15,000 euro for Unicef, the Belgian Red Cross and SOS Children's Villages.
Bottles of water for charity
Brussels Airport has been offering travel water for quite some time: unbranded 50 cl bottles of water that can be purchased for just one euro each once you have passed security screening. They are available from an unmanned stand. Since February 2018, this initiative has been linked to charity: the entire proceeds went to Unicef, the Belgian Red Cross and SOS Children’s Villages, three organisations that Brussels Airport has supported for many years.
Travel water makes way for a more sustainable alternative
The format was recently reviewed and thoroughly rethought: the plastic bottles will, in the future, make way for a sustainable alternative in the form of refillable water bottles. Water fountains and refill stations are being installed at different location in stages.
Handing over cheques
With the new format, there will be an end to the water With a Cause project, and also the partnership with the charity. On 4 September, Bart Saverwyns of Brussels Airport Company and Steven Deman of Autogrill handed over a cheque of 15,000 euro to Unicef, the Red Cross and SOS Children’s Villages. With 15,000 euros Unicef can install 3 water pumps. For the Belgian Red Cross, this amount allows them to give a thorough training to volunteers and to purchase the necessary materials. SOS Children’s Villages can use 15,000 euros to offer access to medical care and health insurance for 1,200 children in Africa. This is, of course, all due to our passengers and airport staff, who have, in recent years, bought a bottle of travel water.
We hope that the new stands which are being installed in the coming months will also do a lot of good. They will be located beyond security screening in the direction of pier A and after border control in pier B just before the walkthrough shop. At the beginning of 2020, several smaller stands, including a refill station, will be installed in pier A and B.