Last days...

Day 6 & 7

I decided to condense my experience of the walking for water challenge over the space of the weekend. Personally, I think I'll have more time to do things over the weekend, but factoring social time and other errands quickly eats it up.

I am feeling quite fatigued, mentally and physically by the challenge this weekend. I am slipping up more in things like accidentally running the taps, then having to estimate my water usage on averages I find online. I am constantly thirsty and look out in envy as many enjoy their water without knowing about these rules and goals I've set out for the week. I'm starting to wonder how I will be able to cope after this challenge being that I have now officially completed 7 days.

I have summarized some of the experiences within the span of a week this challenge has taught me. I walked 98.27kms (61.06 miles) this week and averaged 7.5L/day. 

Beyond the challenge itself, I began to recognize on a deeper level the struggles many others face in our local or international communities that are unfair. A lack of appreciation of what I have or ignorance on some issues is one element of it, but more so for me the helplessness of how to start making change.

Awareness is always key and can't simply happen through a one-time event. Living through something that is challenging, unfair and likely non-existent in developed countries can create individual experiences that mean different things and trigger unique feelings to you. Ultimately, the inequality question challenges are set to change behaviours and facilitate change on a greater scale, so we can see inequalities decrease in our lifetimes.

As one of the first to undertake this challenge, I highly encourage you to register an inequality challenge with us to test yourself and find out how to you can change yourself to ensure we live in a better world. Register your interest at: http://inequalityquestion.com/challenge/ to undertake a challenge in your community.

Please keep afloat on the many interesting challenges still to come this month through following their blogs (http://inequalityquestion.com/stories/).

Money is also instrumental in making sure this is done. This month we set our sites on the street children in Uganda who need your support. Any size donation will help! http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/InequalityQuestion

http://www.salveinternational.org/

Water consciousness

Day 5

Even though it is a short span of time, I know this walking for water challenge has made an impact on me. By diving deeper into aspects of water inequalities that interest me I've raised my awareness and will be more water conscious and appreciative in the future. 

Trying to do the same types of activities this week as I would normally do, made me think about how unnoticed water use goes in Canada, as well as many other developed countries I've traveled or lived in. I was hypersensitive about these things that appear small, but add up to major wastage of water. From waiters constantly filling up my barely drank water glass (that was hard to estimate) to a friend's leaking sink remaining unfixed since I saw him almost 4 months ago. I later read that one leaky faucet that drips about 20 drops/minute equates to 7L a day wasted or about 1 gallon a day!

We are facing a serious water shortage in our world, even if you chose to ignore the current inequalities in our world. Environmental scientists estimate by 2030, 47% of the population will be facing major water shortages. Here is a comical video on what it's been like in trying to sustain my life as usual activities while undertaking this walking for water challenge:

Check out trailers to these great documentaries to expand your water consciousness (many of which are available to watch in full on youtube):

Blue Gold: Water Wars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikb4WG8UJRw&nohtml5=False

Flow: For the Love of Water:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGd9D4J0lag&nohtml5=False

Water on the table (Canadian): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qVzb9rPY9Q&nohtml5=False

Register your interest at: http://inequalityquestion.com/challenge/ to undertake a challenge in your community. Donate to participants around the world fundraising this month for S.A.L.V.E. International: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/InequalityQuestion

Over the halfway point!

Day 4:

It was harder to fit in my walking today, maybe that's what happens for most things at the halfway mark. A technical problem made me need to rush to the office, then back to make a dinner I had planned with a friend since I got back to Canada. As you can see not as much walking done as I have in other days.

I likely have failed to mention so far, in my absorption in this challenge, that I have recently returned from a research internship in Uganda. This is where I met the C.E.O. of S.A.L.V.E. International, Nicola. I had the pleasure of volunteering at a pool party with most of the street children they sponsor to be able to go to school or safely return to their family or relative's home (among many other things).
It was a perfect day for it, with blue skies and almost no one else at the pool. The children and teens that S.A.L.V.E. supported were not what I had expected. Even though there were over 60 of them, they were all really good kids. They played and had fun, but were very respectful and grateful to have adults treat them like "normal" kids. I was very touched by that one afternoon spent with them and how much of a community feel it had.

This is one of the reasons I wanted to come onboard to launch the Inequality Challenge. To take a piece of those elements of others lives we are likely disconnected from to recognize, even in its own unique way in our lives, how it would affect us. I encourage you to think of an inequality question personal to you, or find other inequalities you can imagine others experience, to resonate that inequality, increase your awareness and do what you can to make the world a more equal place.

