| Posted 2/14/2010 at 12:26 PM by PeaceJam Bot | |
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 Walk for Water - Ecolé Meridian Heights School
Project Created: Sunday, February 14, 2010
Project Leader: Marianne R
Location: Stony Plain, Canada
Project Goal: Student awareness of their daily water usage, the global struggle for clean safe water and also its connection to the ability to go to school for some girls around the world. We also wanted to build empathy by having our students put themselves in another child’s shoes for a day.
We wanted to students to think about their water usage and the struggles of children around the world to get water. We wanted our students to develop empathy and put themselves in another child’s shoes and understand what others go through each day and how lucky we are to live where we live. We also wanted them to show compassion by donating to the Trick or Treat for UNICEF 2009 campaign.
Project Cause: Students learned that it is a hard job to carry water, even a short distance and that we are very fortunate to have clean, safe drinking water at our fingertips. Some also went home and asked questions about washing machines and how often they are being used each week. Others learned to stop running the water while brushing their teeth. Globally, we learned that it is not right that children (mostly girls) are not able to go to school because they have to carry water to survive and that sometimes this water is unhealthy and dangerous to drink.
Project Plan: Students from kindergarten to grade nine were invited to walk to a nearby park with 1L to 4L recyclable containers, where town workers had set up large water containers. They filled their water containers and walked back to the school where they proceeded to water the trees and grass in our school yard. Teachers and a guest speaker from UNICEF talked about the walk and it importance before the students walked for water and they also debriefed the students after the walk to see what the reactions and feelings were. Students were then asked to donate to UNICEF in order to help bring water to communities in Malawi and Rwanda. Once the activity was completed, grade nine students organized the recyclable containers and sent them to the bottle depot . The money collected was also donated to UNICEF.
*Tell us about your service goals (what you hope to accomplish) and your learning goals (what you hope to learn).
We wanted to students to think about their water usage and the struggles of children around the world to get water. We wanted our students to develop empathy and put themselves in another child’s shoes and understand what others go through each day and how lucky we are to live where we live. We also wanted them to show compassion by donating to the Trick or Treat for UNICEF 2009 campaign.
*What is your plan for making this happen?
With the help of Anne Coish (grade nine teacher) we send letters home informing the parents of the Walk for Water activity and the goal of collecting money for UNICEF. We asked our local town water manager to make some large containers filled with potable water available to us at a park just over a KM away from our school. We set up a schedule to have two classes walking to and from the park at a time. Students were then asked to to pour the water under trees to help the trees over the winter. Materials were made available to all teachers to help them talk to their students about water issues here and around the world. We then collected all of the 1L, 2L and 4L containers and sent them to the bottle depot to collect the money and donate it to UNICEF. We were hoping to get some community sponsorship, but we did not have enough time or available manpower.
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