June 30, 2017

Beyonce said more than two million people in Burundi spent more than 30 minutes a day collecting water, forcing children to miss school and putting girls in particular danger as they walk miles in search of wells.

Beyonce has sold more than 100 million records as a solo artist. She has three children, including twins born earlier this month, with her husband – rap star and entrepreneur Jay Z.

“This unique partnership combines Unicef’s decades of expertise in providing clean water to children in Burundi and around the world with the power and influence of the entertainment world to bring about social change,” Unicef USA chief executive Caryl Stern said in a statement.

UNICEF has teamed up w/ @BeyGood to help end the water crisis in Burundi! Here's how you can #BEYGOOD4BURUNDI → https://t.co/n93uLvDFNX pic.twitter.com/oJkglvFyq1

— UNICEF (@UNICEF) July 2, 2017

On how much money Beyonce and Unicef were putting toward the water project, neither the agency nor a representative for Beyonce responded immediately to requests for information.

The first phase of the project focuses on four rural regions of the landlocked East African nation that has been wracked by civil unrest and violence as well as drought and malnutrition.

It was plunged into crisis in April 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza said he planned to run for a third term, which the opposition said was unconstitutional and violated a peace deal that had ended the country’s civil war 10 years earlier.

Nkurunziza was re-elected, but some opponents took up arms. At least 700 people were killed, and rights groups estimated more than 400,000 people had been displaced.

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