We at Global Water believe in order to ensure the success of humanitarian projects for generations to come, we must educate the youth of today about the need and solutions for some of the humanitarian challenges the world’s populations face today (such as access to safe, life-sustaining water).

With that in mind, Global Water wants to encourage students, teachers, parents and school administrators to join us in our program to increase awareness about water problems/solutions in the developing world, and to fight to create clean water resources for rural populations in developing countries.

We strongly encourage teachers that are interested in initiating fundraising activities to have their students include reflection letters of their experience. This helps students personalize their effort.

Although it is ultimately up to you to chose what type of awareness or fundraiser campaign you would like to participate in, we will assist you by providing resources you may use to present water problems in developing countries and what Global Water does to find solutions.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Give a presentation to your class to raise awareness about the importance of water for human needs. Global Water has created presentation slides with text descriptions for you to use whether you’re a teacher or student.

• Spark a class discussion with an essay contest or a debate on the topic – Is safe water a human right? If so, should a developing country’s leaders provide safe water to all their citizens (as developed countries now do)? Or pick another water-related topic relating to water conservation or pollution.

• Begin a school-wide pledge to conserve water.

• Start a fundraising effort with your school on behalf of Global Water – Some examples include the following ideas:

• Walk-a-thon for Water

• Car wash

• Coin Wars - each class competes to raise the most change in a large jar given to each participating class (a 5-gallon water    jug works great)

• Bake sale

• Raffle a Basket

• Gift Wrapping - gift wrapping for donations during the holidays

• Rent-a-Teen-Helper (rake leaves, water & weed gardens, mow lawns, wash dogs, etc.)

• Sell Holiday Cards

• Recycling bottles and cans

• Sponsored Essay Writing Contest or Art Contest about water

• Garage Sale

• Ask for Admission to school functions

• Matching gifts challenge – have local businesses pledge a certain dollar amount and challenge
   students to raise funds to match it over a period of time

Kathleen is Global Water’s School Correspondent for students and teachers. Should you need any assistance with information, gathering resources or if you need any questions answered, feel free to contact her directly through email – Kathleen@globalwater.org.

Contact Kathleen today and join us in our mission to provide safe water supplies in the developing world.

Get Inspired

Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world.

Indeed, it is the only thing that
ever has.

-- Margaret Mead

Here’s Some Examples of What Students Have Done

Elementary & Middle School Students

1) Tilia Prior's '07-'08 sixth grade class at Captain James Cook Elementary School in Canada created a very beautiful and heartfelt book of letters documenting their experience of raising funds for Global Water projects in Central America. They held a heated debate to discuss the importance of three different non-profit organizations, and in the end it was Global Water they chose to raise funds for. This class provided Global Water with a check for $1,130 which was a result from the hard work they put into a coin drive, bake sale and a Walk-a-Thon for Water. (Read Letters) This money was sent to Guatemala to support the Healthy Schools Program there.

2) A young girl by the name of Samantha Hida was one of the winners of a school-wide "Charity Is" essay contest at Kaneohe Middle school in Hawaii She eloquently expressed why she felt Global Water's work is so crucial. Global Water in turn received a donation of $100 on behalf of her winning essay from a local business. (Read Essay)

3) A kindergarten class at Public School 11 in Brooklyn, New York raised $270 for a Global Water project. As the children studied non-fiction, focusing on underwater animals, they came to the conclusion that water is vital for all living species and wanted to help the children of the world. These children know that everyone has the right to clean water. Thank you PS 11!

4) The fifth grade class at Merryhill School and their teacher Mrs. Esterley participated in a project called "Freshwater-Just a Drop in the Bucket" with other private schools across the country under Nobel Learning Communities. Through this program they learned about freshwater availability on earth and the lack of water in some communities around the world. Using what they learned, they created a fundraiser to help those who do not have clean water by designing their own water bottle labels and selling these custom made water bottles at their school. The water bottle labels included information about Global Water and tips to save water. Students gained a tremendous amount of insight and a better understanding of how precious water truly is.

5) Westampton Middle School, Class of 2010 and their teacher, Ms. Kelly collected over $1010. The idea of fundraising for Global Water came from a discussion between a small group of eighth graders, preparing to celebrate Earth Day and the suggestion by one student to do something about the problem of clean water for people. From there the project took off! The eighth grade class spread awareness throughout the school by creating posters, making announcements to the student body and showing water related videos on the school’s TV. They also collected change during the lunch period. Some students brought in money from their families, babysitting, cutting lawns and money they had saved for other things.

Something their teacher, Ms. Kelly, saw that was very special about this project was that each of the students contributed without looking for any acknowledgement. “They just did it because they wanted to save a life with clean water. It was wonderful. During my 44 years teaching, I have learned to never be amazed at what incredible things young people can accomplish. This will now be their legacy as the Class of 2010 to the younger students at Westampton Middle School.”

High School Students

1)  A high school geography class in Oklahoma had been studying Africa during the '07-'08 school year, and were moved to hold a bake sale toraise money for one of Global Water’s projects to help drill a well and purchase a water pump in Africa. They were able to raise $540!

2)  Karli JonasenI held a fundraiser at her high school, West Allis Central High School to raise money for Global Water during Earth Week. She organized a bake sale during lunch periods and also sold t-shirts she had designed. On the front of the shirts, it said "One team" (with a picture of the earth inside the O), and on the back it said "make our world a cleaner blue by going green." All together Karli’s efforts raised over $800!

