Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli

In 2005 Benjamin Adrion, at the time a midfield player for the regional league football club FC St. Pauli, returned from a training camp in Havana. There he had seen how poor the supply of fresh drinking water was in Cuba. Back in Hamburg again, he decided to do something about it. He mobilised musicians, football fans and bohemians in the Hamburg district of St. Pauli and launched an appeal for donations.

Among the earliest supporters of the project were prominent figures like the hip-hop musicians of Fettes Brot and Bela B of the punk rock band Die Ärzte.

In cooperation with Welthungerhilfe, it subsequently proved possible to equip 150 kindergartens in Cuba’s capital Havana with water dispensers.

In 2006, Adrion officially founded the organisation Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli.

When he was 28 years old Benjamin Adrion received the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2009. He accepted the award conferred in recognition of special services rendered for the common good on behalf of every single Viva supporter.

In 2010 the Viva con Agua Foundation was found to secure the idea and the ideals of the NGO in the long term.

Viva con Agua Wasser GmbH

In 2010 the Viva con Agua Wasser GmbH was founded. The so-called social business markets its own brand of mineral water, which is sold in cooperation with regional water bottlers. Sixty per cent of the profits go to water projects.

Goldeimer gGmbH

Another social business of Viva con Agua begun its life as a start-up: the Goldeimer project. This Kiel-based initiative has been working together with Viva con Agua since 2010 and provides mobile composting toilets for large-scale events. Most of the profits are invested in Viva con Agua’s WASH projects.

Since 2015 they also produce Toilet Paper. 20 Euro Cent of the price of every single package will be donated to Welthungerhilfe sanitation projects. The toilet paper is also important for the b2b business as VcA has a solid distribution and a well working network inside the gastro business in major German cities.

Viva con Agua ARTS gGmbH

The Millerntor Gallery, an annual art festival held in collaboration with FC St. Pauli, is one example of how Viva con Agua uses the universal languages sport, music, and art. During the festival, street art is on display in the Millerntor stadium by artists from around the world. Millerntor Gallery events now also take place in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Uganda.