Water Blogged

Last weekend marked the end of the 2024 H2O for Life High School Fellowship program. Since January, our high school fellows have met a couple of times a month, over Zoom, on Saturday mornings to learn more about the Global Water Crisis and how to take action in their own communities. 25 fellows joined the cohort from California, Costa Rica, Florida, Illinois, India, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Each came with their own unique perspectives on issues related to water and their own ideas on how to get their communities involved. We left the kick-off session excited for the semester ahead!

During our first seminar, the fellows taught one another about their assigned Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how each one connects to Goal #6: Clean Water & Sanitation. We wanted our fellows to understand how water is connected to so many more other aspects of our day-to-day lives. They then heard from our implementing partners in Nicaragua, Rob and Jenna from El Porvenir, about how they approach WASH (Water Access, Sanitation, and Hygiene) interventions in their community. Fellows came to understand that there were connections from their presentations in El Porvenir’s work. How these are not just water projects, but they are also building  Sustainable Communities (#11), helping people live healthier lives (#3), and by taking action on reforestation they can help keep water in the ground for people to use (#13). Camila, our fellow from Costa Rica, felt so moved by the work of El Porvenir and wanted to help people near her, that she decided to support the San Pedro School project with them this semester. She went on to raise $200 to support building new latrines and handwashing stations!

At our next session, fellows began ideation exercises around their projects. What kind of projects did they want to support and how were they going to educate and engage their communities? Our impact speaker was Lamah Bility, a social entrepreneur and co-founder/CEO of Didomi Water Bottles. Lamah shared his experience as an immigrant from Liberia with the water crisis and how he used his skills as a business leader to launch a water bottle company that donates a portion of every sale to clean water projects. “He was very fun and cheerful, he also seemed like a very relatable person, knowing that he was a young college student with an idea and acted on it made me think I could do something too,” said Melissa Bologescu, a graduating senior at Enloe High School in Raleigh, North Carolina. After that session, Melissa helped lead her local Interact Club in raising $270 for Muggaga Secondary School in Uganda by selling Valentine’s Day Candygrams. She may be on her way to becoming a social entrepreneur herself!

Now that the fellows had their ideas, how were they going to get the word out? During their next module, they learned about storytelling and how to engage people in their work. This session was extra fun because they were able to hear from an alumni of H2O for Life who has gone on to do some BIG things! Austin Alexander is the VP of Social Impact at Xylem, one of the world’s biggest water technology companies. However, she started her water journey with an H2O for Life project when she was in high school. Just like our fellows! Austin chased that interest through college and eventually worked her way up to where she is today, supporting social impact work in the WASH sector in big ways! “One new thing I learned from listening to Austin was just how many different things you can join with a career in water, and especially as someone who wants to go into engineering, it’s great to know that it’s available.” Said Ethan, a freshman at White Bear Lake High School in Minnesota. Our fellows learned from Austin how they can advocate from their strengths and interests for the things they care about. Maybe this cohort will have some future Xylem employees!

With this program, we are trying to build a movement of young people ready and eager to take on water challenges. During our session on movement building, the fellows heard from members of the Policy Team at Dig Deep, Kayla and Jenny, about the water access gap here in the United States. They learned about community organizing, policy advocacy, and how to center voices that have been most impacted by the water access gap. Fellows learned in-depth about projects being done in the Navajo Nation. Addison, a fellow who grew up not far from Flint, Michigan, wanted to do a project within the boundaries of the United States. She decided to support one of Dig Deep’s Navajo Nation projects.

As we were reaching the end of the program, fellows learned about the importance of gathering feedback on their work. Fellows participated in a mock town hall activity where they learned about asking the right questions to help them make necessary changes in their community. They also heard from Emily Onufer, a Senior Management Consultant at Savan currently doing a project with the Environmental Protection Agency. Fellows learned about all of the different stakeholders and policies around water that need to be considered by communities. “I was very intrigued by her teaching regarding how the EPA operates and how certain governmental acts help solve the global water scarcity crisis,” said Hunter, a Sophomore at Pine Crest School in Florida. In his application for the program, Hunter had expressed his deep interest in water conservation and protection, and Emily was able to give him a look at what that entails.

Our final session was last weekend, and we wanted our fellows to understand the ripple effects that their projects had around the world. We spent our time together sharing about one another’s projects. Our fellows shared educational postering campaigns, hosted open mics and dodgeball tournaments, started candygram businesses, learned how to make cotton candy that was sold at school events (which is harder than it looks apparently), used art to engage people and raise funds, hosted coin drives, went old school with a bake sale, brought their communities together over good meals and game nights, and led their student body in a Walk for Water. This cohort of fellows was full of overachievers and go-getters! Overall, they:

• Volunteered over 460 hours on their projects.
• Supported 9 implementors across 10 countries.
• Provided access to clean water and sanitation for 4,784 people!

They were able to share these project presentations with Patty Hall, the founder of H2O for Life. Patty also got to see the ripple effect of her work. She was one teacher who wanted to do one good thing for a friend in need. She engaged her community and empowered young people to participate in change. Now, more than a decade later, these high school fellows got together on Saturday mornings, engaged their communities during the week, and 4,784 people will have access to clean water and sanitation because of their work. And hopefully next year, they will send some of their friends our way. Those students will learn from our impact speakers, they will lead projects, and the good work will continue to spread!

We couldn’t be more proud and excited about this year’s cohort! Thank you all for the hard work that you put in! The ripple effect is still going!