WE Walk For Water opens floodgates for change
In a one-day fundraising event, more than 2,500 schools and groups in North America and the UK walked a collective 361,000 km to help communities around the world gain access to clean water.
The feat was inspired by WE Walk For Water, an educational and fundraising campaign that is part of the WE Schools service-learning program. The campaign provides schools and educators with lesson packages and in-class resources that bring to life the challenges of clean water access. Students then go beyond the classroom, applying their learning to help raise awareness about this pressing issue and fundraise to support clean water projects.
According to the World Health Organization, 785 million people lack access to clean drinking water. Every day, in communities around the world, the task of collecting the water they need to survive falls predominantly to women and children. Because of this burden, girls are unable to go to school. Many of these water sources har-bour waterborne diseases, exposing families to illness and leaving them unable to provide for themselves.
"The issue of water global-ly is so important: says Carrie Patterson, Chief Operations Director at WE Charity. 'WE has the curriculum that helps youth learn and really under-stand the impact of not hav-ing clean water:'
Access to clean water can be life-changing. It reduces illness, opens doors to edu-cation for girls and increases sustainable farming for fam-ilies. Clean water can em-power whole communities to break free from the cycle of poverty.
This year's WE Walk For Water campaign culminated in 11 multi-city events held in May. Schools, groups, donors and companies from Can-ada, the U.S. and the UK took part. In the two years since the campaign's launch, more than half a million Canadian students have participated in the global fundraiser, and WE expects to see this grow in 2020.
"This generation is advocating for causes they see af-fecting the world and are mo-bilizing to be active citizens of change," says Katrina Mac-Gibbon, Associate Director of Fundraising Initiatives at WE. "Our fundraising initia-tive is providing them with tools to lead and have a hands on role in making a difference by engaging their own net-works locally, which makes an impact globally."
The proceeds from WE Walk For Water fund WE Charity's water projects in Kenya, Tanzania, India, Ecua-dor and Haiti. Focused on working with communities to improve poor infrastructure and other barriers to clean water access, this year's pro-jects include building la-trines, creating pipe-borne water systems, rehabilitating wells and providing clean water and sanitation training.
For motivational speaker and WE Ambassador Spencer West, the success of the cam-paign demonstrates young people's increasing awareness about the perils of global cli-mate change.
West Saw the dangers of changing climate patterns firsthand during his first visit to Kenya in 2008. That year, the region was hit by its worst drought in 60 years. Spencer and his team were forced to drop their plan to fundraise for a new boys' school and prioritize access to water—his focus ever since.
I've spent every summer in EastAttica for the last ten years and I've watched how the weather patterns have changed and how people there are struggling," he says. "I think people here are start-ing to understand what these communities have been going through for quite a long time."
Though West admits that there is still a long way to go, he is excited that more young people are raising awareness about the issue. "I whole-heartedly believe in the idea of empowering young people to change the world;' he says. "And I've seen them take those tools and actually do it."
The 70 members of the WE Club at Bessborough School in Moncton, New Brunswick, are a case in point. Students in Grades 6 to 8 hosted a WE Walk For Water festival in their city after learning about how so many people lack access to clean drinking water.
The WE Walk For Water festival kicked off with several workshops on water contamination and other water issues led by WE Charity staff. Students and staff of both Bessborough and their smaller sister school, Hillcrest, then walked down to nearby Jones Lake. Once there, they picked up bottles and jerry cans filled with lake water and carried them back to the school in a show of solidarity with those who must walk to fetch water every day. The event wrapped up with a performance from the Halifax band Neon Dreams, as well as fun family activities such as making beaded Kenyan Rafiki Bracelets and designing t- shirts.
“It was an amazing event,” said Sally Carpenter, a science teacher and WE Club coordinator at Bessborough School.
Sign up for WE Walk For Water 2020 and get access to a free toolkit and other resources by registering your school or group at