The Thistle - An E-Newsletter of Scotch College, Perth, Western Australia

From the Head of Junior School

Walk for Water

Aysha is 13 years old. Her day starts at 6.30am with gathering up the empty water containers, strapping them to the back of the camel and beginning her long walk. She walks alone through the barren countryside for three and a quarter hour to a drying water hole where she unstraps the water bottles, fills them up with the cloudy surface water, washes herself and then begins the long trek back to her home. She will arrive back at the family home at 3.45pm, finally sitting down for some food and water at 4.20pm. Sitting around with her brothers and sisters, she will see some of the work they have done at school that day, do some of her household chores and go to sleep at around 9.00pm.  The next day, she will get up at 6.30am again, put the water bottles on the back of the camel and begin her trek. Each day, Aysha will spend about eight hours gathering water for her family.

Across the world, 2.1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. Much of the water that they drink is filled with numerous diseases that can cause them great illness.

On Friday, the boys from Years 3 to 5, in conjunction with Presbyterian Ladies' College (PLC), went for a walk around Lake Claremont. Each boy was asked to bring a two-litre plastic container filled with clean water to carry with him as he walked around the lake twice. This was to symbolise the average distance that children walk in developing countries to obtain water, six kilometers.

Following the walk, the children returned to the MacKellar Hall for an assembly with Mr David Kyle, Director of Service and Citizenship. He reminded them about why they were taking these important actions. The small gold coin donation that the boys provided to take part in the event on Friday will go towards funding much needed fresh water resources for the village in Matipwili in Tanzania.

The boys were then asked to take the water bottles home with them over the weekend and see how long that two litres of water would last. The purpose of the event on Friday was two-fold.  Firstly, to raise awareness of the plight of children around the world and the desperate need for clean drinking water for their health and wellbeing; and secondly for the boys to see that their small actions of taking a walk around the lake and donating a gold coin towards this cause, can make a real difference to people less fortunate than them.