Garnier Water Walk Challenge
Walk 5 miles a day for 1 week
What is the Water Walk for Unicef?
Water Walk is a sponsored challenge – walk five miles every day for a week while supporting children who spend too much of their day walking to collect water.
You can do the challenge on your own or as part of Team Garnier. Money raised through the challenge will help Unicef reach the world’s most vulnerable children, including working to provide them with access to safe and clean water.
Four simple steps to take part:
- Sign up by joining the Team Garnier fundraising page here – it only takes a few minutes.
- Share your challenge offline and online.
- Get sponsored by friends, family and colleagues.
- Get walking!
WANT TO MAKE IT TOUGHER?
Add water! To up the stakes, try carrying 5–10 litres while you walk. Children walking to collect water often carry up to 20 litres with them.
Why Water Walk?
Every day, millions of children spend hours walking to collect water. The containers children carry are usually heavy – often around 20kg. This daily routine can take over children’s lives. They dread walking such long distances taking them far away from their homes. They miss out on school, risking their futures.
By signing up to the Water Walk, taking on the type of distances children are walking to water and raising money for Unicef, you’re helping us achieve our goal that by 2030 no one will have to walk for more than 30 minutes round trip for water.
See below for information on how Unicef helps and to watch Eva and Catherine’s Water Walk story from South Sudan.
Fundraising Tips
Personalise your fundraising page and set a target
You can quickly and easily register and set up your individual fundraising page through the Garnier team page here.
It’s a great idea to personalise your page before sharing. Remember to set a fundraising target – £150 is a good minimum but feel free to aim as high as you can.
Share online
Sharing your fundraising page online along with photos of your Water Walk is the easiest way for you to raise money and awareness. Use the #WaterWalk and #Unicef_uk hashtags and tag any friends you are walking with in a sweaty selfie!
Boost your fundraising in the office
- Check for any matched funding opportunities
- Try a quiz or do a sweep stake — How many steps will you take to complete the challenge? How heavy are your water bottles?
- Raise awareness – Carry your rucksack around the office or put up a poster or your walking log at your desk
- Hydration station — Grab some fresh mint or cucumber and set up a flavoured water bar at work for small donations.
- Hold a bake-sale
How to clock up your miles
- Try walking to work, get off the train/bus a few stops early or go for a lunchtime stroll.
- Give up public transport. Save money for yourself while you raise it for others.
- Do the challenge as a team. Recruit friends to do the whole challenge with you or join you on different days of the week.
- Need a day off? Don’t fret – the Walking Waiver is here to help. Donate £20 to your fundraising page and continue the day after.
How Unicef helps
Unicef is working to improve children’s access to water in more than a hundred countries. We are also determined to ensure the water children are drinking is clean and safe, and that they can use proper sanitation facilities.
For children, having access to these things is about more than just saving time. It’s also about their health – dirty water is a major source of deadly diseases. And it’s about their dignity – children have the right to grow up in a clean and safe environment.
Unicef goes beyond providing basic services. We focus on building systems that last. We introduce technologies such as solar water pumps and flood-resistant toilets, so that communities are equipped for emergencies.
Find out more about Unicef’s work in this vital area here.