In an ancient Peruvian folktale, a hummingbird collects water to put out a forest fire, drop by drop. The other animals looked on and laughed at her. Then the little bird replied, “I’m doing what I can.”
Inspirational story UN-Countrycoordinate the work of the world body on water and sanitation, to launch ‘is change‘ campaign for World Water Day March 22, that urges people to do what they can to change the way they use and manage water.
As part of this, the United Nations is mobilizing students to do a bunch of global origami hummingbirdswill be on display at the United Nations headquarters during the Water Conference, as a way to connect registered participants with children whose future is at stake.
Students from all over the world are participating in the World Water Day 2023 campaign.
According to United Nations figures, 1.4 million people die every year and 74 million people will have their lives shortened from diseases related to clean water and poor sanitation. Worldwide, one in four people, or two billion people, lack safe drinking water. Almost half of the wastewater from households – from toilets, sinks, drains and gutters – flows back into nature without removing harmful substances.
There are about 50 origami birds left Independence Avenue 1 & 2 Middle School in Accra, Ghana, make commitments written by students.
Jan de Vries Assan, a 13-year-old student, told UN News that he usually starts his day by queuing for water before school. “The water crisis has affected my academic performance,” he said, adding that when he finishes the housework, the morning lesson will be over.
Derrick Ofori, a teacher, said his students lacked drinking water and hand sanitizer at school, expressing hope that leaders gathered at the United Nations conference “do whatever they can.” able” to provide his community with multiple sources of water.
Jean-Yves Vesseau, Principal of The École in New York.
For his part, he pledges to do whatever he can to preserve the precious resources of his homeland. He said: “Sometimes it’s wrong to use water to scrub the toilet or wash our hands, when we don’t even have good drinking water at school.
Nearly 400 paper hummingbirds left Japan, where origamior the art of folding paper into shapes and figures, originated.
“I realized that, like ‘a drop of water in the ocean,’ what makes a big splash around the world is our small actions,” said a student at Nishi-Uji Middle School in Kyoto. said.
Also en route to the conference venue are thousands of origami birds from other parts of the world, including Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Italy, North Macedonia, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
In New York, The École, a Franco-American school, engages all grades from kindergarten through 8th grade.lame pants class in one World water day workshop in which students folded squares of paper into the shape of a hummingbird and wrote a pledge on it.
LuAnn Adams, a storyteller, introduces the story of the hummingbird at The École in New York.
“It is very important for children to think about water when they are young, because clearly our generation has a lot of answers and this is their planet,” he said. Jean-Yves Vesseau, Principalstressed that they need to start thinking urgently about this water problem and be a hummingbird to do their part for water.
LuAnn Adams, a storyteller who performed her hummingbird puppet show at the school, told UN News that a hummingbird doing the right thing, even if it’s alone, creates unity of “” many in body and one in mind,” meaning that all the other animals will eventually follow her lead when “they see the tiny little creature trying its best.”
“You know, all of a sudden, unity spreads like a ripple, you know, makes a wave, and a giant wave can do something great for the world.”
