For Six Years, Students Walk, Bring Water and Other Aid to More than 100,000 in West Africa

For Six Years, Students Walk, Bring Water and Other Aid to More than 100,000 in West Africa

BETHESDA, MD, May 6, 2013—More than 100,000 people in a remote and increasingly dry area of West Africa have plentiful access to clean water, thanks in part to six annual “Walk for Waters” hosted by the nonprofit organization Amman Imman: Water is Life since 2007.

This year, students and their families will again Walk for Water, for the 7^th year, this time at the Locust Grove Nature Center in Bethesda, Maryland’s Cabin John Park, on Saturday, May 11.  The Walk will begin at 10 a.m., with registration and a pre-walk Expo opening at 9 a.m.  

Couloubade's water tower
Construction completed March 2013

The Walks, attended by students mainly from the Washington, DC metro area, have focused attention on the confluence of dire situations affecting West Africa’s Azawak region in Niger—a severe and lengthening drought, extreme poverty, and growing insecurity—and have raised funds for Amman Imman’s humanitarian programs.

Amman Imman has constructed five borehole wells in Niger’s Azawak region. Each borehole well provides water for more than 25,000 people and their animals, including refugees that have poured into the area from Libya and Mali over the last year. The organization, founded and led by a former Fulbright scholar who conducted research in the Azawak, has also brought food aid, livelihood, health and education programs to the region—a place where few other humanitarian organizations work.

Through Amman Imman’s service-learning component, Wells of Love, students of all ages from more than 100 schools have become a driving force behind the organization’s success. These students have raised considerable funds and awareness through the Walks and other self-initiated events. Amman Imman’s most recent partnership with the Montgomery College/Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Collaborative Program, for example, engages English as a Second Language (ESOL) students through the Walk for Water. The event qualifies students for MCPS service learning hours. 

Before arriving at the Walk on May 11, many students will have garnered sponsorship donations for their participation. Those donations will directly fund Amman Imman’s programs.

The pre-walk Expo starting at 9 am at Locust Grove will feature live African musicians and indigenous

Enjoying the water at the
Couloubade pumping trials

crafts made by artisans from villages that surround Amman Imman’s borehole wells.  Students will draw water from a “well” and carry a water-filled container like children in the Azawak do every day in order to survive. The trail walk will feature an educational question and answer discovery game about water scarcity and the global water crisis.    

Participating students will come from schools including: Oneness-Family School, Barrie School, Green Acres School, German School Washington DC, Westland MS, John F. Kennedy HS, Blair HS, Northwood HS, Watkins Mill HS, Seneca Valley HS, BCC HS and Wooten HS.  The Silver Spring/Kensington Rotary Club has partnered with Montgomery College/MCPS Collaborative Program for participating ESOL students to receive event t-shirts.

Some of Amman Imman’s partner schools are also hosting their own Walks for Water this year. Aidan Montessori School of Washington, DC hosted a Walk on April 22 and The Boyd School in Chantilly, Virginia, will hold its Walk for Water on May 24. 

Refreshments will be provided by Starbucks and My Organic Market (Moms).

Walk sponsors include:  Oneness-Family School, Watek Engineering Corporation, and YBM Construction.  Music will be provided by Algerian artist Kamel Zennia, Malian singer Hadesh Walet Mahmoud and Oneness-Family School’s Andrew Kutt.

Amman Imman: Water is Life is dedicated to saving and improving lives among the world’s most vulnerable and abandoned populations, starting by bringing water to the Azawak of West Africa. The organization serves as a conduit raising awareness among students of all ages and engaging them to take action.

Contact:

Debra Kahn, Associate Director

debbie@ammanimman.org

Amman Imman: Water is Life

7036 Strathmore Street, #111

Chevy Chase, MD 20815

USA

(240) 418-1143

Life. The Ultimate Gift. For the Children.

Dear Friends of the Azawak,

Despite these sad and troubled times at home and abroad, we at Amman Imman want to wish you the best of Holiday Seasons. May they be full of family love and hope for a new year of peace. We are now in the process of building our next Oasis of Life in the Azawak. We know you've been solicited lots of times this year. But in your seasonal generosity, please don't forget the children of Africa. Your gift will help save their lives.

Please click here to make your donation.

Thank you, for the children of the Azawak,

Ariane and the Amman Imman team

A Thanksgiving message from the Azawak of Niger

Happy Thanksgiving from Amman Imman!

