Amman Imman - A Story

 10/21/2010 if you would like an updated version of this story in a pdf that you can print,  please contact info@ammanimman.org!
Amman Imman - A Story

by Suzanne Carroll Stork

a special thank you
to the students, teachers and families
of the Aidan Montessori School in Washington, D.C.
for their support and encouragment

photos from the Azawak courtesy of Ariane Kirtley

Amman Imman - A Story

All people share one Earth.

All people share the same basic needs.

We all need food, water,
shelter, clothing and protection.

People are able to think and create
to solve problems and
meet these basic needs.

All people hope and dream and love.

This was true of the very first people to live on Earth
and it is true of all people alive today.

Yet, in all of human history,
there has never been,
nor will there ever be,
another person just like you!

(Even if you are an identical twin!)

Maria Montessori believed in children.
She recognized that every child
is born with unique gifts to discover.

Yet, she knew that many people
on our Earth struggle
to meet the most basic of human needs.

Today, on the continent of Africa, in the country of Niger, more than 500,000 people of the Azawak Valley struggle daily to find the water they need to live.

For nine months out of the year,
children travel up to 35 miles every day
searching for water
to bring to their families.

If they find water, it is dirtier
than a mud puddle in New York City.

A woman named Ariane
visited the people of the Azawak.
She was touched by their warmth and kindness. She knew she had to help these beautiful people find a way to get the water
they desperately needed.

So, she founded an organization called
Amman Imman: Water is Life.

Like Maria Montessori,
Ariane believed in children.
She invited children
around the world to help.

And they did!
In 2007, the first Amman Imman borehole
was built in the Azawak in Tangarwashane.

Construction people had to drill
up to 600 feet below the Earth’s crust
to reach the needed water!

Now up to 25,000 people and animals
have access to clean water!

May all the children of the Azawak, and all people of the world,
be empowered to receive what they need and discover their gifts.

Please join students around the world
in helping
Amman Imman: Water is Life
bring water to the Azawak.


www.waterishope.org
montessori-amman-imman-project.blogspot.com
For more information write to: info@ammanimman.org