by Finn Ruderman ’25

Just for a second, put yourself in their shoes. You wake up and instead of a daily morning routine, you have to grab your empty five gallon water container—weighing over 40 pounds when full—and set out on your walk to a water reserve roughly five miles away. 

For almost everyone in rural Burkina Faso, this is their everyday lives. There is no running water, and the water obtained from these daily treks is almost always dirty and unsafe to drink. This, as you can probably imagine, causes a lot of problems for those in this situation. These problems are exactly what those involved in the recent Walk For Water conducted here at Sem sought to resolve.

For the past couple of years, Sem has partnered with the Barka Foundation, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of those without access to clean water in Burkina Faso through the implementation of water wells in different villages throughout the eastern part of the country. For this past walk, all of the funds generated went directly to the new well-building project in the village Fada-N’gourma. 

The walk, organized by the Upper and Lower Schools’ Environmental Clubs and myself, was a fully in person event for the first time since Sem has started doing them. 57 Sem students, faculty, and friends, along with five dogs, came together on April 21st to walk from back campus, to Kirby Park, and back for a total of around three miles all whilst carrying jugs and containers of water in an effort to simulate, even in a very small way, the journey that the residents of Fada need to make daily to get their water.

In total, the walk managed to raise over $2,000, roughly one-fifth of the total cost of the well—a fairly significant amount. As always, one of the main purposes of the Walk For Water, aside from raising money, is to call attention to certain aspects of life (in this case, having access to clean/fresh water) which you may unconsciously take for granted, all while others who go without are struggling.

For all those who helped in any way, I offer you a sincere thank you.  And to those who missed it this year, the Walk for Water will be an annual event, so there will be more opportunities to come.