A Spring of Hope and World Water Day

In honor of World Water Day on Monday March 22, YV brings you the story of a Venturer seeking to bring water to rural African schools.

A Spring of Hope

During the summer of 2005, Brittany Young and her mother Joanne Young traveled to South Africa. While enjoying Africa's vibrant culture, the two decided to visit a local rural school, Beretta Primary. When they got to the school they were greeted by 1,200 students all eager to learn, but in a building with a few small, dirty classrooms and no running water. The lack of water made life difficult for the students. The gardens – their only source of food – went dry and they had to walk miles to get to the nearest government pump. To help these students, Brittany decided to start her Venture “A Spring of Hope,” with the goal to bring water to rural African schools.

Today, Brittany and her Venture’s team has raised over $10,000. With the help of construction managers and geohydrologists who support A Spring, they have built wells at Beretta and other African schools. To continue to spread awareness about the importance of water, the team has also returned to South Africa to film a documentary about the Beretta’s conditions and how lack of water effects education and students’ lives.

Currently a student at the University of Pennsylvania, Brittany continues to work on spreading awareness of the growing world water crisis that kills 4500 children every single day. On World Water Day, Monday March 22, A Spring of Hope is sponsoring a "Toilet Queue" at the University of Pennsylvania and universities and high schools across the US - an outdoor demonstration line for a single toilet to bring attention to the world water crisis and break a world record for the longest line for a toilet! Check out the event on facebook.

If you would like to get involved with A Spring of Hope or open up a chapter at your own school in order to help fund well construction at rural African schools, click here.