BHS students turn to water to raise poverty awareness

from The Quad City Times

By Mary Louise Speer

Bettendorf High School students will see if they can actually go two weeks without their favorite sodas, sports drinks, coffees and juice and only drink water.

BHS Student Council representatives are asking students to take the money saved and donate it to the H2O project. The world hunger awareness project is part of Student Council’s “Punching out Poverty” campaign to support H2O and Oxfam International.

The campaign “is more like a global view of what the Student Food Drive does in our community,” H2O organizer Andrew Sullivan, a junior, said.

This is the first year for the H2O project, and the council has raised money for Oxfam before, World Hunger Awareness co-chair Heidi Behal, a senior, said. The double-pronged awareness event wraps up Jan. 25.

“Last year we raised about $1,100 for Oxfam,” co-chair Louie Constantinou, a senior, said.

H2O organizers have set a lofty goal for their half of the campaign.

“One well is $3,000, and that’s our big goal,” Andrew said. “We figure a typical village has about 600 people in it, and a major problem is having a well.”

The Texas-based international H2O Project was founded by Brenda Koinis after she watched a video of people walking miles to fetch foul water, according to the group’s Web site, theh2oproject.org.

These water sources are often polluted with human and animal waste and parasites.

These places don’t have wells and they don’t have equipment capable of drilling into ground deep enough to reach a water source, Andrew said.

The H2O committee will set up a booth where students and staff can purchase water bottles for $2 to use during the two weeks.

Oxfam International, founded in 1995, is “comprised of 13 independent non-government organizations dedicated to fighting poverty and related injustice around the world,” according to its Web site oxfam.org.

The big fundraiser for Oxfam occurs on Jan. 25 during the boys home basketball game against Davenport North and a dance afterward, Heidi said.

YOU CAN HELP

If any one in the community would like to contribute toward Punching out Povertydonations can be sent to:

Student Council/Punching Out Poverty, Bettendorf High School, 3333 18th St., Bettendorf, IA 52722.

Contact the Bettendorf News at (563) 383-2396 or bettnews@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.