Water woes have drained communities around the globe, but the Innisfail Middle School Mustangs had no shortage of enthusiasm when it came to learning about how to mop up water and sanitation problems.
Free The Children guest speakers Alexandra Atkinson and Andrew Martin told grade 5 to 8 students on Oct. 9 why it's important to provide a sustainable source of clean water to people all over the world during an hour-long presentation at the IMS gymnasium.
“We've got the whole school here this morning to get a unique presentation for an hour,” said IMS principal Jay Steeves before the lecture. “It's a very multimedia approach with two really great speakers to really engage our students. Then, we're actually going to spend the rest of the day with our leadership group, which is what we call our Mustang Gang, to do a seminar on leadership skills and how to develop skills on service learning as well.”
Atkinson and Martin told students, including many 12-year-olds, about their involvement to bring awareness to their cause. The duo decided to visit Alberta and B.C. schools to discuss the benefits of activism and tell students about their experience travelling to Africa last year to help.
“We're just trying to band them together to create the world that they want to live in in the future because they own it,” said Atkinson.
Martin told students to practise conserving water and explained how many children in Africa are forced to walk miles and miles to fetch clean water for their families.
But the lesson was twofold: It tied into local curriculum about water conservation; and it taught students to take a stand for the issues they believe in.
“We're just going around to schools and trying to remind kids that they have the power to really tackle any issue that they want to see change on,” said Atkinson. “We want to remind them that it starts with small actions, and informing themselves is like a really important component — knowledge is power, essentially.”
A fact that Free The Children proved during its ‘Water Initiative' last year.
Free The Children's mission is to create a world where all young people are free to achieve their fullest potential as agents of change and it uses founder Craig Kielburger's drive as a blueprint. Kielburger gathered 11 school friends to begin fighting child labour at age 12 in 1995.
In fact, the agency brought thousands of people across Canada together to raise money through fundraising initiatives like, ‘We Create Change,' ‘One Climb' or ‘Water Rafiki Friend' — to provide clean water to roughly 100,000 people worldwide.
Students did not miss the memo either.
“I thought it was great that they're going to help all of those people in other countries who don't get water,” said Grade 9 student Aden McCune after the presentation. “We learned how to reuse water and not to waste it.”
For more information about Free The Children's water initiative, visit http://www.freethechildren.com/water.
