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Showing solidarity on the roads of Kinvara

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THE Seamount College community will take to the roads around Kinvara next week in an effort to highlight the daily experience of women and girls in the developing world.
On March 22, International World Water Day, the pupils and teachers, male and female, will take part in a 6km walk around Kinvara carrying water. The event will show solidarity with their peers in Kenya, where a young girl travels the average daily distance of 6km by foot, carrying up to 20 litres of water on the journey. As a result of the time it takes to collect water, many girls are unable to remain in education and without education, find themselves caught in a cycle of poverty.
International World Water Day is held annually to focus attention on the importance of fresh water and advocating the sustainable management of fresh water resources.
“It is a time to focus public attention on critical water issues, such as the fact that 6,000 children die every day from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. Ending the water and sanitation crisis will help break the poverty cycle, increase school attendance and save lives,” according to Aidlink, the NGO encouraging schools around the country to hold an event marking the day.
To mark Seamount’s participation in their World Water Day activity, five of the students took part in the John Murray Show on RTÉ Radio 1 on Tuesday.
“The whole school is taking part, including students and staff, male and female. We will be walking around Kinvara in the morning between 11am and lunchtime on Thursday next. Our development education teacher Eileen Fitzgerald brought the idea to us. We have a strong relationship with Aidlink, having travelled to Ghana with them before. When she made the suggestion, we decided it was a great idea and just went for it. Since then, a number of other teachers have got involved because we recognise that it crosses a number of curricular programmes. We are doing this primarily as an awareness activity, rather than a fundraising one but we may raise some funds too and if we do, that is great. The walk is to raise awareness about what girls’ lives are like in the Third World,” explained school principal Maighread Mhic Dhomhnaill.
“The girls who took part in the John Murray Show walked from the River Dodder to RTÉ studios, along with girls from Loreto Beaufort, Rathfarnham. They were basically launching it countrywide. There are schools in Waterford and Cork doing it as well, so we won’t be on our own but I think Aidlink are trying to get more schools involved. We will be carrying water with us on the walk but the key is to use the water too and not waste it. We will bring it back to the school and put it on the plants to show that water is precious,” Ms Mhic Dhomhnaill concluded.

 

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