Jars of Clay Helps Africa with Good Monsters

|PIC1|Jars of Clay, multi-GRAMMY winning and platinum-selling Christian rock band, will use their new album as a platform to provide clean water for Africans in need.

Known for its humanitarian organisation Blood:Water Mission, the group hopes to raise at least $300,000 (£160,064) for clean water projects in Africa with the help of sales from its Good Monsters CD.

According to the United Nations, over 300 million people in Africa lack access to safe drinking water and 477 million people live without adequate sanitation facilities.

As part of the effort, The Global Water Challenge with support from The Coca-Cola Company, will provide a matching donation of up to $100,000 (£53,346) to the band's Blood:Water Mission. The partnership will donate $1.00 for each of the first 100,000 copies of Good Monsters sold. Funds raised will go toward the provision of clean water in Africa.

The Global Water Challenge (GWC) is an initiative to save lives and reduce suffering in the developing world by providing safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene education to people who lack these basic services.

Launched by The Coca-Cola Company in partnership with a diverse coalition of corporations, foundations, and aid organizations, the GWC is a unique partnership to build healthy communities and provide sustainable solutions to ensure the availability of potable water.

The goal of the GWC is to bring safe water and sanitation to millions by identifying and multiplying the solutions that work.

Blood:Water Mission exists to promote clean blood and clean water efforts in Africa, tangibly reducing the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic while addressing the underlying issues of poverty, injustice and oppression. Blood:Water Mission is building clean water wells, supporting medical facilities, and focusing on community and worldview transformation, both in America and in Africa.

Working together, the Blood:Water Mission and the GWC are expanding their collective influence and delivering a sustainable clean water solution to at-risk communities.

In 2002, Jars of Clay formed Blood:Water Mission to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Providing clean water in Africa is a constructive and necessary first step. More than one billion people lack access to clean water. Water-borne diseases kill 6,000 people per day, mostly children. Blood:Water Mission is making a lasting impact in the fight against poverty, injustice and oppression in Africa through the linking of needs, talents and continents, of people and resources. Last year, the band raised more than $1 million (£533,304) for this mission.

"The Global Water Challenge is a demonstration of Coca-Cola's leadership in corporate responsibility by not only envisioning a world where all people can have access to clean water, but taking real action to bring that world to being, is something to applaud and cheer loudly about," says Dan Haseltine, the band's lead vocalist. He continues, "This partnership brings two of my greatest passions together, my love for creating music, and my work to help our fans find ways to commit tangible acts of humanitarian service and love toward the poor and oppressed in Africa. It is fulfilling to know that the situation of so many Africans, who suffer under the weight of poverty and disease, will improve because people did something as simple as buy a new Good Monsters CD."