The gift of life was joyously celebrated weeks ago in the village of Gonekorpe as Hope for Ghana’s season of providing access to clean, potable water to villages in dire need continues. This is a story of immense generosity, but not from typical philanthropists. It is a story of Pittsburgh school children helping needy children on the other side of the world.
Amber Bittiger is a teacher at Propel Braddock Hills Middle School whose 7th grade class was reading “A Long Walk to Water,” a story of the water crisis in Sudan. The curriculum for these students, from math to social studies, revolved around water. Only one thing was left for these children to do.
Ms. Bittiger, hearing about Hope for Ghana’s mission, reached out to me last year requesting that her 7th graders partner with Hope for Ghana in providing clean, potable water to a village in Ghana where women and children previously walked several miles to fetch dirty water from a river dam.
The charter school’s 7th grade students personally raised the $3000 needed to bring the gift of life to Gonekorpe, providing the perfect ending to “A Long Walk to Water.” Though my trip to Ghana was postponed this spring, Hope for Ghana’s mission and the dreams of Propel’s finest students continued as planned.
The video below of the village of Gonekorpe receiving clean water for the first time is heartwarming. It is the picture of hope provided by Hope for Ghana’s youngest donors who have transformed the lives of Ghanaian children and families forever. The lives of these students will never be the same.