A glass of water is something no student at Our Lady of Guadalupe School, Rose Hills, is likely to ever take for granted again.

On March 9, pupils, teachers and parents packed the small auditorium to celebrate a successful year-long service-learning project on Africa with pounding drums, lively dancers, colorful class displays and ethnic food - along with presenting a $2,047 check to the African Well Fund. The money, raised from individual donations by students, will go mostly to build wells at five schools in the Dowa community of Malawi, a nation in southeast Africa where only 57 percent of the population have access to clean water.

"Our students, in the process of raising money for these people across the globe who they don't know, were also learning about distinct cultures and the special culture of Africa," declared Principal Juan Carlos Garcia. "I'm hoping that most of our students know the continent of Africa like the back of their hand at this point."

He pointed out that the children of Our Lady of Guadalupe School selected the clean water project after watching a DVD showing an African man walking miles to the nearest dirty brown watering hole, infested with mosquitoes. The DVD also featured a second-grader named Ryan who had established his own foundation to build wells in Africa.

After thanking the students for helping their sisters and brothers in Malawi, Annette Quintero of the African Well Fund said water is the most precious resource on Earth because it's essential for all life. Yet, she pointed out, few people in Third World developing countries have ready access to clean water on a daily basis.

She said her grass-roots, internet-based group of volunteers, working with Africare, the largest charitable U.S. organization assisting Africa, hoped to have the wells pumping and other sanitation projects running by August.

Live or die
"So all of your money is going to helping people just like you but in other countries," Quintero said. "Because we really believe where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die."

Regional Supervisor Frank Montejano told the students he was moved when he found out they had raised more than $2,000 to help construct wells in Africa. He said it shows that even kindergarten kids can help others in a significant way.

"I want you to know that other students like yourself are doing the same thing in this Everyday Heroes project," he reported. "What all of you are doing is a special activity that is making a difference in the lives of people."

Montejano told The Tidings that the well project at Our Lady of Guadalupe sprung from a comprehensive national program called "Everyday People Make a Difference" that the Los Angeles Archdiocese's Department of Catholic Schools started this year in nearly 20 elementary schools.

"The whole idea is to integrate learning and service," he explained. "We weren't just going to give money to some faraway project we didn't have a connection to. Now these kids have made the connection and have seen what their work is doing and have learned about the whole story behind the project.

"We want to integrate service throughout the curriculum," the supervisor stressed. "Service or learning by themselves we know are not going to be as significant as if we connect the two. It's exponential. If you can imagine that some 80 teachers are doing this in their own school in the archdiocese. So the difference we're making is pretty substantial."

Learning new things
Eighth-grader Jennifer Perez was dishing out couscous and chicken beans in small paper bowls for fellow students to sample when her class made its presentation on Morocco. She thought combining service with learning was a wonderful idea.

"'Cause you get to learn different things," she said. "And I love learning new things, especially the history of Morocco. Plus, we learned about the way they danced, which was very interesting. I really got into that."

Johnnie Rivera, 11, was decked out in an bright orange-pattern African shirt and headband. He was part of the drum ensemble and dancers that kicked off the morning festival. His fifth grade class raised $95, with Johnnie putting in $8. "We learned about Mozambique," he reported. "They don't have much stuff and equipment like we have. And they don't have much food or water. So they're real poor."

Lilly Lopez and her third-grade classmates studied Kenya. She learned a lot about the nation's food and geography. She donated $20 to the well fund.

When ask why, a puzzled look came across the eight-year-old's face. "Because the Africans couldn't get good water, and maybe they would get sick," she said. "That's why our class raised a lot of money."