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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Models Raise Money for Ugly Water Shortage

By Leslie Albrecht | November 16, 2011 6:39am

UPPER WEST SIDE — Two models are using their stunning looks to draw attention to an ugly reality — the shortage of clean drinking water in Africa.

Catwalkers Heide Lindgren and Georgie Badiel, whose beautiful faces have helped sell clothes for Guess, Marc Jacobs and Abercrombie & Fitch, have formed Models 4 Water, an organization whose mission is to bring clean drinking water to the western African country of Burkina Faso.

About 85 percent of Burkina Faso's impoverished population doesn't have regular access to clean drinking water, according to Models 4 Water.

Badiel, who grew up in Burkina Faso and neighboring Ivory Coast, has seen the crisis firsthand. She left Africa in 2008 to pursue her modeling career and now lives on the Upper West Side at West 86th Street and Broadway. A one-time Miss Africa winner, her image has graced the pages of Elle and Italian Vogue.

But when she returns to her homeland to visit her family she enters a different world — one where water doesn't pour out of the tap. Villagers in Burkina Faso's rural areas must sometimes walk for miles to find the precious resource, Badiel told DNAinfo.

Even people in urban areas are affected, Badiel said. Her sister, who was nine months pregnant when Badiel visited her earlier this year in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, has to wake up at 2 a.m. to gather water for the day because that's the only time clean water flows into her building, Badiel said. Badiel's sister has three other children.

"Her first priority when she wakes up is water, and all day she thinks about water," Badiel said. "You can't do anything else."

In Burkina Faso's countryside, Badiel said she saw children who were too thirsty to concentrate on school work. One 75-year-old woman told Badiel that she'd never had easy access to clean drinking water. "When she was young she walked a half day to get water," Badiel, 26, said. "She thought the situation would improve, but it's still the same. Can you imagine that the situation is still the same? I believe we can change it."

When Badiel returned from a recent visit to Burkina Faso, she shared her experiences with fellow model Heide Lindgren, who's currently the face of Guess. Lindgren, 24, has been modeling since she was 13, and was looking for an opportunity to do more charity work.

Lindren, who also volunteers with City Harvest, said her mother is a "giver" who raised her with a strong sense of community duty. "With much blessing comes great responsibility," said Lindgren, who lives in Hamilton Heights.

Badiel and Lindgren formed Models 4 Water sitting at a kitchen table, Lindgren said, and the group is in the process of becoming a non-profit that can receive tax-deductible donations. Until then, they've teamed up with an established water charity, the Water Project, which will handle the money raised by Models 4 Water to make sure it reaches areas in need.

Lindgren has pitched in $35,000 of her own money and paid for Models 4 Water's first fundraiser, a dinner at the Tribeca restaurant Locanda Verde on Wednesday, Nov. 16. Tickets for the four-course dinner start at $350. All of the money raised at the event will go directly to paying for increasing clean water in Burkina Faso, Lindgren said.

"Models can kind of have reputations that aren't the nicest in the world," Lindgren said. "I wanted to bring to light that there are also girls that really care. They want to give back and they want to help the world."