Sydney, AU. (Universal
Music Australia) - At a press conference held on the 9th at the United Nations with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, MTV President
Christina Norman and President and CEO of Def Jam Records Shawn 'Jay-Z' Carter, a multi-faceted partnership and collaboration was announced. While on his international tour,
Jay-Z will travel to several regions around the globe affected by the world water crisis. These visits will be documented by MTV for a special, MTV's Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life.
This special program will document his personal learning journey as he meets children and families who suffer daily and count among the more than one billion people worldwide who do not have access to safe drinking water. MTV's cameras will also follow Jay-Z visiting locations where sustainable, environmentally-friendly solutions are in place or being developed to bring fresh water to devastated communities.
The Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life will premiere on Friday, November 24, 2006 and will be offered to MTV's worldwide network of 50 locally programmed channels in 179 countries. MTV will also offer complementary comprehensive educational outreach and Internet resources, all designed to help educate and inspire a new generation of young people to save lives and their planet.
'The water crisis-like so many issues confronting our world-can only be fully addressed with the creative participation of young people everywhere,'said United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "Working with MTV and Jay-Z, all of us at the UN hope this campaign will motivate youth to take action both in their own lives, and in support of broad eco-friendly initiatives.'
'MTV has a long history of partnering with artists and experts to raise awareness and educate our audience,'said Christina Norman, President of MTV. 'By allowing MTV to document his journey, Jay-Z will be mobilizing a whole new generation of young people who otherwise may not be familiar with the water crisis to learn about and take action to help those whom are suffering.'
While much of the world has plentiful access to water, there is a global crisis in which 4,500 children die daily from preventable diseases caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. Four of every ten people - 2.6 billion people - do not have access to even a simple pit latrine, and thus must defecate daily in plastic bags, buckets, open pits, agricultural fields and public areas for want of a private hygienic alternative. This also means no source of safe drinking water and no access to a protected well or spring within reasonable walking distance of their homes.
'After hearing and reading some of the startling statistics about the lack of clean water, I realized that I needed to bring attention to this issue,"stated Shawn 'Jay-Z' Carter. "I know through joining with experts through the UN and partnering with MTV to bring the word to our communities, we can make a difference."
Jay-Z will visit both untouched, devastated areas, as well as hopeful communities that have already received some aid - to demonstrate what attainable progress can be made. His journey will provide an emotional prism through which the audience can better understand this world crisis and 'connect the dots' for young people to take action in two ways:
1. Help Abroad: Support sustainable solutions highlighted in the show, such as solar-generated water pumps; water-test kits which test contaminated water for safe drinking; and The PlayPump, a children's merry-go-round that pumps water from below ground. For as little as $6 a person, the PlayPump can provide a decade of clean drinking water to a child in need.
2. Help at Home: The special will encourage young people to take any of the twelve steps associated with Break the Addiction, MTV's year-long campaign to engage young people to reduce our impact on global warming, one of the contributing factors that exacerbates the world water crisis.
To support The Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life, there will be comprehensive educational outreach and Internet resources, including:
- Think.mtv.com: Starting in September, the website will feature a special section dedicated to this project, highlighting information from the UN on how the world water crisis impacts each of the countries on Jay-Z's upcoming music world tour, and ways to take action at home and abroad.
- Cable in the Classroom: Through MTV's relationship with Cable in the Classroom, The Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life and an associated lesson plan developed by the UN will be offered for free download for use by tens of thousands of teachers, K-12 educators and librarians in 80,000 schools in America. The Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life will also be promoted through Cable in the Classroom Magazine, a monthly publication that reaches more than 430,000 readers.
- UN Educational Resources: In partnership with the UN Works Programme, UNICEF Voices of Youth and UNA-USA's Global Classrooms initiative, the UN will develop educational tools for use by public schools that lack effective teaching resources. The UN will present The Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life and its accompanying resources as a model for teaching and learning about global issues at education conferences, seminars and workshops. The UN will also involve non-governmental organizations and youth networks.
