Who Is the Real Water Princess?

​Did you ever reread a story and discover there’s more to it? I read this for Saturday Reads in March of 2023. But when I read it out loud for fourth graders at Cridersville Elementary, I knew I had to write about it. For you, for them, and for me too…I was curious.

The Water Princess in the story spends her morning walking to the well. She returns home in the afternoon. That’s about 4 miles a day, or a hike through 70 football fields lined up back-to-back. That’s a long way.

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Part 1 – Meet the Real Water Princess:  Her name, Georgie Badiel. The book said it was based on her childhood. The real Georgie didn’t walk to the well every day, only during summer vacations with her grandmother.

Georgie grew up, became a model, an author, and an activist. Today she lives in New York City, but she has never forgotten those childhood walks to collect water. Now she has a platform to help people back home. It’s dedicated to building and restoring wells in Burkina Faso.

This screenshot is from her board of directors. The link:  Team — Georgiebadielfoundation
 

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Part 2 – A Foundation for a Princess:  This Georgie Badiel’s Foundation’s home page.
The link: Georgiebadielfoundation

Georgie said, “I used to walk 3 hours to fetch water for my family.
My goal is to break that cycle.”​
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​Georgie's Mission = CLEAN WATER in Burkina.
Ensure the SUSTAINABILITY of the water system
through WOMEN ENGINEERING program.

When you can provide clean water to someone, it impacts every aspect of life.

If you’d like to watch this video, click on: Mission — Georgiebadielfoundation
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Part 3 – Where the Princess is Working:  Georgie Badiel’s Foundation works in Burkina Faso. The link: Where We Work — Georgiebadielfoundation

Burkina Faso is shown in red and green, with a star in the center. It looks small on the map, but it’s about the size of Montana.

Burkina Faso has way more people. Montana only has 1million, and Burkina Faso, 20.9. That’s like 21 times more!

Burkina Faso was once a French colony. Its official language is still French, but half the people speak Mossi. Its citizens are called Burkinabe, and its capital is Ougadougou.
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Its neighbors—Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin and Togo to the southeast, Ghana to the south, and the Ivory Coast to the southwest. BTW, Georgie was born in the Ivory Coast.

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How the Princess Gets to Work:  First Georgie Badiel’s Foundation finds the places where they need clean water. Then they run a campaign to teach people about sanitation, hygiene, and well maintenance. The community elects 2 women to care for the well. (More on that later.)
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Remember those 2 women? The foundation teaches them basic engineering, how to restore, and maintain those wells. Why women? They’re the ones who collect the water, so they need to keep it working.

Would you believe Burkina Faso has 9,775 broken wells? Georgie’s foundation wants to insure their new wells are maintained and cared for, so they manage them until the women are ready to take over.

The Links:
How We Work — Georgiebadielfoundation
Women Engineering — Georgiebadielfoundation
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The Princess & Her Other Jobs:  This is Georgie Badiel’s other website. If you look across the top of her home page, there’s more to her than her fashion/modelling career or her charity work. Georgie is also a chef! She loves to introduce people to West African cuisine. You can even book her for special events so she can cook up some of her favorite foods from back home.
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                                                                    The Link: Georgie Badiel-Liberty - Home


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Part 4 – Another Water Hero: I thought I was done with the Water Princess, but I saw something on Fox News that made me keep going. One of the reporters did a charity event for Africa 6000 International. I listened, and I was hooked. It was a story I had to tell!

Africa 6000 was born in 2007. That didn’t catch my attention, but this did—6000 children died EVERY DAY in 2007 because of waterborne diseases. What a heartbreaking statistic.

The good news, that number has been cut in half…down to under 3000 kids. But that’s still too many, and it’s still heartbreaking.                  Their link: Our Mission - Africa 6000 International   
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​Africa 6000, their mission is the same as Georgie Badiel’s. To deliver clean water to the thirstiest people in Africa. Their charity builds long-term, solar-powered water wells that can be accessed and maintained successfully by the people who live beside them. Africa 6000 hires and trains teams to drill wells and drive support vehicles. 

Meet Jesse Waters. He’s the Fox reporter who introduced me to Africa 6000. He only had 30-60 seconds to tell his story, but it was compelling. He said the number of children dying was closer to 2000 now. Imagine building a program that saves the lives of 3-4000 children every single day. THAT’S an accomplishment!
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Imagine that clean water makes medical clinics and schools possible. Picture water flowing to your garden or farm. And dream that you and the people in your village are trained and empowered to keep those wells working. THAT’S powerful! Plus, women and children can go to school, can learn to read and write. And me, I’m proud to introduce you to this incredible program!

These 2 maps show the success Africa 6000 has had. Do you see those blue circles with white dots? Each one represents a well built by Africa 6000. They’ve done a lot of work in18 years!
Here’s an interesting fact I learned from Africa 6000—Did you know…A whole family in Africa exists on 5 gallons of water a day? Each American, every single one of us, uses 175 gallons EVERY DAY! Wow, Americans are blessed! ​