Program Amman Imman has recently been mentioned in a news article, on a blog, in a post about World Water Day and in a discussion board on a website:

A story in suburban Maryland's Gazette newspaper tells about Oneness-Family School's efforts to help Amman Imman bring water to the Azawak in Students at Chevy Chase school work for water a world away, by Peggy McEwan.

Confessions of a Montessori Mom a blog by a stay-at-home, work-at-home, Montessori-trained teacher mom encourages readers to support the Montessori Amman Imman project and links to this blog.

Global Voices, a non-profit citizen's media project out of Harvard University, highlights Amman Imman in an article about how World Water Day Ripples Across Videos.

Author Voice for Peace on the progressive Democratic Underground website responds to a discussion entitled Imagine walking 3 hours for a glass of water with a post about the beautiful people of the Azawak of Niger in Children walk up to 30 miles a day for water - Amman Imman Water Project.

Today's Run for Water event on World Water Day has been mentioned on several websites and blogs:

Blogger K.K. in D.C. writes about today's Run for Water in Run for Water this Saturday, in which runners are running a grand total of 80 miles in a relay around Washington D.C. on World Water Day.

Several websites list events happening on World Water Day 2008 compiled by Water Advocates. Run for Water is included among them with a link to the Amman Imman website. Here is one of the websites listing Run for Water under events on Washington D.C.

Life at the Hershey Montessori Farm School in Huntsburg, Ohio is anything but usual. The school, located on 97 acres of forest and rolling farm land, serves both day students as well as full-time and weekly boarders in an eclectic and beautiful natural setting. There are no janitors or kitchen staff at Hershey. All the chores and cooking are done by the students. On Friday afternoons in the winter, after a week of hard work, the boarding students flock to the local ski trails.


When Oneness-Family School 7th graders Sophie M-D, Sarah Nia, Ashley, Sophie H-S and Dylan, accompanied by their teacher Amy Rose and myself, arrived at the Huntsburg campus, head of school, Paula Leigh-Doyle and the assistant head of school Laurie Ewert-Krocker, welcomed us in the long foyer of the large farm house building where the students eat, study, work and play. Two 9th graders, Savannah and Leotie, took us on a tour of the farm and school. Their enthusiasm and knowledgeable answers to our questions made it obvious that they were seasoned tour guides who enjoyed talking about life at the farm school. In addition to the dorms and classrooms, we visited the animal barns, the greenhouse, maple syrup operations, wood shop and other facilities.

How enriching for Oneness-Family School students, whose school is in a suburban locale, to step out of their everyday setting and experience another school in a completely different environment! Being from Maryland, in an area that hardly gets any snow these days, we were thrilled spend the rest of the afternoon sledding down a hillside. After drinking hot chocolate and eating a delicious dinner prepared and served by the students, we helped with farm chores, feeding and watering the sheep, goats, and cows.

This enlarging of worlds was a shared exchange between Hershey and Oneness students. Our purpose in traveling to Ohio promised to take Hershey students out of their usual framework, and widen their everyday view with a global perspective. We were there to present Amman Imman and to let the Hershey students know how they could join the coalition of schools that are working together to help the world’s most vulnerable children who are currently dying of thirst in the drought-ridden Azawak valley of Niger.

The next morning after the school’s community meeting, the Hershey 7th-9th graders gathered in the large living room for the presentation. Using the Amman Imman powerpoint presentation, the students and I showed photos and told about the Azawak, a large rural area in Niger where children have to walk as much as 35 miles in a day to bring back a small amount of water for their families and animals.

I explained that we first learned about the desperate plight of the people of the Azawak from Ariane Kirtley, a former Montessori student and Fulbright Scholar who studied public health in Niger and spent a large portion of her childhood growing up there. Ariane told us her compelling story with a passion that deeply inspired our compassion and called us to action. Now, we were at Hershey to pass it on.

The students then described the Azawak, recounting that it lacks the elements of basic development. For instance, there are no roads or trails leading to or from the Azawak. Few schools exist in the area. The closest health center is a two-day trip by donkey. And half of children born there die before they turn five; one quarter die from dehydration alone. The most marginalized region in a country the United Nations ranks as the least developed in the world, unlike throughout the rest of Niger, there are hardly any humanitarian agencies working in this area.

