Please promote Amman Imman by rating this video on YouTube with five stars! Simply paste this url into your browser to go directly to this video on YouTube and submit your rating: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ngVd1AUS4A

An article written by Ariane Kirtley has just been published as the cover story in the Yale Medicine magazine. Read the article by clicking on Water Is Life.

(A PDF version of this article is available. Follow the instructions in this post to download the article.)

Even non-Montessori Schools are catching the spirit of this grassroots movement and want to be part of our network!  From East Catholic High School: 

 We had a presentation to some of the senior religion classes here last fall by Ariane, and since then have begun a semester long campaign to raise funds for this project.

I have downloaded the slide show from the site indicated, and plan on using it to present the program to each class (therefore the entire student body of 800) and then take it out to all our supporting parishes.

We have already set up a special account at the school and had our first fundraiser to kick off the program last week. We sold a "dress down" day for $5.00 per student. It was a big hit since students are required to wear uniforms. We raised over $1800 that day with only 30% participating. We are having five more (one per month). We've also set up a whole host of activities such as movie nights, a walk-a-thon, talent show, etc...stuff that would have been done anyway perhaps, but now has special meaning.

Two of my students convinced a local movie theater to allow us sell vouchers to movies at a discounted price ($10.00 instead of $10.50) and $3.00 of each voucher will go toward the project. They may use them for any movie. Students are organizing informal "water nights out" to the movies. There are many other activities we have planned and will initiate over the course of the remaining school year and beyond.

I would like to request that we be listed as participating school. Please let me know what you think.

And thanks for the powerpoint tool!

Dear Montessori students worldwide helping to bring water to the Azawak of Niger,

Thank you, thank you. Thank you for the inspiration that you have brought to the Amman Imman cause through your activities filled with love and hope. Thank you for caring and loving your brothers and sisters that live across the ocean in a world unknown to you, and for taking precious time and energy helping to save their lives. Thank you for your beauty, and for believing that together we can make this world a better place.

Every day I go to the Montessori blog to feel empowered by you to continue to work hard and fulfill our common vision of life and hope for the Azawak. Your words and actions fill me with tears of joy and inspiration.

Although I was originally planning on being in Niger in December, I am still in France working with the Amman Imman team in Europe, Niger, and America in preparation for all the hard work that lies ahead in Niger. We have been very busy negotiating contracts with construction companies, determining construction sites through geophysical studies, and considering different infrastructure options.

Last week, almost every day I had the joy of coming home from work to beautiful packages filled with this same love and hope from the Odyssey and Oneness Family Montessori schools. I immediately called every member of our work team in the United States, Niger, and France to describe all the contents of the packages, from the post cards you have been making to sell, to the rosemary, to the letters of encouragement you have written me, to photos of the PeaceKeepers and students in Odyssey and Oneness, to the article on the Odyssey school "petite soap company", to the soap… the list goes on. Our entire team was thrilled and felt rejuvenated.

Your packages and messages that arrive almost daily on the Montessori blog are a true blessing and a source of deep encouragement. Work has been fulfilling yet difficult these past months. I find myself getting caught up in all our “business-type work”, which unfortunately creates a huge distancing affect between the work I am doing and the reality of the lives of the children of the Azawak. Your letters and packages helped remind me the purpose of our mission: to bring light, spirit, hope and life to our friends in Niger.

The hard and sometimes monotonous work is coming to fruition. We have even been successful building one borehole 40 km north east of our target region’s capital, Tchintabaradène. I will be traveling to Niger soon to complete this structure with a pumping mechanism, and am impatient to send you photos of children drinking water and celebrating life. In return to them, I will show them your letters and works of love. They will be so tremendously touched that children so far away care so much about them.

During the next few weeks, we will be meeting with heads of the best contracting companies to negotiate a partnership with them. I will take my tokens of love filled activities taking place among the Montessori students as proof of the movement that has begun in America. I will point out that even the smallest children are aware of the situation in the Azawak and being proactive to change this situation. I will make sure that the contractors understand that children around the world, from America to the Azawak, are counting on them to help us bring light, spirit, hope and life to our friends in Niger.

Once again, thank you. Thank you for the love and hope you bring to our world. You are beautiful, you are powerful, and you, united with the children of the Azawak, are my light and inspiration in this humanitarian endeavor.

Yours in love and gratitude,
Ariane
Amman Imman, Founder and Director

Today, I found out that Island Village Montessori School in Venice Beach, Florida has been busy with their fundraising campaign. Mary-Beth Sullivan, who worked behind the registration table at the Montessori Peace Academy conference, sends Ariane a special message:

"My committment to Ariane and her cause has not been forgotten! Please tell Ariane that I have started our first campaign with three 9-12 classes at Island Village Montessori Charter School in Venice, Florida. I have assistance from a parent who is willing to talk about Amman Imman on her Internet Radio Show. As I am writing this email to you, my students in Classroom 11 are putting together fundraising proposals for projects to help raise money. They have just seen a video called Ryan's Well about a nine-year-old boy who raised money for a school's well in Uganda. Our goal is to send as much money as possible to Ariane on February 14th, Valentine's Day!"

