Everything you could possibly imagine is true…entire families live in one room thatched roof huts, own only one set of clothing, have no running water or plumbing and have little or no access to education or fresh water. We spent a day visiting school children and joined in their pure excitement of having the opportunity to attend classes and gather water from the school’s fresh water well. They told us of their six-mile walk to reach school and how they would walk six miles home after dark. We also learned that many children are not able to attend school because the walk is prohibitive since many must stay near home to help gather food and care for sick family members.  We knew at that moment that we must do something to help. walktheirwalk was created.

 

The first annual walktheirwalk was held on Saturday, September 29, 2007 at Lake Murray Regional Park in La Mesa, California.  With nearly 200 walkers and volunteers present walktheirwalk successfully raised $27,215.25!  The money raised was directed to help build Siantete Basic School in Twachiyanda in Zambia.  In addition to the walk that took place in La Mesa, the people of Zambia were so moved with what  walktheirwalk was doing for them, they decided to walk too.  View photos from walktheirwalk  La Mesa and Choma here

 

The second annual walktheirwalk event was held in two locations in 2008; La Mesa, CA and Bound Brook, NJ.  We were thrilled to have our friends in Bound Brook host their own event growing walktheirwalk to be a bi-coastal effort. Through both events $33,739.00 was raised to help build 2.5 fresh water wells for the community of Twachiyanda in Zambia.

 

To find out more the story behind walktheirwalk NJ, click here.

The story of walktheirwalk

The desire to specifically help children of Zambia started the summer of 2005 after spending twelve days in rural Zambia and witnessing first hand the beauty and hope of children living in dire circumstances.  We spent two days in Twachiyanda, approximately seven hours from the main city including a four-hour drive on a desolate dirt road.  These amazing people living in the most primitive conditions lovingly gave all they had to share with us.