WE Walk for Water: How Trudging Through Mud Was Best Day Ever by @Deb_Lowther #WEWalkforWater

Imagine waking up your teenagers and telling them to get dressed and put on their rain gear & mud boots as they are about to walk 45 minutes in a downpour, through mud filled roads and fields to carry a 40lb jug of water on their back up a hill from the river.

Not happening! Certainly not happening when you are on vacation and said teenagers told you before the trip that they would have preferred to go to a beach and not go hiking through remote villages in Kenya. But something magical happens when you are travelling with a group on a WE Families trip and see with your own eyes, not just what clean water means to these villages, but how much gratitude they have for pouring rain and mud.

Kenya faces many months of drought which makes getting any water at all difficult, so a heavy rainfall is a blessing. Without rain they can’t grow crops, they can’t feed their cows or goats and have to walk to creeks and rivers even farther away. Before We Villages came to Kenya, the only drinking water available was unsafe – often contaminated – and miles away. It was the responsibility of the young girls in the family to walk an average of six kilometers to find and collect water, carrying these 40lb jugs on their backs up to 5 times a day. Every day. There was no time left for attending school.

You would think exposure to this would cause our privileged teenagers to dive under the covers, but on this day in Kenya my daughters, ages 12, 14, 16, not only participated – happily trudging through mud and standing in the rain to learn about their culture, their daily rituals and how access to clean drinking water has change their lives – but they look back on this experience as one of the best days of our entire trip.

“I loved that we got to experience what they have to go through just to get low quality water (from the river) when we just turn on our taps and we have safe drinking water in a second,” said one of my daughters, reflecting on her day. “The WE Walk for Water changed the way I appreciate things. The rain and the mud didn’t even phase me because of where I was and what I was doing to contribute. It is a whole other level of appreciation to be a part of a WE Walk for Water. And we were right beside the Mama’s who did this every single day when they were growing up,” said another.

Access to clean water transforms a developing community by reducing illness, providing young girls with the opportunity to attend school and sustainable farming for parents, which all work together to empower communities to break free from the cycle of poverty. WE has been addressing water as a critical issue for over 20 years and realized early on it was an important link to empowering change in these remote communities. To be there, in Kenya, with my family to see the impact of this first hand was overwhelming at times. The WE water towers with fresh water, available to everyone, were everywhere.

Without access to clean water, young girls cannot attend school, without education there is little opportunity for a better future, without water, education and opportunity there is not access the proper nutrition and without that there is declining health. WE Villages is committed to these five pillars of impact in every community they are a part of: Education, Water, Health, Food and Opportunity.

We Walk for Water aims to provide access to clean water for life to 50,000 people in developing communities. When you donate $25, WE Charity can provide one person with access to clean water for life. On April 27, 2018, tens of thousands of students, educators and families will participate in their own water walks to unite with women and girls across the world – and you can get involved here at home. Here’s how:

Join WE at one of their two events in Toronto on April 28th, 2018 at the WE Global Learning Centre, 339 Queen ST. E. Click here to RSVP for the morning or afternoon session -> https://www.we.org/community/

Visit https://www.we.org/we-schools/program/campaigns/we-walk-for-water/   for instructions to organize your own WE Walk for Water event in your neighborhood. It’s a fun and easy way to raise awareness and funds for this important cause.  You can also choose Donate and contribute as little as $25 to provide access to clean water for life to someone in a developing country.

The reality that my kids can just turn on a tap and get running clean, fresh, drinkable water is no longer taken for granted at our house. This experience of actually carry that jug on their backs has stuck with them and knowing they were doing something that was helping others made trudging through the mud and the rain, one of their best days ever. “The experience was just amazing.”