When Ariane came to the Oneness-Family School in October, she told our students in the Peacekeeper's Club about Amman Imman's mission in the Azawak. Her stories about their lives, the pictures of the children who live in this region, and how she was trying to bring them water, deeply touched the students. The Peacekeepers sponsored a Holiday Bazaar and raised $750 for Amman Imman. At their last meeting in December, the students wrote letters to Ariane. When I read these letters, I sense the awareness rising in these young people, sparked by Ariane's message, that one person's passion can change the world. (You can click on each letter to view as a larger image in a separate window.)

Yesterday, I had the privilege of presenting Amman Imman’s mission to students at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. I also told them about the collaboration of Montessori schools around the world to build at least one water source in the name of Montessori. People here at Goddard College find this partnership with Amman Imman and Montessori schools to be an inspiring example of collaborative social action, and are interested in watching its development as schools not only raise funds, but also engage their students in learning about the root causes of why the Azawak region and its people find themselves in such dire circumstances.

As people gathered in the room, the music of Tinariwen, Tuareg musicians from Mali, carried them to the faraway lands at the edge of the Sahara. Framed photographs of the faces of the people that Ariane came to know in the Azawak immediately captivated the Goddard students.

One of the most compelling aspects of this project that first moved me to be involved, and that also impressed the students here at Goddard, is how Ariane conveys to us not only the devastation that rules the daily life of the people in the Azawak region, but also who they are as human beings. She talks about them by their names and shows us their beauty. The degrees of separation we feel when we see pictures on television and in the newspaper of people dying in Africa are reduced by Ariane’s familiarity.



We see Againakou, giving her son Agoubouley a drink of water that is darker than hot chocolate.







We see Takat, nine years old, removing lice from eight year old Mouheini’s hair as she smiles a beautiful smile.










We see Soutout, age 10, smiling on the back of a donkey after returning from the 35 mile trip to fetch water.


We see the gentleness in the eyes of Ariane’s host father as he poses with his family, and we believe in his generosity when he travels 20 miles under the moonlight to bring his guest meat for the morning.



By putting a name to these beautiful faces they become our friends.



It doesn’t matter that these people live in tents or small huts in a village in Africa while I live in an apartment outside of Washington, DC. They are human beings with families, just like me. I can empathize with the grief that a mother in the Azawak feels when two of her children die from lack of water. I can imagine the worry a parent feels when her little girl leaves on the back of a donkey at 3 o’clock in the morning to travel 17 miles each way to bring a little water back for the rest of the family. Even though their circumstances are so different, and they live in conditions way beyond what I can imagine from the comfort of my home and the ease with which I can reach for a glass of water, I can relate to their anguish and pain.

I am honored to be working with Montessori schools and students to bring resources to the people in this region. As Amman Imman builds the first two wells and paves the way for larger organizations to bring much needed resources, eventually people in the Azawak will have clean water, and children like Takat, Mouheini, Soutout and Agoubouley, will have access to health care, education and maybe even time to play.

photos of the people in the Azawak courtesy of Ariane Kirtley

On Martin Luther King's Day, I received this letter:

"My name is Sylvie Turner. I am director of the Montessori Island School in Tavernier, Florida Keys. Ms. Pegi McLarty and myself came back from the Peace conference so touched by Ariane's plea and very motivated to get our little Montessori community 'on the ball'.

The results are a bit slow to come but we keep adding to our Amman Imman wall: little drops of $ water are starting to fill the bottom of our 5 gallon bottle with donations, maybe a bit sporadic. Still we are hopeful to send two of our teachers to the AMS Conference with a check for $500 (projected on a modest $10/Montessori child donation).

I just opened the blog you started and hats off to you: I'll be sure to forward it to parents and teachers.

One day at a time! We, at Montessori Island School in Tavernier, have a dream too!

Peace & Hope on King's Day!...and Love always, Sylvie"

Thank you to Sylvie, Pegi, and the entire community at Montessori Island School!

Montessori students and their teachers are coming up with great ideas for generating awareness, initating action, and raising money (click on the link to read the story behind the idea):

• Peace Note Cards made by students with the blog web address on the back
  
• Read-A-Thon where the money for each page read goes to Amman Imman
• Holiday Bazaar and Craft Fair
• A Walk for Water where students work in teams that walk the equivalent of 30 miles, the number of miles the children of the Azawak have to walk daily to find water. Each mile walked is sponsored for funds. (more details soon to come!)
• Using the Amman Imman website, students do research about the needs of the people in the Azawak region.
  
• Students write an article for a local newspaper
  
• Students research the importance of water as a basic human need
  
• To gain an awareness of our dependency on water, put spare change in a jar every time you turn on the tap.
• Put a link to Amman Imman and this blog on your school's website
• Galvanize your community to participate in A Month Without Water.
  

