By Eva Mo
The Covenant Kids Congo 6K for Water held by the Bellingham Covenant Church, was held on May 19 at Lake Padden Park.
The main organization of this event is World Vision. They have provided a website for people to register for the event by their own, and World Vision provided everything including decorations, signage, and mile markers.
The purpose of the event is to help fund water projects in communities where World Vision works. Therefore, each participant needs to pay $50 registration fee, which provides life-changing clean water for one person.
This year the church raised over $5,000 for the event, and there were over a hundred participants for the event this year, including 10 Whatcom Community College students from the Impact club.
Impact club provides the opportunity to make positive change in the community, through the voices and concerns of each member.
“I know that there are a lot of runners on campus,” said Rose Adam, the president of Impact club.
Due to county limitations, only a certain amount of people can run in the race. Therefor the church offered 25 spots for Whatcom students.
Steven Shetterly one of the organizers of the church, who helped set up the event mentioned that World Vision has sites around the world in hundreds of different countries.
Last year, 48,000 people around the world walked and ran this 6K in order to to bring clean water to over 63,000 people in need.
“It’s a very special event for our church,” said Shetterly. “Our church has been working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa for over 80 years.”
According to a new report from UNICEF and the World Health Organization, 2.1 billion people around the world drink unsafe water every day. The task of providing water for households, falls disproportionately to women and girls, especially in rural areas.
Hannah Cranny, another organizer said that people who donate “generally are helping the girls at the same time,” because more girls are able to attend school.
“To able to attend schools and get more educated, better education for women basically in these communities,” said Cranny.
BarBat Goebal, one of the participants in the event said, “Most of us don’t even think about other people who are suffering in finding clean water, but we just turn on the tap.”
Another purpose of the event was to help people put themselves in someone else’s shoes, by going their distance.
The race runs six kilometers to represent the average distance a person in the developing world must walk to find water, which is often contaminated with life-threatening diseases.
“I think the church really enjoyed working with us this year,” said Adam. “We might have a partnership with the church again next year.”
