Archive for April 23rd, 2008

Picturehouse Cinemas has launched its own-brand water to raise funds for its charitable projects in West Africa. 10p from every bottle of water bought at one of their cinemas will be used by Picturehouse Cinemas partners, Plan UK, to provide bore holes in the Dosso region of West Niger, which is one of the driest regions of the world with only 800mm of rainfall a year.

Plan UK is a child-centred charity and much of their emphasis is on helping children and their families benefit from the project by being fully involved in the creation and management of the new facilities. Picturehouse Cinemas felt that this child-centred and educational approach was particularly sympathetic to its own values which led them to chose Plan UK to be its main company charity.

Lyn Goleby, Managing Director of Picturehouse Cinemas, said “Cinema is a universal language in bringing the world together. We felt that it was time to stop just watching other people and time to start making a difference.”

Picturehouse Cinemas will make the most of the unique opportunities it has to keep its audience informed of the project’s progress. Sir Bob Scott, the Picturehouse Chairman, said “Technology is making the world a smaller place and we will use our cinema screens to bring our customers together with families in Niger. We will show regular updates on screen about the project and are hoping that when it’s complete we can use our satellite network and digital projection facilities to bring the realities of the audience contribution live into our cinemas so that audiences can really feel involved”.

Laura Whitby of Plan UK said, “We are very excited by this project and urge everyone to visit their local Picturehouse Cinema, if only to buy a bottle of water!”.

Picturehouse audiences will also be able to read about the project’s progress at: http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/water