El Paso Water Walk

Anniah Barker proudly shows off her partially filled gallon of water.

For a student in rural Kenya, getting water is not a simple chore. Many students must walk multiple kilometers, sometimes down or up-hill, just to get to the nearest water source. Their walk, of course, isn’t through air-conditioned hallways but out in the hot Kenya sun. And the nearest water isn’t a tap, but a muddy river or maybe a sticky spring. For students at schools without running water, fetching water can be a long, sweaty, everyday chore.

To raise awareness of not only the need for water, but the daily challenge kids face each day just to fetch it, CDK decided to host a Water Walk. At this walk, about 70 people gathered at the North end of the walking trail in El Paso, Illinois. Together, they walked to Panther Creek with empty water jugs. After crawling through the tall, muddy grass, they filled up their gallons with water from the creek and carried them back to the starting point. In total, the distance was about 2 miles.

While it was a fun day for the community learning first-hand about the water crisis, fetching their own water from the creek gave the walkers a new perspective. Soon, the funds had come in and the construction of water tank #7 for Kari Primary was underway.

In Kenya, the students at Kari Primary hosted a walk too. To help the students become teachers for their Kenyan community, local Kenyan news featured their walk (the link is here) to help educate and raise awareness about the water crisis.

Finally, on January 20th, 2017, the water tank for Kari Primary was complete. Thanks to the generous and now well-educated water walkers, the 270 students and teachers at Kari would finally have access to clean water.