Since 2010, the fictitious football club WASH United has been using the power of the game to campaign for clean drinking water and greater hygiene awareness in Africa. You won’t find the club in any of the national leagues, but leading figures from international football, including Michael Ballack, Arjen Robben and Didier Drogba, are firmly onside. And now the initiative, developed by the GIZ marketing agency AgenZ, has scooped the Sports Forum Award 2011.

Dirk Niebel, Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Guido Westerwelle, Federal Foreign Minister, are thrilled that the campaign has won this award. In a joint statement, they said, ‘‘WASH United was partly the brainchild of the German government, which has promoted it. It is a wonderful example of what can be achieved when partners from different sectors join forces to campaign for human rights and development. We hope that the award will raise even greater awareness of our shared aim of improving the supply of clean drinking water and sanitation across the world.’

The initiative was launched in early 2010 to campaign for the basic human right to clean drinking water and sanitation and for better hygiene awareness. The name WASH combines the three elements: water, sanitation and hygiene. Thomas Levin, project leader for GIZ’s contribution to WASH United, said, ‘‘By tapping into the passion that football arouses and the huge popularity of stars like Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba, we are getting messages across to children and young people that would otherwise be culturally taboo.” The project is led by the German aid organisation ‘Brot für die Welt’ (‘Bread for the World’), which is working closely with GIZ, and is supported by a large number of partners from the worlds of politics and sport. AgenZ supported the process from the outset and in particular has directed the development and placement of the campaign. ‘‘This three-way cooperation has enabled GIZ to use its strengths and innovativeness to the full,’ says Katharina Binhack, who leads the project for AgenZ in Frankfurt.

It is the shocking statistics that illustrate just how vital this commitment is. A child dies every 20 seconds in Africa of causes related to contaminated drinking water or inadequate sanitation – most commonly from diarrhoea. Cases of diarrhoea can be halved by such simple measures as regular hand washing, but most children think everyday hygiene is unnecessary or just can’t be bothered. ‘Yet if Michael Ballack or Didier Drogba tells them that a toilet and soap are good things, they sit up and listen. Suddenly, hygiene is cool rather than boring,’ says Thomas Levin, explaining the thinking behind the campaign.