We are delighted to share a blog written by #makeadifference, students at Saint Andrews International High School who are part of a team delivering a Global Goals project for the 2018-19 Global Goals Competition.
Their project is among over 620 social action projects currently running as part of the GSL movement and we are excited to be supporting them to design and lead positive social change in their community.
Project Overview
Our goal is to save as much water around our school as possible. To achieve this goal, we are making DIY toilet hippos which effectively are recycled plastic bottles filled with sand and put in the cistern of a toilet. By doing this, the amount of water consumed for every flush is reduced by nearly 25%.
To get these bottles, we held a competition around the school which encouraged students to collect bottles whereby the class with the most bottles collected won a free mufti-day. The sole reason as to why we are doing this project is to reduce the excessive water consumption at school. We aim to put a toilet hippo in every toilet in the school and if all goes well, start putting toilet hippos in other schools.
Our Journey
We’ve learnt to work better as a team rather than individuals and at the same time we have learnt to be more environmentally conscious in terms of how much water we use at home. We are also more aware of the impacts excessive water consumption is having on both a local and global scale.
Cooperation is one major skill that we are developing as we have to all bring ideas together and come to a final decision which is best for the project. The biggest challenge we face is getting other people who are not as environmentally aware to cooperate and start using toilet hippos because they might think the bottles will damage the toilet.
We plan to overcome this problem by thoroughly explaining to people how toilet hippos help alleviate the current global water crisis. They then will be able to share the knowledge with others and help spread the use of toilet hippos throughout Malawi,
Its been a thought-provoking, educational, humbling but very fun experience
The Next Chapter
We would most definitely recommend the youth to get involved in projects like this because the water crisis is far from being solved and the more effort we put into reducing water, the closer we will get to reaching our sustainable development goal.
These projects are tons of fun because it brings people from all corners together and you get to make your own positive impact on the world. We believe that everyone should be working towards an SDG because it is our world to save and future generations are relying on us so that they may live without the worry of water insecurity
The 2018-19 GSL Global Goals Competition is now open and runs until June 2019. If you belong to one of the 700+ teams of students currently delivering a social action project as part of the competition we would love to hear from you and feature your blog and project photos on our website to inspire others.
