About the initiative

When students from Cypress Park Primary School in Vancouver, Canada, learned that children in South Sudan often walk long hours carrying more than their own weight in water, they wanted to help. We told them how much it costs to drill a well, and they got to work. The next six weeks were filled with every kind of fundraiser, from lemonade stands and bake sales to a craft market and swim-a-thon.

The impact

These 64 children—most of them under nine years old—raised $8,000. Every cent immediately went to drilling a well at a school in Riak Dor. Inspired to create more change, this small group of students worked together to build another water well, this time for the community of Gol Meen.

These miraculous kids are proof that regardless of age or position in life, if you really care about helping, you can do it. They inspire the work we do in Africa and thanks to their story, they have begun to inspire other schools through our Kids For Clean Water program as well.