Register your interest at: http://inequalityquestion.com/challenge/ to undertake a challenge in your community.

Donate to this amazing organization working with Ugandans to combat the inequalities children living in the streets have to face: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/InequalityQuestion

Virtual Water

Day 3

The IQ Challenge continues on! I'm feeling much more positive about it today, likely because I've accumulated a decent amount of water from all my walking, so some of my anxieties are gone about how I'm going to get my next glass of water.

I wanted to share a concept I mentioned earlier in my rules about not counting invisible, also known as virtual water. This made me think a little bit deeper about inequalities of access to water, especially for some of the most marginalized in societies-children living on the street.

Professor Tony Allan, coined the term "virtual water" to describe the amount of water embedded within a product that is not visible to you. It is in the products we buy and what is more visible to us-the foods we eat. It an mathematical conceptualization to give an idea about how much water is used to maintain our lives that most of us would unlikely attribute to our water use. Glad this doesn't show up on my water bill and here's why...

The water used for the production of items we use everyday such as cotton, paper and clothing amounts to about 167L daily. The food we eat plays an even bigger role. A beef steak, for example, is made up of 15,400L of water for every 1 kilo. This is worked out by the cow needing to eat ~1,300 kilograms of grains for about 3 years before its slaughtered to produce 200 kilos of beef. You can even go further to look at the water it would take for all the grains needed to sustain a cattle farm, the amount of water used to clean the farm and slaughterhouse, the cattles water consumption – all of which adds up to an estimated 3,000,000L of water! Some other examples include 1 kilo of chocolate requiring about 24,000L of water, and one single piece of paper needs 10L!

I found this great infographic that summarizes this concept. This image represents what an average Brazilian consumes or uses in virtual water, or how they cleverly put it a water footprint. Recall, Brazil is classified as a middle-income country, so you can likely increase those figures if you are reading from a high-income country.

Food, or shall I say water, for thought!

Follow me on Facebook (Jillian Kowalchuk), Twitter (@kowalchuk_jill) and Instagram (@inequalityquestion) to keep up-to-date on April's #inequalityquestionchallenge.

**Register your interest at: http://inequalityquestion.com/challenge/ to undertake a challenge in your community, or donate to participants around the world fundraising this month for S.A.L.V.E. International:http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/InequalityQuestion

Settling into the challenge

Day 2

Feeling quite exhausted today, walking 20km yesterday and just over 12kms today. My muscles are sore, I am fatigued, dehydrated and my mood is down. It was much more difficult to concentrate on work today, which is becoming more challenging as I need to continue to break and get enough walking in.

I thought my long day of walking yesterday would have allowed me a quick shower, but after a bit of research I found I would basically have to trade in all my kilometers for a very brief a shower. According to a study conducted in the UK, the average person took about an 8-minute shower which equated to using 62 litres of water. That's nearly 8L per minute, so I would have to walk 6km to take a 1 minute shower. Things started to sink in (pun intended) further, especially when drawing those comparisons about how big of an inequality it is. 

I found this infographic to visualize this stark difference between a European country and an African country.

Reference

With this challenge I still have many advantages, such as I am not carrying the massive jugs of water while collecting water for myself and others, which on generally weighs about 40lbs (18kg). For a small child it's even less weight that can be carried, therefore less water. For street children who may not have any family members present, this task cannot be shifted or rotated to someone else.

I will write more tomorrow, for now I am off to bed to conserve my energy and water consumption.

Follow me on Facebook (Jillian Kowalchuk), Twitter (@kowalchuk_jill) and Instagram (@inequalityquestion) to keep up-to-date on April's #inequalityquestionchallenge.

*Register your interest at: http://inequalityquestion.com/challenge/ to undertake a challenge in your community, or donate to participants around the world fundraising this month for S.A.L.V.E. International: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/InequalityQuestion

First day of challenge

The day passed by quickly, even though some sensations, such a thirst were very apparent throughout the day. It was difficult and mentally taxing to break some of my usual patterns, such as drinking water in the middle of the night or having to think about whether I had enough water to wash my hands. Water became at the forefront of my mind the whole day about whether I would have enough to cook food, drink or wash up. 

I had placed containers outside my balcony before bed to try to collect the drizzle, but sadly didn't get any water likely due to how the building is set up. I have already asked a neighbour on the lower ground if I can place some containers around the outside of her apartment, in hopes I will collect rainwater tomorrow.

