This past week, Sarah Rhea, Copywriter & Communications Coordinator for GAiN, visited a homeschool to share about our work providing clean drinking water to communities in Africa.
The kids ranged from ages pre-K to middle school and were gathered together on blankets and chairs inside an open garage to hear more about the Water for Life Initiative. They had recently finished reading the book A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, and so they had some context for what life is like for people in other countries who don’t have easy access to clean water.
Sarah went through a slideshow and explained how kids their age have to walk about five kilometres to collect water multiple times a day, and that it’s usually riddled with harmful bacteria that makes them sick.
“When I shared a picture of a swamp that one village used to get water from, some of the kids gasped. I think it was pretty eye-opening,” Sarah said.
To help the students imagine what it would be like to have to carry water back to a village, Sarah set up a course that they had to walk through while carrying a heavy bucket of water. The course included a steep hill and some orange cones which represented the rough terrain that someone from a village would have to navigate while carrying water.
“I also had them pretend that it was super hot out, so one kid stood with a fan to help them picture that. And then another kid pretended to be a wild animal that they had to get past with their bucket,” Sarah explained.
The students were all very engaged and had all kinds of questions after the presentation was over. One young boy even asked if GAiN had ever drilled wells for people in Quebec!
Afterwards, everyone had the chance to make a card for our GAiN staff that work on the ground in Africa. The cards were beautifully decorated by the kids and had a handwritten message that thanked the staff for working so hard to drill wells for communities in need. These cards will be sent with the next GAiN staff member who travels to one of our project countries and delivered to our team there.
“The kids were so interested and keen. It was really encouraging to have them be so invested in what’s happening on the other side of the world from them,” Sarah said.
Two of the kids in the group have also begun making cards and selling them to raise money for GAiN.
Additionally, their parents put on a silent auction amongst friends with all the proceeds going towards clean water. It is such a delight to our staff to see families, especially young children, take initiative to support the work we are doing in communities in Africa!
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