Then together we went on to tell about Amman Imman’s first success story in the village of Tangarwashane where a borehole now accesses pure aquifer water supplying plentiful and clean water to children and families. Now one small corner of the vast Azawak no longer suffers from lack of water.

The student’s trip all the way to Ohio is a testimony to the urgent need for change in this region, as well as to the worldwide movement of Montessori schools, which have banded together in since November, 2006, in partnership with Amman Imman to help spur regional development. Thus far, 50 schools have pledged to help, holding fundraising events and participating in conferences to help raise money and awareness for the project. Just as Amman Imman hopes to be a catalyst for change in the Azawak, the students have become a catalyst for other students to speak out about conditions in the Azawak and rally for change as they work together to build borehole wells.
Before we left for Ohio, the Oneness-Family students reflected on the possibility that their presentation of Amman Imman could have a lasting effect. “If we tell the Ohio students about the Azawak and how they can help Amman Imman, then they will pass it on. It will keep going like a cycle and a bunch of people will start to help,” says Dylan, age 13. Sophie M-D, age 12, added, “The more people we get involved, the faster we can get water to them.”

After the morning session, we drove 20 minutes to the Concord campus and presented Amman Imman to the elementary-aged students.




After each of the presentations, Hershey students enthusiastically expressed their desire to join this coalition of students and work together to help the children of the Azawak. They understood the message and the potential that their involvement could offer.

Upon our return, Paula Leigh-Doyle, head of school at Hershey, wrote a letter to the Oneness-Family School students:

On behalf of the students of Hershey Montessori School, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to each of you for making the journey to Ohio and for presenting the Amman Imman program to our community. It was clear to me that you had carefully gathered information, and had prepared and practiced for your presentation. This must have taken a lot more of your time but you have achieved many positive outcomes as a result of your work. Our younger elementary students have learned by your example about making a good formal presentation and most importantly that children do have a voice and can make a difference in the lives of many!

Our older students have learned that there are other Montessori students out there doing important work and that they have an opportunity to join in an activity that extends far beyond than their work on the farm. They loved having you visit and having an opportunity to give you a tour of their Adolescent Program also.

I know you have inspired our community to take action for Amman Imman and we will share those outcomes with you as they unfold.

Once again, thank you for your work and your delightful spirit!

Plans for “A Walk for Water” in the Washington D.C. metro area are underway. Henson Valley Montessori, Barrie School, Oneness-Family School, Boyd School and Aidan Montessori have become the coordinating schools for the event on May 17th. Students will walk 3.25 miles around Lake Frank near Rockville, Maryland, through wooded trails and over a shallow stream, in support of the people of the Azawak who travel 10 times that distance in a day just to bring home a little water. Their collection of sponsorship money for every mile walked will go toward building the next borehole in the Azawak of Niger in West Africa, giving up to 25,000 more people and animals access to clean water.

The students are taking the lead within their own school communities and in local Montessori schools to invite their peers to participate by conducting letter-writing campaigns.

One such letter written by a 6th grader exemplifies the students’ understanding about the untenable conditions under which the people of the Azawak daily toil and the potential for change that Amman Imman’s project will bring:

Dear Head of School,

We feel obliged to spread the word about the arid Azawak Valley. It is a desert area the size of Florida mostly in Niger, West Africa. The Azawak is rather desolate; the rainy season is getting shorter every year. All attempts to grow crops end in failure. Many children die before the age of five, and many little girls travel thirty miles or more just to bring back water to their families. The people who live there, Tuareg and Woodabe Fulani ethnics, have been ignored not only by their government but by the rest of the world.

However, things are changing. A new organization, Amman Imman: Water is Life, has risen to the occasion. With the help of school children around the world, mostly Montessori students, last year Amman Imman raised enough funds to build a permanent well in the Azawak. Many more are needed. We are continuing to help Amman Imman raise money and spread the word about the Azawak in order to build the next well.

We hope you will join our mission to help the people of the Azawak. Our school is helping to organize the 2nd annual “A Walk For Water, a walk for children by children” which will take place on May 17, 2008. We will be walking 3.25 miles around Lake Frank in Maryland, a fraction of the miles that the children of the Azawak have to walk to get water. However, we hope that by walking together we can not only raise funds, but bring awareness of their terrible plight to the rest of the world. We invite you to join us. Please see the enclosed flyers for more details.

