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Walk with Yeshi: Lokai & AKQA launch an interactive journey for Messenger

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The socially responsible lifestyle brand Lokai recently launched “Walk with Yeshi,” a first of its kind immersive journey built specifically for Facebook Messenger that provides the global community with a completely new way to experience and understand the water crisis in Ethiopia. A platform to support Lokai's second partnership with Charity:Water, the revolutionary Facebook Messenger bot created with Lokai and AKQA gives anyone on the planet the ability to virtually join the titular programmed character of “Yeshi” on her daily walk for water. Yeshi represents the millions of women in rural Ethiopia who spend an average two-and-a-half hours a day walking to access water, which often is polluted and impure by most standards. The experience is created to mirror that full-length of time, giving users time to reflect and build empathy with the true daily experiences of people on the other side of the world.

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On Sunday last week, Lokai hosted a two and a half hour walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn in New York, allowing members of the Lokai community early access to the Yeshi experience and raising awareness of the water crisis in Ethiopia. Walk With Yeshi can be experienced by simply messaging “Hello” to Live Lokai on Facebook Messenger, or at the Live Lokai Facebook page. Yeshi will then send the user images, gifs, videos, audio files and interactive maps and, in return, she will ask the user to answer specific questions, upload their own media and even select options from multiple-choice quizzes.

Lokai Founder and CEO, Steven Izen, said: “We are humbled to see our community come out in support of such an important cause and encourage others to Walk With Yeshi. As a brand we’re interested in changing the way people think about giving. Utilising new technology is a powerful way to connect our young community eye-to-eye with those in need of their help. You can only understand how long a two and a half hour walk is, when you have to walk it. And you can only understand the water crisis when you’ve met someone effected by it. Building the Walk With Yeshi experience was a way for us to accomplish both of these things using Facebook Messenger.”

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Scott Harrison, Founder and CEO of Charity:Water, added: “Today, 663 million people don't have access to clean water. And almost 90% are living in rural areas; often remote, isolated villages where water is a great distance away. They're walking hours every single day to get dirty water from swamps, rivers, or ponds, because that's the only water available. 663 million people making that journey can be hard to imagine, but when you experience what that daily walk could look like, it becomes more concrete. The Walk With Yeshi is a new, innovative way for us to tell that story together.”

Lokai also recently partnered with Charity:Water to launch the limited edition Water Pack and Water Lokai bracelet to help bring clean water to communities in Ethiopia. The product range and supporting campaign will be available until September 16. The Lokai Water Pack includes a Lokai water bottle and the brilliant blue Water Lokai bracelet. Also featured is a cardboard VR headset enabling the Lokai community to experience “The Source,” a ground-breaking VR film that tells the story of Selam, a 13-year-old girl and her family in rural Ethiopia. Viewers will experience the transformation of her community as a fresh water well is dug for the first time.

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