2010-2011 School Year Success Stories:
Abington High School – Success Story
Mary Rodgers is a dynamo in action! For the past four years, Mary, as the service learning coordinator at Abington High School, has mobilized her service learning club to raise community awareness about the global water crisis through partnership with H2O for Life. Her students are serious about water. During 2010-11, Abington partnered with Totwana School in South Africa, and successfully raised funds to help bring water, sanitation and hygiene education to the school.
The student leaders have created a lesson plan to teach younger students about watersheds. Their handmade watershed demo travels with them as they educate youth groups and adults about protecting their local water and conserving water. In a second activity, the students constructed a riparian wall that transformed a highly polluted area along the highway. Students also created a local video following a young girl on a quest through the city streets of Abington to gather water from a polluted pond. The students are energetic, enthused and excited about making a difference in the world. If there is a current crisis in the water world- Mary and her students are ready to meet the challenge.
READ MORE: Abington High School – Success Story
Water Advocates – Success Story
Children Should Carry Books, Not Water
U.S. Raising Clean Hands Campaign Launched: WASH (WAter, Sanitation and Hygiene)
Is Essential to Achieve Universal Education
October 13, (Washington, DC) – Nathan Strauss, 17, a student at Abington Senior High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is part of a growing movement of America’s youth who are stepping up to make a change in the lives of the students around the world who are carrying water and not books.
Even for those children that have the opportunity to go to school, students lose 443 million school days each year due to diseases associated with the lack of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Repeated episodes of diarrhea and worm infestations diminish a child’s ability to learn and impair cognitive development. This problem is exacerbated by the more than half of all schools in developing countries that lack adequate WASH facilities.
READ MORE: Water Advocates – Success Story
Abington 2009-2010 School Year
WWD 2010: Clean Water for a Healthy World
Philadelphia joined scores of cities around the world in commemorating World Water Day on March 22. The goal of the 2010 campaign is to raise the profile of water quality at the political level so that water quality considerations are made alongside those of water quantity.
Water shortages are both health and political issues. More than one billion people lack access to clean water and sanitation. To illustrate this need, UN-Water chose Clean Water for a Healthy World as the theme for World Water Day 2010.
Three major events highlighted World Water Day in Philadelphia: The First Philadelphia World Water Day 5K Walk/Run-a-thon; the premiere of “Our National Heritage Episode One: The Revolutionary River”; and the World Water Day Youth Forum.
The First Philadelphia World Water Day 5K Walk/Run-a-thon on March 20 was inspired by one man – Elijah Korich – who has declared “war” on water shortages worldwide.
“We cannot fight poverty and disease or stabilize communities without access to clean water,” he says. “Water generates life. The children cannot go to school if they spend their days fetching water.”
Dr. Korich enlisted volunteers from universities, churches, the Philadelphia Global Water Initiative and schools throughout metropolitan Philadelphia. With six months of intense planning the volunteers recruited more than 300 enthusiastic runners and walkers and raised more than $10,000.
The proceeds will benefit water projects in Keiyo Valley, Kenya. Currently Dr. Korich is working with Keiyo Soy Ministries, a local organization, to build a 15-mile water pipe to bring fresh water to six villages, four schools and a community outdoor market. The next step will be the design of water storage systems to capture water during the rainy seasons.
“The villagers work with us in construction,” says Dr. Korich. “They must have ownership of the project and they must also learn to build it and repair it in the future. We pay them to dig, which enriches the community in many other ways. We are changing the landscape one village at a time.”
To learn more about the project in the Keiyo Valley and see photographs of the villagers and the pipeline, go to www.ksmministries.com. Contributions are tax deductible.
The Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center and the Philadelphia Museum of Art hosted the Philadelphia premiere of “Our National Heritage Episode One: The Revolutionary River” on March 21. Several hundred people attended the benefit, which raised more than $10,000 for the Schuylkill River Heritage Area.
This 47-minute film produced for public television by Telemark Films, on behalf of the Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area, traces the history of the Schuylkill from prehistory to the present day and takes into account three revolutions that changed our history: the Revolutionary War, the Industrial Revolution and the Environmental Revolution.