Thank you so much for your support and continued interest in our work. 

With your help, Amman Imman has brought water to over 100,000 people, and supported activities including food, health, education and economic development.  

Our communities in the Azawak also want to thank you.

Click here to see a one-minute video of them sharing their thanks.

from Ariane, the Amman Imman team and your friends in the Azawak 

Amman Imman and Vibrant Village provide food relief

Dear Friends of the Azawak,

As you may know, Amman Imman drilled its newest borehole earlier this year for the community of Ebagueye. The primary funder, The Vibrant Village Foundation, has once again provided invaluable help by funding an emergency food relief project in Ebagueye.

Over the months of September and October, we will have distributed 40 tons of millet to Ebagueye and its 12 surrounding communities. Our aim has been to help cover the food needs of Ebagueye’s 400 most vulnerable families, approximately 2800 people, as we await grain prices to fall in Niger.

Amman Imman’s philosophy is not to give anything away free of charge, but rather to make staples and basic necessities more affordable and accessible. Hence, we have sold this millet at a low charge, and the profit is returning to the community as a fund to establish a long-term grain store/cereal bank and woman-run community store. The grain is currently being managed by Ebagueye’s borehole management committee. However, we will soon be transferring their responsibility regarding the grain to a newly elected all-woman cereal bank management committee.

Amman Imman will have also provided 10 tons of millet to our Tangarwashane borehole community. In this case, half of the profit made from grain sells has gone toward Tangarwashane’s cereal bank. The other half has gone to its borehole fund, to help pay for ongoing maintenance.

Amman Imman has many plans, including a new borehole, and ongoing life-improving and revenue-generating activities for all of our borehole communities.

Stay tuned in upcoming updates to learn more about our projects in the Azawak! Thank you for your ongoing support!

Yours for the Azawak,
Ariane Kirtley
Founder and Director

Students raise over $50,000 to help the Azawak

Dear Friends of the Azawak,

Students across the world have once again proven that determination, perseverance, empathy, compassion, and action can save lives... one borehole at a time.  This past school year alone our student “Heroes of Compassion” raised more than $50,000 and an enduring awareness about the Azawak in their communities. Since 2006, more than 100 schools in the United States, Canada, France, Sweden and New Zealand collectively raised close to $200,000, helping Amman Imman to construct and manage four boreholes in the Azawak that in the hot season relieve the thirst of up to 100,000 people and animals.

Today I would like to celebrate our Heroes of Compassion and share a few stories about what students and schools accomplished during the 2011-2012 school year.

On World Water Day in March 2012, 26 students, ages 5 through 12, at The Salmonberry School in Washington State rallied their entire community to raise $2,400 for Amman Imman in A Walk for Water. Salmonberry has been an active Amman Imman supporter since 2007, when the school incorporated Amman Imman into its Africa curriculum and held its first Walk for Water, raising around $800.

In 2011-2012 Walk for Water events were held by The Boyd School in Virginia, the Hershey Montessori School in Ohio (organized by student Suchita Rajan), the Claremont Montessori School in Florida and the Aidan Montessori School in Washington, DC. The Oneness-Family School, Barrie School, Evergreen School and German School of Washington DC, and students from various high schools in Maryland, DC and Virginia supported Amman Imman’s annual Walk for Water event at Lake Frank in Derwood, Maryland.  2012 Walk for Water events raised almost $9,000 for Amman Imman.

Amman-a-thons, our signature fitness philanthropy event, have also grown as a favorite among our young students as they challenge themselves physically meanwhile bringing unforgettable hope to the Azawak!  For our 2011-2012 Amman-a-thons, students from pre-school to middle school hopped, jumped, ran, hula’ed and bounced their way to raising almost $10,000. The Five Oaks Academy (South Carolina_, Keystone Montessori (Massachusetts), Oneness-Family School (Maryland) and Evergreen Montessori (Maryland) held Amman-a-thons during the past school year.

The variety of additional events held by our Heroes of Compassion are too numerous to name in this update. From selling bookmarks to bake and plant sales, from lemonade stands to a kid-run street carnival, from water displays to a high school dress-down day, from student presentations at churches and synagogues to asking for donations in lieu of birthday gifts - our Wells of Love students have made a loud statement calling out to the rest of the world:

We care.  All human beings deserve to have water and hope.

