Imagine a world where the quest for clean water sends you on a mile-long trek every single day. A place where vending machines filled with Dr. Pepper and Cherry Coke are nowhere to be found. Such a bleak scenario is a daily reality for more than 800 communities in Africa. Additionally, these communities continue to be ravaged by HIV/AIDS.
A national campaign to increase awareness about the plight of these African communities is breaking ground at Virginia Tech. Blood: Water Mission will have students literally walk a mile in the shoes of the less fortunate and experience the reality that too many African communities experience on a daily basis.
It kicks off its campus-wide campaign today with “Forty Days of Water,” where supporters opt to drink only tap water for 40 days and donate the money they would have used on other beverages to Blood:Water Mission in order to help build clean water projects for communities in Uganda. At the close of this 40-day period, the campaign concludes with the Water Walk, where students can experience what some people in Africa go through on a daily basis to retrieve clean water. Campaigners will walk a mile in distance from the Drillfield to the Duck Pond, carrying back water to symbolize their united effort to improve conditions in African communities.
Sam Choi, a junior accounting major and one of the students heading up the campaign at Tech, believes the 40 day campaign will definitely raise awareness about the conditions in parts of Africa.
“With this effort we’re starting off small, but we’re hoping it raises enough awareness to make a bigger impact down the road,” Choi said. “We take water for granted but it’s essential for life and there are many who don’t have that luxury. It’s mostly about opening people’s eyes to the plight of others. The money will follow somewhere down the road.”
Nationally, the Blood:Water Mission has been empowering people to be a small part of a larger story through its five core values: community, responsibility, integrity, dignity and teachability. Through partnership with other organizations, grassroots approaches that maximize cost effectiveness and funded programs for both water sanitation and HIV/AIDS treatment clinics in Africa, the organization believes it is doing everything in its power to provide African communities with a new hope.
The campaign on Tech’s campus was brought about through inspiration. Several Tech students were introduced to the campaign through a pastor at their home church and felt that it was necessary for the Blacksburg community to be enlightened as well.
Maria Kim, a junior political science major, wanted to emphasize the severity and magnitude of the epidemics going on in Africa, and the importance of dealing with the problem as soon as possible.
“We hear and read about problems like this that many people deal with outside our country,” Kim said. “We live such comfortable lives as students and faculty who attend Virginia Tech. Our concerns right now revolve mainly around getting good grades, conducting research, meeting deadlines and things of that nature. I hope that people will realize the gravity of the situation in which many people in Africa live and how blessed we are here as students at Virginia Tech. From the abundance of comfort and provisions we have, I hope that we would share that with others.”
Students behind the campaign admit that getting students to realize these problems in Africa isn’t easy.
“We give all these statistics but it’s still not really personal to our lives,” Choi said. “Participating in the campaign will hopefully show students what people in these communities have to live with every single day. They can’t choose, and we can, so hopefully the campaign will encourage students to choose to help those less fortunate than they are.”
The reality is that $1 would provide a person in Africa with clean water for an entire year. Justin Gross, a graduate student in accounting, wanted to emphasize the simplicity of helping to change the lives of these people.
“We don’t realize how simple it would be to help these people,” Gross said. “Building wells for clean water only costs a few thousand dollars, and they would provide entire communities with clean water for many years.”
Blood:Water Mission at Tech hopes to be able to raise enough money to build several wells in Uganda communities. After the 40 days have passed, supporters hope that the campaign efforts will stick with students and faculty for years to come.
“Forty days of only drinking water won’t just solve everything,” Gross said. “It’s simply allowing us to step out of our reality into theirs for a change and realize that it is up to us to continue to help the communities in Africa and change their lives for the better.”