- Tuesday 18 October 2016
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This week a colleague mentioned a friend who participated in the Blue Planet Run: The race to provide safe drinking water to the world. Since it is National Water Week, it seems appropriate to promote this important event.
Not being much of a runner, it isn’t something I’d normally be interested in, or even aware of. But, being a bit curious, I ‘googled’ the name and discovered that, apart from challenging themselves as runners, the participants compete in this race for a very worthy cause—to provide safe water and adequate sanitation programs around the world. The following video provides a wonderful illustration.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJxc0M_ghhA[/embed]
Not living in a third world country, it’s really difficult to imagine anyone in this day and age not having the basics that we all take for granted.
If you peruse the Blue Planet Network website you will found out just how much has already been achieved by this group. Since 2002, two million people in thousands of communities now have access to safe, clean drinking water, and this has given them a better quality of life and some hope for the future. Nearly two thousand water and sanitation projects worth millions of dollars are overseen by the Blue Planet Network. This seems like a great result but, when the goal of an organisation is to help over 200 million people, there’s still a long way to go!
I don’t like to run, so I’d never consider becoming involved in the Blue Planet Run. But I wondered if there was a way to help in another form. I also wondered how children in schools could contribute. We teach civics and citizenship but how often do we—with our classes, or as a school—really do anything to help communities around the world.
Yes, we teach our students to try to conserve water (turn off the tap when brushing your teeth, and basics like that), but wouldn’t it be great to do something much more global?
Could we use our daily fitness in a more meaningful way? Could my school hold its own Blue Planet Run (on a smaller scale of course!)? Could we get sponsors like we often do to raise money for the school?
If our objective, as teachers and parents, is to help students grow into responsible adults who contribute to society, shouldn’t we broaden their horizons about what is happening outside their immediate sphere?
What activities do you, or could you do, to raise money for a worthy cause like the Blue Planet Network? We’d love to hear how your class or school is civic-minded! Next time you drink a glass of water, think about it!