“What sets this documentary apart from others is that there is no narrative story line,” says Schuylkill Heritage Area Executive Director Kurt Zwikl. “We interviewed local historians, geologists and other people with particular expertise and people who have professional interest in the river. We caught the enthusiasm of such people as the Philadelphia Water Department’s former general manager Ed Grusheski and historian Joel Fry. They told the story for us.”
In a film review, historian Joel Fry wrote, “The film uses the river to tell the story of Pennsylvania and to some extent the story of the USA.”
President Bill Clinton signed the bill designating the Schuylkill River as a National Heritage Area in 2000. Today there are 49 heritage areas across the United States.
The film was produced in partnership with the William Penn Foundation, the National Park Service, and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. It is the first in a six-part series, “Our National Heritage,” that explores six different National Heritage Areas in the eastern United States.
“Our National Heritage Episode One: The Revolutionary River” will air on public television stations and later will be available for showing in other venues. DVD’s of the film are available for purchase. For more information, visit www.schuylkillriver.org.
World Water Day Youth Forum on March 22 marked the final session of the MAGPI Global Passport to Clean Water Project, sponsored by the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center and WHYY. Students in grades 6 through 12 at five schools participated. The Youth Forum program included a presentation by each class of their advocacy efforts and the presentation of their final project, which was a digital media project.
Craig Santoro, Director of WHYY’s Learning Lab was on hand to critique the projects. The participating schools included Harriton High School, Lower Merion, PA; Technology High School, New Jersey; Liberty Middle School, New Jersey; Western Wayne School District, Central PA; and Jeffersontown County High School, Kentucky.
Many of the students have been raising awareness about water issues locally through poster campaigns, community clean-up projects, water testing and a visit to their local sewage treatment plant. All were engaged in fundraising campaigns for various projects, such as Engineers without Borders Latrine project in Rwanda, a water system in Tanzania, and a natural water filtration method through clay pots in Cambodia. The biotechnology class of Technology High School is getting corporate assistance in building Bio Sand WaterFilters.
The media projects ran from two to five minutes in length and ranged in format from documentary to a call to action. “All students appeared interested in carrying on their role as world water ambassadors either by teaching their fellow students or those in the elementary grades, and to the greater community,” said Ellen Schultz, the Center’s lead educator.
Abington High School: 2008-2009
2008/2009 School Year
Abington H2O for life focuses on the local and global water crises. The club has about 20 members that meet every other week. At our meetings we discuss fundraising for our partner school’s water system. We also discuss teaching opportunities through Philadelphia Global Water Initiative (PGWI) and our school district. At meetings, members also start projects for use in fundraising and teaching. The main goal of WAVE is to think and act both locally AND globally.
Locally we educate the community about over consumption, pollution, and the global water and sanitation crisis. We give a presentation that is appropriate for any audience, whether it is an elementary classroom or on a college campus. The presentation begins with a ‘shock and awe’ fact presentation. Next, we demonstrate, using large posters, how people in developing nations carry water. Audience members participate by trying to carry water as shown in the posters. Next in our presentation we show a brief video with photos and facts about the local and global water issues.
Finally, we demonstrate how pollution affects the water shed. With a model watershed made from spray foam insulation and spray paint, we ask participants pollute the water shed with contaminants such as animal poop (mustard), oil (mayonnaise), and fertilizer and many common pollutants in our region. Then, another participant makes it rain with a watering can. All the dirty water is collected and shown to the audience. The audience is usually disgusted and discusses ways to preserve and protect our watersheds.
Globally, we raise money for our partner school through H2O for Life School to School. Each year we sell soft pretzels, bracelets, pins, shirts, candy, and other items. We also coordinate one major fundraiser every year. Last year, the club put together a concert called “Sound WAVE” with local bands and dance troops. This year the club had a big pool party called “Swim with the Sharks”. At Swim with the Sharks, students could relax in the pool, watch the movie Jaws, and win prizes through a shark raffle. Last year we successfully raised $10,000 for our partner school in Mali and Save the Children matched our donation dollar for dollar. This year we are in the process of raising money for our partner school in New Delhi, India.
