World Water Day - Hamilton kids walk for Haiti

HAMILTON, ON - March 21, 2017 - Tomorrow, on World Water Day, about 100 children from local elementary schools will gather at the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology to participate in the annual Hamilton Walks for Haiti Walkathon. Representatives from the City’s Public Works department, representatives from the “Haiti Water for Life” project, and Louis Martin, Executive Director of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti, will be in attendance to support the walkathon and take part in a brief cheque presentation ceremony.

“This walk has been helping the Haitian people for 12 years, and although we’ve made a significant difference in the lives of many families in Haiti, there is still much work to do.” - Roy Sheldrick, Ancaster Rotarian and founder of the “Haiti Water for Life” project

Event details

Date: Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Time: 9 am to 12 pm
Location: Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology, 900 Woodward Ave, Hamilton

Agenda
9 am - Registration opens
10 am - Walkathon begins
11:30 am - Ceremony and cheque presentation

Quick facts

• Students participating in the event will mimic how the Haitians gather water by carrying empty buckets approximately 2.5 kilometres toward Confederation Park, filling the buckets with water, and returning back to the Museum for another 2.5 kilometres. At the finish line, they will empty their buckets into a container that holds one cubic metre of water – the amount an average family in Hamilton uses each day. 
• In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly officially designated March 22 as World Water Day, a day to take action to tackle the world water crisis.
• The City of Hamilton created the Hamilton Walks for Haiti Walkathon in 2005 to educate local children on the value of water and to promote social action. 
• Over the past 12 years, the Hamilton community has raised $238,000 funding construction of wells in 48 rural Haitian villages via the Rotary Club of Ancaster’s “Haiti Water for Life” project.
• The UN estimates that almost one-tenth of the global disease burden could be prevented by improving water supply, sanitation, hygiene, and management of water resources. But Haiti, like many developing nations around the world, is currently devastated by a lack of clean water and the systems that provide it. Along with being the most impoverished nation in the America’s, less than half of Haitians in rural areas have access to water.

“The City of Hamilton and the Public Works department are very proud to support this important initiative on World Water Day, both as it relates to raising awareness about the world water crisis, but also in making a tangible difference in the lives of the Haitian people.” - Dan McKinnon, General Manager of Public Works