Global Citizenship: A Trek for Water

Houston is a varied place. As a UNICEF Global Citizenship Fellow, I have had the great privilege of working with many different organizations and groups on behalf of UNICEF. But the best part of my fellowship is the fact that I get to interact with children and teach them about UNICEF and the great work it does for kids all over the world. What fascinates me is that these youngsters never get depressed when hearing the stories of hardship some children face. Their reaction is quite the opposite: They begin to listen even more closely. They want to learn ways to help out and make a difference.
This February, UNICEF’s first Global Citizenship Fellows are graduating after a year of service on behalf of UNICEF. Global Citizenship Fellows work as grassroots spokespersons for children, inspiring communities to act on behalf of children around the world. As the first group of fellows graduates, they look back at some of the highlights of their year. Meena Haque is the 2012 Global Citizenship Fellow in the Southwest Regional Office. Houston is a varied place. As a UNICEF Global Citizenship Fellow, I have had the great privilege of working with many different organizations and groups on behalf of UNICEF. I have worked with churches to raise funds for Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, have teamed up with the End Trafficking project to screen the documentary Not My Life, and have been a guest speaker at UNICEF high school and campus club events in Houston and the greater Texas region.
Boy at the Water Walk for the UNICEF Tap Project Photo by Meena Haque

But the best part of my fellowship is the fact that I get to interact with children and teach them about UNICEF and the great work it does for kids all over the world. What fascinates me is that these youngsters never get depressed when hearing the stories of hardship some children face. Their reaction is quite the opposite: They begin to listen even more closely. They want to learn ways to help out and make a difference. One incident that really struck me happened during the Dallas Water Walk last March. Community volunteers and U.S. Fund for UNICEF Dallas board members came together and organized a youth-friendly water walk to raise funds for the UNICEF Tap Project. At the event, children walked around the park carrying gallons of milk jugs weighed down with rocks or sand, meant to help children understand that water for most people in the world is not readily available; that instead of buying a water bottle or getting tap water from the faucet, there are children who are forced to walk for hours just to get clean water and carry it back home. Planted along the water walk course were facts about water that the children could read. I met a little boy who decided to challenge himself and opted out of carrying a one gallon jug filled with rocks. Instead, he chose a five gallon jug filled with water to carry around the .25 mile course. Because of how heavy the water jug was, it took him about 30 minutes to finish. At the end of his walk, he came up to me and said, “I saw on one of the signs that just $1 can provide a child with clean drinking water for 40 days. Is that true?” I said, “Yes. That’s correct.” He looked at me and said, “My mom helped me do the math and we concluded that if $1 can provide clean water for 40 days, $10 can give water to a child for over a year.” He pulled out a $10 bill from his pocket and smiled. “I was planning on using my allowance money to buy a video game after the water walk, but I think I will donate it instead. A child needs clean water.” In the grand scheme of things, $10 may not be a lot of money, but that allowance was everything to that boy at the water walk. This is what global citizenship is all about: creating compassionate, caring citizens that use their discomfort with social inequality to take proactive measures to eradicate these injustices. For a child to realize that he has a role to play in the global community and then act upon it is priceless. The boy coming to terms with his social responsibility was something that truly resonated with me. It is a reminder that UNICEF really is a movement. By educating our youth about children’s issues and ways they can help out, we will get closer to ZERO. Meena Haque, a former UNICEF Campus Initiative participant at Syracuse University, completed her undergraduate degree in political science in 2011. Meena has worked with the Women’s Resource Center in Houston and as the prospect development intern for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, Southwest Regional office. Upon completion of this fellowship, Meena would like to prepare for law school, where she hopes to focus on family or civil law. She also enjoys social media networking, LGBT studies, constitutional law, and live music.