Gonzaga facilitiates hope, education with "Be Hope 2 Her"

The idea of spending 35 to 40 hours a week walking seems excessive to some. If you add 60 pounds of water to the mix, many might say it's impossible. For thousands of women and children in African cities, though, this scenario is a reality.

Be Hope To Her (BH2O+), an event to help raise awareness for water sanitation and lack of education for women in Third World countries, visited Gonzaga last week. NuRu International sponsored Be Hope To Her and helped the event come together. NuRu International was founded to help fight poverty through education. BH2O+ occurs at colleges and city centers throughout the U.S. and has been an event put on by Gonzaga for the past two years. Students recognized the importance of spreading awareness about the problems women in Third World countries face.

Water sanitation is important because so many women are spending a majority of their time traveling to get water to survive, event organizers said. One of the major concerns for these women is safety. They often have to walk far away from their towns  to get water and are often attacked in the process of doing so.

One hundred and fifty students registered to walk this year. After donations are received through NuRu International,  the money is then put toward installing wells in Kenya and other African cities so the women don't have to walk very far and don't have to walk through dangerous areas to get water.

With a fraction of the time needed to walk for water, women are able to then go to school and become educated. Local students from Spokane middle schools attended BH2O+ to participate as well. While Gonzaga students carried buckets of water on their heads, the younger kids participated in holding water fact signs on the path where those carrying water proceeded. Sophomore Ceci Estraviz, one of the coordinators who helped people register and spread awareness to people on campus, explained the route the participants took.

"We started off at Cataldo and proceeded down around Welch and Desmet, went past the Bulldog alley and Jepson to Lake Arthur where we then went back to Crosby. The walk took about 20 to 25 minutes to complete."
The participants held buckets on their heads filled up about halfway with about 30 pounds of water. 

"We barely had 30 pounds of water. Those women and children are carrying twice as much as we did for a significantly longer time period than we did," Estraviz said. "They do the three- to four-hour walk multiple times a day. Children start carrying water as young as 5 or 6 and continue to help get water for meals and showers for the rest of their lives."

Senior Tyler Tullis, who also helped out at the event, explained how he got involved.

"I went to a viewing of a movie earlier this year on NuRu International and was intrigued by what they were doing. It was different from other nonprofit organizations and I wanted to get involved and help get students excited as well."
Seventh-grader Joey Haber helped hold the water fact sheets during the event and enjoyed the experience.

"We had someone come to our school to talk about water and just how important it is. I am excited I get to help and tell people about water and help people learn what they can do to help."

When asked about his thoughts on children who had often have to give up playing with friends and going to school in order to help their mothers, he responded, "It makes me sad that they can't play outside and have fun like me and my friends do. I hope we can help them so they are able to do that."

Since the procession took place throughout campus, many students who weren't participants and didn't know about the event beforehand were able to experience it too.
Sophomore Rosalyn Langer noticed the event was taking place. "I had no idea what was going on at first, but after I saw a few of the water signs, I was surprised. It makes you stop and think about everything that you have," Langer said.