Welcome to the Pumped Up for Peace web site!

Overview This is a new project being sponsored by the United Nations Cyberschoolbus to help communities around the globe that don't have access to safe drinking water. Recent estimates indicate that 1.1 billion people don't live near water that is safe to drink. People living in rural communities suffer the most because they often lack the resources to improve the quality of water when it is contaminated. Over 2 million people in developing countries, most of them children, die every year from diseases associated with a lack of safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. Increasing the number of people that have access to safe drinking water is one of the Millennium Development Goals established by countries around the world to help eradicate poverty. But what can we do about it? How will the Pumped Up for Peace project help? The main aim of the project is to rally teachers and students around the world to raise money to help communities install filtration systems that will remove organisms (for example, bacteria, parasites, viruses, and cysts) that are contaminating their water or to install water pumps that will allow them to access clean water that is under the ground. Who are we going to help? The first community we will be helping is the native community of Huacaria located in the Amazon rain forest. How can I join this project? To participate in this project a teacher must fill out and submit the registration form. Once you and your class are registered you will receive a regular update from the community of Huacaria about progress they are making in building a healthy environment. What will we be doing? Classrooms that register for this project will: Learn about the challenges of finding water that is safe to drink, the impact that lack of safe water is having on people's health, and what is being done to increase access to clean water. Be able to ask UN experts about water issues Raise awareness about water issues in their communities Conduct a fundraising campaign to help other communities gain access to safe drinking water. (Learn what one group of students in the United States are doing to raise money for the community of Huacaria.) Test the quality of the water in their community.

Watch two video clips filmed for Planet H2O that feature Pumped Up for Peace! video clip 1  video clip 2 Planet H2O, explores water conservation through the eyes of young people. The 2-part series was broadcast on public television stations across the United States during April 2006. New Classroom Resource Guide

We hope you join and look forward to speaking to you online!