A growing number of schools are responding to the call for collaboration. The students are now in the process of following up the letters with phone calls to find out which schools would like a presentation about Amman Imman and which schools plan to join in for “A Walk For Water”.

Meanwhile, the registration for "A Walk For Water" has begun with students heading up the drives within their schools.

Oneness-Family School student Dylan examines bottles of dirty and clean water
as Jacob and Andrea sit behind the registration table for "A Walk For Water".

We invite you to initiate "A Walk For Water" in your own community! Download a flyer, registration form and sponsorship sheet that can be edited for your own "A Walk For Water".

Also, download an Information Sheet and Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to "A Walk For Water" in Maryland. Specific guidelines, including parking information, will soon be available.

After the Global Citizenship Action Project conference (GCAP) in New York City, students at the Boyd School decided to help the people of the Azawak. Inspired by Ariane Kirtley's presentation, they wanted to coordinate a walking for water event within their own school. But when teacher Rodney Berthold realized that several Montessori schools were collaborating in "A Walk for Water" on May 17th, he presented the possibility of teaming up with other schools to his class. The Boyd School middle schoolers liked that idea.

Rodney considered joining this larger walk because his students would "have a sense of joining a bigger community" by working together with other Montessori students. Boyd students will be working with others from Oneness-Family School, Barrie School , Henson Valley Montessori and Aidan Montessori to coordinate and publicize the walk.

Whereas teachers from the different schools are meeting to organize the practical aspects of "A Walk for Water", it is the children who are taking it outward into their own community and the broader Montessori community as well. Students from Barrie, Henson Valley and Oneness composed letters to invite other schools to join "A Walk For Water". Boyd, Barrie and Henson Valley students will be making follow-up phone calls. At Aidan, the students are busy making posters advertising the walk to the rest of the school. Oneness-Family School sixth graders are heading up "A Walk For Water" registration drive within their school.

Rodney came up with the idea of students from the various organizing schools doing a joint Amman Imman presentation for schools that request it. Already, John Hanson Montessori, a public magnet school, has asked for a student presentation in mid-April.

Rodney frames the project with a global perspective: “Amman Imman has given hope to people that have had to struggle for generations to receive what most Americans take for granted: water and basic sustenance. It is our primary global responsibility to help our brothers and sisters sustain life, so that they may next pursue liberty and happiness.”

His commitment to broadening his student's world view is reflected in their comments about the Amman Imman project. Clearly, they have connected the potential that their own actions can change the world. 8th year student Lauren Vogel says, “I believe that if they need water, I will give it. If they need help, I will help them.”

The response from the students at the Boyd School to the Amman Imman project exemplifies how the project reaches the heart of compassion in students, deepening their appreciation for what they do have while broadening their perspective about what others do not have. Amina Tobah, 8th year student, thoughtfully expresses, “I wish to help because these people have nothing and work hard to gain the slightest fraction of hope, and we have more than enough to share.”

The message from Ayisha Minter, 7th year student, reflects how the project has inspired students as Heroes of Compassion. Ayisha says, “Water is here, water is there; if you can’t reach it, I will reach it for you. If you can’t seek it, I will seek it for you. At last the water you’ve been trying to get is here for you.

David Gulajan, 8th year student, eloquently connects what we do and why we do it, “You may work a mile, and you can have life, or walk a mile and give life.”

Thanks, David, for summing it up!

Other GCAP schools helping Amman Imman include the Berkeley Montessori School and the Bowman International School.

Bob Esty, 6th grade teacher at the Barrie School, sends us this news:

The 6th grade at the Barrie School recently organized two fundraising events for Amman Imman. One was a dodgeball challenge, in which the 6th grade challenged teams from the rest of the Middle School to see how quickly (or not) they could win over the 6th grade team. Each challenger team paid $1 a student to play.

We also held a bake sale,which we did for the rest of the Barrie Middle School, and which our Upper Elementary classes visited as well. We sold out of all our baked goods.

In total, we raised $170.75, which has been sent to Amman Imman.

Thank you, Barrie 6th graders, for your innovative ideas and initiative on behalf of the people of the Azawak!