THOUSANDS of kilometres away in a rural African village lives a young girl, Thandolwayo, who walks a 15 kilometre round trip for water every day.
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When the 12-year-old arrives, the water is dirty and the danger of crocodiles is ever-presented.
Then, she must cart it all back to her village in north-western Zimbabwe - her father left several years ago and her mother lives in a town 90 kilometres away and works as a casual labourer.
It's hard to imagine unless you've been there, but students at St Nicholas Primary School had a glimpse into the reality of the less fortunate at an event to raise awareness on Friday.
Year 6 students Sophie Brown and Ashyla Strudwick were among many that carried up to three litre bottles of water around a track 15 times throughout the day.
The school has raised funds to have a tap installed in the village that cleans the water with a filtration system, Sophie said.
"It was sad because we live in a really safe country where we get all of that without doing anything really, we just turn on the tap and walk one metre," she said.
We live in a first world country and sometimes we take that for granted without realising how people are doing in other countries.
- Sophie Brown
"We live in a first world country and sometimes we take that for granted without realising how people are doing in other countries.
"Sometimes we're not very grateful or gracious about it."
The school held Green Day recently and raised $2500 to go towards charitable causes.
The money was donated to Caritas Australia, a global Catholic network that provides aid to the less fortunate overseas.
The exercise on Friday was just to put the kids in the mindframe of what it would be like to travel so far every day just for drinking water.
By lap five out of 15 it started to get quite hard, Ashyla said.
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"It's to raise awareness not money," she said.
"But now we can put ourselves in her footsteps to realise what happens so we can try and help them fix the problem.
"I don't think I would have understood it as much as what I did after that, I think every school should do it."
Kids in every year group took part in the challenge that ran on Friday.
Madeline Link
Madeline Link is a journalist at the Newcastle Herald, with a focus on Lake Macquarie City Council. To keep up with my stories, follow my Twitter @madeline_link, for tips email madeline.link@newcastleherald.com.au.
Madeline Link is a journalist at the Newcastle Herald, with a focus on Lake Macquarie City Council. To keep up with my stories, follow my Twitter @madeline_link, for tips email madeline.link@newcastleherald.com.au.
