Finn Ruderman, a junior at Wyoming Seminary and this year’s student coordinator for the school’s Walk for Water, and his father, Adam Ruderman, a BARKA board member and volunteer, address the group Sunday before the walk.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
Event raises funds to build well for community in Africa
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Students, faculty and friends who participated in Wyoming Seminary’s Walk for Water Sunday posed for a group photo before heading out on their 3 mile journey.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
KINGSTON — Think about all of the ways you used water today.
Maybe you took a shower with it before work or used it to fill up your coffee maker. You might have quenched your thirst with it after a workout, or used it to boil pasta.
Having access to clean water is something many of us don’t need to think about because it’s always there — readily available to us at the press of a button or the turn of a knob.
But what if it wasn’t?
What if you had to walk for miles every single day just to get it? And what if the water that you got was dangerous and unsanitary?
That is the experience of those living in Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in South Africa, and on Sunday, students and faculty at Wyoming Seminary experienced a small fraction of their every day struggle for water during the school’s annual Walk for Water.
Held in partnership with the BARKA Foundation, the walk raised money for the foundation’s construction of a new well in the city of Fada N’gourma in eastern Burkina Faso.
“It’s a great kick off to Earth Week and water conservation and awareness in general,” said Jill Carrick, faculty coordinator for the walk.
Many live-streamed the walk on Facebook to bring further awareness to the cause and raise more funds since donations are being accepted until midnight Monday.
Participants started their nearly 3-mile journey on the Upper School campus and walked along Market Street and to the river, around Kirby Park and back, carrying jugs of water in solidarity with the women and children in Faso who carry as much as 40 pounds of water a day in 113 degree heat.
“Emulating some of that here in a small way helps put you in their shoes and you understand having to do way more than this every single day to get any sort of water,” said Finn Ruderman, a junior at Seminary and the student coordinator for this year’s walk.
The 17-year-old worked with students in the environmental club at both the upper and lower school, along with faculty and a BARKA coordinator in Faso, to plan and organize the fundraiser.
“It really was a team effort. Everyone helped out so much,” he said.
Wyoming Seminary has partnered with BARKA in years past.
In 2021, the school raised money to help students at the Namoungou School in Fada, who were displaced due to terrorist activity, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though Finn participated in past walks, he said being the coordinator this year helped give him a heightened sense of gratitude for the privileges he has.
“Participating is fantastic and helping out in any way, but actually being in the process of organizing it and sharing ideas and everything, it makes me feel like I’m doing a bigger part. I feel more connected to it,” said Finn.
The mission of the BARKA Foundation is particularly close to his family’s heart. His father, Adam Ruderman, has been a BARKA board member and volunteer for 17 years.
“Water is just scare [in Faso] so when a village gets a well, it changes everything,” Ruderman explained. “It’s health, it’s clean water, it’s safety and it’s economy. All of the animals now have water. And all of that time wasted walking doesn’t happen.”
Ruderman said that the construction of a new well will cost $10,000.
Alison Brodginski and her two children, Ben, 9, and Emma, 7, took part in the walk. Ben, a third grader at the lower school, got to participate in the environmental club for the first time this year, and said they learned about everything from the importance of recyling to the importance of clean drinking water.
When his mom asked him if he knew what the Sunday walk was for, he nodded enthusiastically.
“It’s for the sacrifice of what people have to do in Africa. They have to walk like 4 miles with gallons of water,” he explained.
Brodginski was blown away by how educational Seminary’s environmental club has been for her son.
“It really opened their eyes to a lot of issues that we can help support at a local community level and it’s phenomenal that they’ve pulled the kids into this.”
To donate to Sem’s Walk for Water visit https://runsignup.com/Race/PA/Kingston/SemWalkForWater