6 December 2017
Today Year 8 had the pleasure of an educational and exciting talk on WaterAid. A lady called Judy came in to speak to us about the importance of sanitation, hygiene and safe water. Judy herself works as a volunteer for WaterAid and had visited Ghana four years ago to oversee some projects there. We have been studying Ghana this term as part of our topic ‘Development’. Some of the figures she told us were astonishing; about one in nine people don’t have access to safe water to drink - that is around 844 million. We also learnt that 2.3 billion people don’t have a safe toilet. That is a staggering one in every three people.
Recently in Geography we have been learning about aid. We learnt about the Akosombo Dam, which is one of the large scale aid programmes to be put in place in Ghana. We also learnt about smaller scale aid which is more environmentally friendly and helps more people, as well as the poorest people. Our example for this was WaterAid, e.g. putting water pumps into rural villages in Ghana. Judy showed us some photos of the people she had met in Ghana and the projects there, so we could see how WaterAid helps bring clean safe water to those who need it. It was great to see what we had been learning about in our lessons and hear from someone who has first-hand experience of WaterAid’s work in Ghana.
We also found out from Judy that Water Aid helps over 34 different countries across the world, as well as Ghana. One of the countries most in need of their support is India. In India lots of women go to use the toilet in the evening because of privacy issues. But travelling in the night is dangerous, so luckily Water Aid have stepped in and helped a lot of people to build toilets closer to their homes.
The most important lesson that Year 8 learnt today was what we can do ourselves to help save water. For example, to not keep your water on while brushing your teeth as this is a waste of a clean resource.
Eloise, Year 8