Students at the Renaissance School in Fort Meyers Florida wrote an article for Lee County Family Magazine. Read their article, and also an interview with Kathy Leitch about the school's participation in Amman Imman. Click on Water is Life.

There is a saying in the Azawak: "Amman Imman, Arr Issudar". Water is Life, Milk is Hope. Before you can have hope, you first need water.

In some way this blog, uniting Amman Imman and Montessori schools worldwide, is all about hope. The people in the Azawak have put their hope in Ariane. Ariane, working to set up the infrastructure to begin the building of the wells, now relies on all the people she has informed to tell others about the urgent need for water in the Azawak, and to raise funds. As our Montessori team meets weekly on a conference call to discuss ideas on bringing schools together and engaging students, we operate on the hope that not only can we affect the lives of people in the Azawak, but we can connect students around the world in collaborative social action. Receiving little bits of appreciative feedback about the blog, I have the suspicion that more people are being affected than I am told about. As the counter displaying the number of page views on the blog continues to rise daily with regular visits from all over the United States and in several areas around the world, I suspect that for every three stories I hear, there are probably at least six out there that do not reach my ears. You have to revel in this kind of mystery!

An example of how this hope is spreading: Michael Kirtley, president of the Friendship Caravan, travels frequently. After he told people in Morocco about the efforts of our students here and showed them the blog, he wrote to me: "I showed the cards your classes had prepared for Ariane to some people here, and they were very moved. Please let them know that people in Africa have already seen their words of support and appreciate them deeply. I also showed them the blog, and they were quite simply amazed. Thank you for opening this window into the good hearts of American people."

Recently I was talking to a parent of a student in the Upper Elementary class at Oneness-Family School. Sometime at the beginning of December, I had engaged that class in a discussion about water scarcity and poverty around the world, using Ariane's photos of people in the Azawak. The parent told me that during the holidays they were shopping at a bazaar benefiting a charitable organization when her daughter told her, "This doesn't mean that much to me. Next year I want to give money to help the people in the Azawak because I really care about them."

In December I wrote an email to all of the individuals that have shown interest in Amman Imman's project to bring water to the Azawak asking if I could list their school on the blog. I acknowledged that anything they are doing at their school to raise awareness about the Azawak region, whether it is leaving some flyers on a table, students doing research, or raising funds, counts as participation. "Every effort, both large and small, brings us a little closer to our dream of bringing water to the people of the Azawak region. I see the potential of Montessori Schools and their students uniting to build at least one water source in the name of Montessori as a powerful example of the interconnection between learning, compassion and activism."

I referred them to a recent post on this blog called Little Drops of Hope that illustrate small and large ways to participate. Schools are beginning to respond to my suggestion. Marlene Cherry from The Montessori School of Chevy Chase in Washington DC said that I could definitely list her school. Patty Sobelman, head of Pines Montessori in Kingwood, Texas, has begun to tell her families about the project. Now her school is listed. Just today I received a letter from Michelle Daly at Montessori Stepping Stones in Michigan: "Yes! Please list us as a participating school. We have informed staff, parents, and students about Amman Imman and the elementary students have decided to host a hot chocolate fundraiser. The rest of the school is collecting change as well. Thanks for keeping us updated. The blog is wonderful!"

Receiving these messages and hearing these stories inspire me and reinforce my conviction that every little bit counts toward making a difference. We can engage students in this project of hope that will save lives in the Azawak region. We can help Amman Imman be the catalyst for larger humanitarian organizations to go there and improve the quality of life with health aid, education and essential resources.

But before we can make this hope a reality, first there must be water.
all photos courtesy of Ariane Kirtley

As the blog develops, I have been the fortunate recipient of expressions from individuals thanking me for keeping everyone connected and informed about the Montessori Amman Imman effort. This feedback revitalizes me everyday! I feel spirited to raise awareness about the plight of the people in the Azawak, and unite students worldwide to help. However, I want to introduce to you the other people who are working equally as hard to help this project take root in the worldwide Montessori community. Since the week after the Montessori Peace Academy, many of us have been meeting on a weekly conference call. Without the following people, this blog would be impossible:

The dedicated team from the Odyssey Montessori School in Fredericksburg, Virginia: Maureen Keeling, Lynda Allen, Megan Mason, Scott McCoy, as well as support from Eva Thornton and Wendy LaRue.

My steadfast comrades from Oneness-Family School: Carina Sonora, with background support from Bodil Eriksson, June Lang, Deborah Youssef, Sondra Dorsey and Andrew Kutt.

And the newest member of our team, Catherine Varkas from Palm Harbor Montessori in Florida.

Along with invaluable input and perspective from Michael Kirtley and amazing inspiration from Laurel Lundstrom, my local Amman Imman representative, this effort grows stronger and stronger everyday.

And of course, my gratitude would not be completely expressed without thanking Ariane Kirtley for giving us the inspiration to turn our attention towards Africa and the Azawak, and not only building water sources, but also creating a bridge on which we can walk toward our friends in that region.

Here is a picture of some from our team when we met with Ariane right after the Peace Conference: