A public health concern that I chose to expand on further
for this week’s blog post is access to healthy water; something most Americans
take for granted.
If we want a glass of water we go to the kitchen sink and
there it is. If we want to take a bath or shower we go to our bathroom and take
a shower; sometimes twice a day. That is not the case in many parts of the
world. One part of the world where healthy water is a concern is Uganda.
Our church recently helped to put a well in at treasured kid’s
school in Uganda. The drinking water in Kampala, Uganda contains bacteria that
causes cholera, dysentery and diarrhea. The water also contained bacteria that
causes cholera, dysentery and diarrhea.
The water also contained 12 to 40 times more dirt and other foreign
matter than generally accepted safe levels. (Nam)
What does this mean for Ugandan children? Why is healthy
drinking water important? You need water
to help your body work properly. Just like other living things humans need
water to survive. Your blood contains lots of water and carries oxygen to your
cells. If a child does not consume any water or enough water their cells will
not work right thus there body will not work right. When children do not drink
enough water they can become dehydrated causing them to be more sluggish, their
thinking isn’t as clear, and their body (especially the lymph system) is not
regulating correctly. (Gavin)
So why is this a global concern?
With population growth projections of three billion more
people in the next 50 to 75 years there will be more thirsty people, meaning a
greater demand on an already scarce resource which without proper education and
intervention will cause more civil unrest and increase the numbers of children
dying because of lack of water. Water is used for more than just human
consumption and this natural resource (even where abundant like the U.S.) is
being wasted and over used. (unicef)
As a responsible steward of the environment and role model for young children it is our responsibility to teach them not only what healthy drinking water means to them but what healthy drinking water means to the world.
Resources:
Thank you for sharing. I love that your church helped to put a well in Uganda! That is so awesome, I personally think more fundraising needs to be done to make things like that possible. I agree that in the US we are extremely wasteful worth our water. For example my dad waters his lawn for 12 hours every other day! Others run the shower for 5-10 minutes prior to entering to allow it to "warm up" and I i know I leave the water running while I am brushing my teeth. Your post triggered me to want to plan a lesson on how to preserve water and make them aware that other parts of the world do knothole clean water.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Jessica Arnold
Susan;
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this. Here in the United States we do not know what it means to be without water. Even if we are unable to have running water for a temporary amount of time, we quickly run to the store to buy bottled water. It is difficult for us to understand. Awesome story about your church outreaching to the school in Uganda. That is quite a ministry!
Thanks for sharing that uplifting story about the well and congratulations on a wonderful, selfless task! I can not agree more with how we take water for granted. We have a ton of it at our fingertips for free, yet we also buy it when it's not right there (or when we "don't like it"). I like how Jessica was inspired by your post to do a lesson on water conservation. It is so important to teach our kiddos about water as a valuable but limited resource.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Anne-Marie
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehank you for sharing. I agree that it is never too early to teach water conservation. We teach even our youngest students how precious water is. Disposable water bottles are not allowed in our school and thermoses and reusable bottles are not to be emptied in the sink. If a child takes too much water at lunch and can not finish it he pours it in a plant. It is the little things we can do every day to teach our children how precious this resource is so that they hopefully will be able to have compassion for those without later on in life.
DeleteGreat Post!
Heather
Hi Susan,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your post this week! I think this is a really important thing to talk about, and one that we do not talk about enough. I appreciate that you spoke a little bit at the end of your post about the importance of environmental stewardship. You are right in that as Americans, we tend to be very privileged compared to other nations. We don't face the daily issue of finding safe drinking water, like those living in Uganda or other countries. Even though this isn't something we're faced with everyday, I personally think that teaching our children about environmental stewardship, and showing them how to help whenever they can, is very important. It's one of the small steps that we as educators can take that will hopefully lead to a larger change. If we can raise a generation of children who value the environment, and are actively working toward bettering it, perhaps we can alleviate some of the environmental issues (and coinciding global health issues) currently facing our planet.