University Students

1)  Allegheny College 2009

As the final project in ES425 – World Health Transitions, Dr. Waggett’s class researched non-profit organizations that the students felt had important missions. Out of over 50 organizations that were researched by students in the class, Global Water was chosen to be supported. One student, Julia Muntean, said that she felt that Global Water’s mission was something the class could really get behind, and chose to do a campus- and community-wide fundraising project, so that they could do their part to support Global Water’s mission. This project ran from March 26th – May 1st, 2009 and had two main goals: the first was to raise money for Global Water; the second was to educate members of the Allegheny College and Meadville communities about the growing global water crisis.

The following information describes the method and procedure Dr. Waggett’s World Health Transitions class accomplished their goals. Julia Muntean has written the information below.

Methods
Three main committees were formed within the class: campus outreach, community outreach, and advertisement. A steering committee composed of four students was also created to help facilitate coordination between the three separate groups.

Advertising
The advertising committee was responsible for the creation and distribution of materials to the public. It was decided that on campus, students from the class would table at meal times to distribute fliers containing facts about Global Water and Allegheny’s fundraising initiatives. Water bottles containing dirty water were included at the table to provide a visual representation of the lack of safe water with which over one billion people must survive. Information was placed on all tables throughout McKinley’s and Brooks dining halls. Facebook groups for both general information, and each event were created. Information in the form of fliers and packets were distributed to businesses, organizations, and schools in the community and surrounding areas.

Campus Outreach
In addition to tabling, the campus committee chose to host a cook-out. This was a registered party with the school, and students, faculty, and community members were invited to attend. A donation was requested at the door, and all of this went to Global Water. Requests were made to local restaurants for food donations for the cook-out. This was hosted on Thursday, April 23rd, as a way to celebrate the end of the year while raising money and providing education about Global Water. The students went “dormstorming” to raise money and increase awareness of the group’s initiatives, as this has proven a successful method of fundraising in the past for many other groups. Finally, information was distributed to faculty and staff on campus to inform them of Allegheny College for Global Water. During the week of April 13-17, students visited faculty and staff offices to collect donations, which was a very successful endeavor.

Community Outreach
A benefit concert was held for the community on April 29th, with performances by a local band and community members. Information was distributed to different businesses in the community. Letters were written to larger businesses, both within Meadville and outside of the town, to raise money and spread awareness of the project. An article was published in the Meadville Tribune.

Results
Information about the project was successfully distributed to members of the student body, faculty, campus staff, and parts of the community. We were able to send $772.50 to Global Water. Students and faculty on campus, when questioned, recognize the name Global Water and have an idea about the goals of the project.

In a short amount of time Allegheny College for Global Water provided the Allegheny College and Meadville communities with information about water issues and ways to help. This was a very important step, and something we are proud of. It is critical that people are made aware and that progress can be made toward solving this problem. In addition to the community education aspect of this project, we were able to raise money for Global Water that will go towards projects such as building wells, pumps, and latrines.

2)  Allegheny College 2010

In May 2010, a group of 20 Allegheny students and two faculty members traveled on an Experiential Learning trip to Nicaragua to learn about health issues facing rural Nicaraguans. Global Water has worked for a number of years in Nicaragua, supporting local organizations with water, sanitation and hygiene projects for villages and schools. This group of students and faculty were able to visit project sites and experience firsthand how rural communities deal with water issues in developing countries.
Five of the 20 Allegheny students and faculty who traveled to Nicaragua organized a second all day concert at Allegheny College to fundraise for Global Water, raising over $2,000!

Please find an article describing the festivities and photos from the concert event below.

Article: http://meadvilletribune.com/local/x1271727202/Allegheny-students-host-concert-for-Global-Water
Photos: http://meadville.bravophotos.com/photos/main/viewimage-117057-RMS_0463.htm

3)  University of Kentucky

While attending the University of Kentucky, Sarah and Andres felt the need to get involved by supporting water projects in developing countries. Here’s why in their own words –

Each year, millions of people die or are unable to be productive due to diseases that ultimately relate to the lack of safe drinking water in their communities. After extensive exposure to poverty and disease-stricken countries, as well as the study of water-borne illness, our awareness of the leading cause of health disparity, poverty, and mortality in the world became a vision for change.

We have developed a campus-wide project at the University of Kentucky and in the Lexington community, which we called “Healing Waters, for Love Saves Lives”, with the ultimate goal of raising community awareness of water problems in the developing world while raising needed dollars. This funding is being used to specifically build safe water, effective sanitation and hygiene facilities for rural villages and schools in developing countries. We feel the monetary resources that come out of our project will be invested best by experts in the field, and we are proud to have chosen the international non-profit organization, Global Water (www.GlobalWater.org), to partner with.

We hope to accomplish our fundraising by selling unique, hand-drawn Valentine’s Day cards the month of February each year. Each Valentine card not only communicates love and respect of the person it is sent to, we also hope that it will create awareness of the world's water disparity between the developed world and the developing world. In addition, money raised through the sale of our cards will fund water-related facilities as Healing Water to an actual rural community in need. Because printing costs have been donated, 100% of the raised funds will go directly to the children in Guatemala schools. Healing Water is our goal, for we know that Love Saves Lives.

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