WaterLog

Over 400 Seattle area residents gathered on Saturday to walk for water in solidarity with the 1 billion people who make a daily trek for water. 

This was easily my favorite Water 1st event ever.  It was moving to see everyone making such a sincere a effort to carry the water.  There was a group of about seven women (Tizita & Fekadu’s Team) who carried the entire 5 gallons in one container.  They passed it to each other and each team member carried it as far as she could. 

I saw one young girl with a small container of water on her back fall to her knees at the end of the 5k walk route with a big ‘phew.’  Her mom, Jill Jago, said she was really determined to carry her half-gallon container the whole way. 

A group of students from the Edmonds School district were also there as a team.  Their parents are originally from Mexico, and they said their mothers used to carry water when they lived there.  They were participating in honor of them.

At Water 1st, we truly believe in the power of the grassroots. We believe it is important for us as individuals to join together in addressing this issue.  When people here are aware of the millions of preventable childhood deaths annually and the billions of hours spent daily by women and young girls carrying water, they are motivated to take action, like the CARRY 5 participants did here on Saturday.  Thank you to everyone who participated in this event!

Full story here.

Photo gallery here.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 11:02 am and is filed under The WaterLog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.