Children learn the importance of water.
Tahatai Coast Primary School children are learning real-life skills like compassion and empathy in their latest hands on project where every drop counts.
Five classes of Year 5 and 6 students took to the streets in Tauranga and Mount Maunganui to refund-raise money for the Hopes Initiatives Project, who help communities in Kenya access fresh water.
Tahatai Coast teacher Craig McDonald says the pupils have made a great effort and ended up raising $1323, which will go towards Sawyer PointONE bucket filters for communities in Mukuyuni.
“For learning to have a real impact it needs to have a practical outcome in the world.
The children have learnt about waterborne diseases, how important fresh water is, places where there is water scarcity or the water supply is polluted, and how this effects the communities.
“Last year was such a success around the child labor issue, we thought we would tackle a different issue, but come in trying to beat that.” Last year they raised $2000 for the Born to Be Free programme who pay off any debts that the parents have to free the children from labor.
They used a chain as a metaphor for the children and each time the pupils raised some money they cut a part of the chain off with some bolt cutters.
Due to the positive feedback from last year and what the children got out of the experience, they felt like they wanted to do something similar again.
Chris says this will definitely be something that he will continue to put into practice as a teacher.