If you want to join our movement of youth making a difference in the Azawak, or know of a school or students who would like to help, please fill out our online form, or contact Debbie Kahn, our Wells of Love program director, Debbie@ammanimman.org, 240-418-1143.

Yours for the children of the Azawak,
Ariane
Amman Imman: Water is Life
Founder and Director

Ebagueye, 8 months after the construction of their borehole

Dear Friends of the Azawak,

Through our work in Niger’s Azawak Valley, we have learned that local communities are the heart and soul of our work. They are not only the people for which we work, but those with which we work. They are some of our most important partners. They represent the key to sustaining life-giving water sources over the long-term and to ensuring that each water source enables further development.

The power of our local partners is demonstrated by the story of Ebagueye Village, home to Amman Imman’s newest borehole well. As you know, Amman Imman means ‘water is life’.  Within just six months, I have seen this prophecy come to fruition for those in Ebagueye Village.

Lives are Changing in Ebagueye since the Borehole

Once a desolate stretch of sand and silt, Ebagueye Village is now brimming with life. Since January, those living in Ebagueye have been enjoying the benefits of their new borehole.  With water, villagers report having more time and energy for other integral tasks, such as caring for their livestock, raising their children, doing household chores, making crafts and gathering fallen branches to sell as firewood at the market. Some in the community helped to build a protective wall around the borehole’s water tower and engine, giving them a sense of ownership over their water source.  They plan on growing a garden within the perimeters of the wall.

Sustainability and Economic Empowerment

A management committee of villagers, trained by Amman Imman, sells the water, and the money raised is used for the long-term operation and maintenance of the borehole. The money is also used to pay a small stipend to the workers who manage the distribution of water at the fountains and animal troughs. The villagers—our partners--feel proud to be working for their community and to be providing an essential service.  For the first time, they earn money for their work in the village.

Education, Health and Hygiene

More than 5,000 people benefit from the borehole daily, the very first time they have a constant supply of potable water nearby. In the past, children forsook school at the height of the dry season to travel marathon distances to find clean water for their families. Now, they stay in school.

Not only are children better educated, they are also in better health. Already, parents report less diarrhea and sickness related to fatigue and dehydration among their children and themselves. Many families have since built a rudimentary shower in their homesteads, and people are bathing more frequently.

Ebagueye Named an Official Village

Thanks to the borehole, the Abalak commune (home to the largest and closest city) has named Ebagueye and its surrounding communities as an official village. Achieving village status means that the community will benefit from additional help and oversight from the commune and others. 

Living in area afflicted by a burgeoning food crisis, the World Food Program just recently chose Ebagueye and Amman Imman’s other borehole community, Kijigari, for limited food assistance. The World Food Program distributed  food tickets to eleven families in Ebagueye, which has earned them one or two free bags of rice, and one or five liters of oil for three months. 

New Families Settle in Ebagueye

Representing hope and development to those living nearby, Ebagueye has attracted new resident families who have abandoned their nomadic existence and have built permanent adobe homes in the village. For several months, Ebagueye also attracted residents from Abalak whose own water sources ran dry, and refugees from neighboring Mali who searched for water during their exodus from political turmoil.

Addressing the Food Crisis

In addition to water, Amman Imman distributed books to the Ebagueye school and mango trees for growth around the village.  The trees grew well and inspired the villagers to purchase and plant 41 shade trees. We plan to provide additional food assistance, including seeds for planting and hay and grain for livestock, over the coming months--because although life has hatched, those in Ebagueye still face a crippling environment. Food is in drastic shortage and with lack of health care and other development assistance, people often suffer and die young from preventable conditions.

Future Plans in Ebagueye

Development is not something that happens over night. With better chances for health and education, we believe that with time communities will flourish and be empowered to take ownership over their own development. Those in Ebagueye have already asked for a health center, and through partnerships with local families, other development organizations and funders like Vibrant Village and The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF), we hope their demand can be met.

You can learn more about Ebagueye and view photos here.   

In the coming weeks, I would like to share the entire Ebagueye story with you. Please stay tuned to read about the village and the drilling of the Ebagueye borehole in three separate installments over the months of September and October.  Next week, I’ll be sending an update about the activities and accomplishments of our Wells of Love schools. 

Yours for the children of the Azawak,

Ariane
Amman Imman: Water is Life
Founder and Director

Thank you for the water! It's great!