A SCOTS entrepreneur who is on a mission to end water poverty has spoken of his pride at representing Scotland at a question-and-answer event with former US president Barack Obama.
Brewgooder founder Alan Mahon was asked to take part in the Berlin gathering on Saturday.
He was among a group of emerging young leaders from across Europe who were asked to help advise the Obama Foundation on how they can be supported in their work.
“I felt honoured being asked to help represent Scotland, social enterprises and the fight against water poverty at this prestigious event,” said Mahon.
“I can recall being 18 years old when I stayed up all night to watch Barack Obama become the US president in 2008. I remember having such a strong sense of hope in a better future then, and that hope was renewed by attending the Obama Foundation Town Hall with so many inspiring young leaders from across Europe.”
During the event Obama answered questions both from the delegates in the room and from young people across Europe who participated online.
The guest list included leaders from across the continent who are working in areas such as government, civil society, journalism, transparency, food security, entrepreneurship,
anti-discrimination, integration issues, environmental sustainability, and technology. They were drawn from public, private and non-profit sectors and came from a cross-section of backgrounds.
“President Obama and the foundation want to hear directly from emerging leaders from across Europe – about their aspirations, challenges, and issues of concern and opportunity,” said Bernadette Meehan, the foundation’s chief international officer. “The future of Europe lies with these young leaders, and the foundation wants to help them advance and scale their work. They are already doing inspiring work to advance positive change, hand in hand with their communities.”
Launched in March 2016, Brewgooder is on a mission to bring clean drinking water to 1,000,000 people in developing countries. To date it has helped more than 64,000 people across Malawi through 132 clean water projects.
By the end of this year, the brand hopes to have helped more than 100,000 people gain consistent access to clean water, with the ultimate goal to take 100,000 people out of water poverty a year by the end of 2020.
Each case of Brewgooder beer sold provides a person with clean water for more than five years. The company uses 100% of its profits to fund clean water projects in some of the poorest parts in the world. Its beer is brewed at Ellon, Aberdeenshire, in partnership with Brewdog, which brews Clean Water Lager at zero margin.
It now has more than 3000 stockists across the UK including Asda, Aldi, Tesco and the Co-op, with which it has just begun its first national retail campaign.
From now until May 14, every four-pack of Clean Water Larger sold at Co-op stores will bring water and life to two communities in rural Malawi. With 408 participating stores and 3000 cases of beer, it should result in 1002 people gaining first-time access to clean water.
Launched through a crowdfunder, Mahon started Brewgooder after becoming ill due to unsafe water in Nepal. His experience made him want to alleviate the life-threatening conditions to which many people in the developing world are exposed every day.
Globally, more than 900 children without adequate medical care die daily from issues related to a lack of clean water. Across the world, 884 million people lack clean drinking water and two million people die annually from water-related disease, most of them children under five.
The UN aims to deliver access to clean water for all by 2030.
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