It’s our Water Explorers programme 1st birthday and we’re taking a look back on the first year and celebrating all that was achieved in 2015!
After a successful launch in January 2015, the inspiring and empowering programme led 6,572 Irish Water Explorers on 4 missions to rescue our waterful world by taking action on Precious Water, Fresher Water, Global Water and Secret Water. In just 1 year, students all over Ireland collectively completed 183 challenges in 48 actively engaged schools alone, while a total of 157 Water Explorer schools throughout the country engaged in taking on small water conservation actions. Check out some of the 125 newsreels they wrote on their progress throughout the exciting Water Explorer competition www.waterexplorer.ie!
6 teams won digital cameras for National School of the Month while 3 teams won cool collapsible water bottles for Global School of the Week. We also awarded 4 kick-start workshops, ran 2 teachers training sessions, 9 Water Workshops and supported 7 schools in hosting their very own Water Festivals!
Values such as care and commitment, integrity, awareness, responsibility and empathy are embedded in the Water Explorer journey. 15,380 students and community members were reached through the challenges and 4,505 people were engaged in Water Explorer campaigns. 729 people changed their behaviour towards water thanks to Ireland’s Explorers in 2015. As a direct result of this behaviour change, 365,736 litres of water will be saved each year!
Global Action Plan’s Water Explorer programme is a free online, educational resource for teachers and students aged 8-14 years in 11 participating countries supported by HSBC, which aims to inspire students to take action on water conservation in a fun way. Schools are also actively encouraged to collaborate with other schools both nationally and internationally and to engage with local communities.
Our National Water Explorer School of the Year 2015 is Blakestown Community School, check out this video they made of their Water journey below…