Elizabeth Barrett Elementary School and Manachaban Middle School students walked in the footsteps of children from Nicaragua on Mar. 22.
Elizabeth Barrett hosted the Walk for the Well of It event to raise money to build a well in a community in Nicaragua. The event was initially launched by Jeanne Wright and her Grade 3 class in partnership with the Change for Children Association (CFCA).
According to its website, the CFCA’s purpose is to identify, in co-operation with the indigenous people of other countries, the root causes of their poverty and to assist them in finding long-term solutions.
Wright’s sister, who works with the CFCA, came to the school to talk about a major problem children, especially girls, face in undeveloped parts of the world.
“She came to talk to our students about how much we use water compared to Third-World countries. And then a lot of girls have to stay home from school because they have to go get water – so they’re not allowed to go to school because they have to stay home and do chores,” explained Margaret Wheller, a teacher at Elizabeth Barrett.
“(My sister) came up with this idea of getting 30 people to raise one dollar a day – so if she can find 30 people to raise $365, she’d end up with $10,000 which is how much it costs for a well. So we decided to show how small can be big, so we are all donating a toonie and we asked 30 other schools in Rocky View to see if everybody’s school could raise $365,” Wright explained.
Inspired by her sister’s presentation, Wright organized this fundraiser to help contribute to the $10,000 needed for the fundraiser.
The Walk for the Well of It event had the children bring a recyclable jug as well as a $2 donation into the school. They then filled the jugs with water and had the children walk around the school’s field for 30 minutes.
“So our idea for this is to raise awareness of the hardships of carrying water and money if we could.”
When the students finished their walk, the water was used to water the school’s and the Cochrane RancheHouse’s trees and the jugs were recycled.