I had to wake up around 6am to ensure I had time to walk a few kilometres before my meeting at 8am. I decided to walk as I had another job at night that I wanted to make sure I wasn't too sweaty for. I was thirsty from the night before, perhaps because I had drank so much beforehand in preparation for this challenge. I couldn't shower or make my morning smoothie, since I was starting the day with 0 kilometers, therefore no water.

It was nice to be outside walking before most people and enjoying the luckily good weather. I happened to select a podcast to listen too from the "Rewild yourself" series entitled "Why I forge wild water", which discussed how contaminated most water sources are and the benefits of collecting spring water from North America. As you can see on the picture below, this walk for about 45 minutes didn't get me to the 6km most African's walk to collect their water. 

Already on Day 1, I am recognizing how much water I use and consume, even though I wouldn't consider myself an overly wasteful person. The inequality question is drawing a lot of new thoughts and awareness around the inequalities of access to clean water, especially for children on the streets who likely have many other competing priorities for their survival and well-being. 

This month all challenge proceeds I raise will go to S.A.L.V.E. to support street children in Uganda: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/displayCharityCampaignPage.action?campaignId=2245&charityId=1002060

Follow me too on Facebook (Jillian Kowalchuk), Twitter (@kowalchuk_jill) and Instagram (@inequalityquestion) to keep up-to-date on April's #inequalityquestionchallenge.

Walking for my water- April's challenge

Walking for my water this April

Hello, my name is Jillian and I am embarking on an exciting project this April, called the Inequality Question. The vision myself and Nicola, the founder of Support And Love Via Education (S.A.L.V.E), share is to bring about global conversations through a series of short weekly challenges each month to rethink our assumptions and show our solidarity to improving inequalities. We will also be fundraising for different organizations that are already working to change these inequalities in the world.

This month in recognition of the International Day for Street Children on 12th April we wanted to embark on a series of challenges that can bring awareness and experience in our own lives some of the inequalities homeless children can face.  All fundraising for this challenge will go to S.A.L.V.E. International for street children living in Uganda.

Why am I walking for my water?

I will be challenging myself to one week (April 4-11th) of walking for the water I use. This challenge is based around the average distance a person in Africa has to walk per day to get their water. The average distance an African woman or child has to walk to collect water is 6kms (4miles) each day for about 8 litres of water, which is used for drinking, bathing and cleaning. In other words, I will be walking 1km for every 0.75L of water I use. This challenge may help me understand the amount of time and adaptions to my life that will be necessary to have water. Many children on the streets struggle to access clean water at all, so this challenge will expand my awareness on this issue, as well as make me appreciate how easy access to clean water has helped my life.

What rules will I follow?

To keep track of my distance for this week, I have borrowed a pedometer to measure how many steps I've walked, ran or need to go for the amount of water I use. I will carry a 1L bottle with me at all times and will only have walking or running count. I have made arrangements at home to make sure my bathing, dishes and other water use is able to be measured (i.e. using tubs in lieu of shower). I will not count toilet flushing, only my direct water consumption and use (i.e drinking water, water to cook, water to clean and water to share with my plants). I will not be accepting water from others, but I will be able to share my water, if I so chose to. I will not count what is referred to as "invisible water", which is an estimate of how much water is used to produce certain items (i.e. litres of water to grow and transport a banana for my consumption). Since I am doing this challenge from Vancouver, Canada, the spring weather bring rainwater I can collect outside without me needing to walk. As I progress, I'm sure I will be faced with more situations that I will develop these rules, but this is my starting point and assurance I will not cut corners.

My challenge will be taking place from 4th – 11th April 2016, so be sure to follow me for daily posts!

Join Me

This is a bit of an experiment – and as with all experiments the more people take part the more interesting and useful the results! Either you could do the same challenge and walk for your water or choose another challenge that has meaning for you that you want to explore. For example living on £1 or $1.50 a day for food and drink, or having your decision being made for you by someone of the opposite gender.

Please join in on the conversations, start your own challenges and donate to ensure we make it through these challenges. 

This month all proceeds will go to S.A.L.V.E. to support street children in Uganda: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/displayCharityCampaignPage.action?campaignId=2245&charityId=1002060

Follow me on Facebook (Jillian Kowalchuk), Twitter (@kowalchuk_jill) and Instagram (@inequalityquestion) to keep up-to-date on April's #inequalityquestionchallenge.