Unionville third graders raise over $12k to build wells in Burkina Faso

In just a couple months, 24 kids in a third grade class at Unionville Elementary School were able to raise $12,022 to build a well for clean water in Burkina Faso, Africa.

They did this by partnering with the Georgie Badiel Foundation. Badiel was Miss Africa in 2004, and while traveling she discovered that in other countries people can turn on a faucet and get clean water. In her home country, young girls had to walk 3 miles to get water, which was usually dirty and full of diseases. Badiel started the foundation to raise money to build wells in her home country.  

The class’ teacher, Dana Frederick, said in November the kids started studying the water cycle and the importance of water. This reminded them of another teacher who raised money for a well a few years back.

“We had her come into our class and tell us about the well project,” Frederick said. “My students were like, ‘Hey, maybe we could do that too.’”

Frederick said they started by studying the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, one of which is access to clean water.

“As the kids were learning about the issues behind each of those goals, this issue resurfaced and it kind of reinforced for them that they didn't want to just write papers on what the goals were, they wanted to actually do something about the problems in our world,” Frederick said.

Frederick said a main goal of the project was to increase gratitude for the ability to walk over to a tap and have clean water.

“I heard the kids talking about it — the incredible gift we have to have access to clean water so easily,” Frederick said.

Frederick said they started raising money the day after spring break. She said the class would brainstorm new ideas every day on how to get the word out about their project.

“Everyday we would look at the website to see where we were at; that was their favorite part of the day,” Frederick said. “It was really fun to see them get excited about this project.”

Frederick said there is a pond on the school’s property so the kids did a walk to water simulation. The students walked down to the pond and filled up jugs with water and then walked around the track for 10 laps.

“We got them really tired out,” Frederick said. “They got to see what it's like to carry 20 pounds of water for a long journey so I hope that will be a memory that will stick with them.”