The story of a determined teacher who has changed the future of water for an entire community.
Purely cultivated fields cover the steep slopes of the Andes, lined in countless hairpin curves, on a narrow road that takes you to the quiet mountain town of Asunción, in Peru. Located near 2,229 meters above sea level, the city's 1,600 residents are accustomed to the slow pace of agricultural life in their corner of the mountains.
However, upon entering the secondary school, which is located in the town, you can feel the energy flowing. Uniformed students rush to their first classes of the day, crossing the courtyard and plant-bedecked hallways along the way. In the science and environment classroom, posters with messages and drawings about water and caring for the environment cover the walls. Students are proud to share these topics. "Water is life," the students say, every time they talk about water.
Science and environment teacher Maritza Rodríguez Atalaya has been a teacher here for 15 years.
"I love my career," she says. "Being a teacher is my passion."
Small and lively, Maritza is smaller than her teenage students. But don't be fooled by his small stature. Even though she humbly says otherwise, Maritza is the force that brought water to the school.
When she started teaching school, Maritza says her students asked her to go get water. "I was surprised: I had never had students ask me for this," he said. One day she followed them and realized that they were going to a nearby spring, but the water they were drinking from it was contaminated, causing diarrhea and other illnesses that often prevented students from returning from home to school. .
Determined to change this for her students, she instituted a new classroom policy: Students took turns bringing home a large plastic jug. They were to boil water at home, fill the jug with this safe water and bring it to school, for their classmates to drink.
But this could only be a temporary solution. Students who lived far away had trouble carrying the heavy jug, and Maritza was also concerned about the untreated water from the nearby spring. Although the water was not safe to drink, it was going to waste.
"Nobody was using the spring," he said. "This would overflow and waste and could spill onto the streets."
Despite resistance from the school leader, Maritza was determined to create change.
"I started over, working and working," says Maritza. "But there was no support, not from the other teachers or the principal. The project was mine alone."
Maritza continued as best she could, teaching the students who passed by her classroom about the importance of safe water, hygiene, and caring for the environment. For years, she did this, all on her own.
And then in 2015, the school got a new principal.
"I told him about the project and he really liked it," Maritza said. "He said, 'You have my full support, you have to do this.'"
Over the past two years, the school has made great strides. They connected the nearby spring to the school, and the water that was previously contaminated and wasted is now treated and safe for students to drink. Each student brings a water bottle to school every day, constantly refilling it with drinking water and reducing environmental waste. The education that Maritza began in her own class about water, hygiene and the environment has spread throughout the school, infiltrating all classes and empowering students to change norms in their own families and communities.
One day, Maritza says she was on a bus on the way to a neighboring city and saw someone throw a glass bottle out of the bus window. Two girls on the bus were so angry that they approached the man who threw the bottle to tell him why he shouldn't do that.
"I looked and it was two former students of the school," Maritza said. "That's something that as a teacher made me feel satisfied. I'm very happy with how things are improving."
Maritza's years of perseverance have paid off, and the entire culture at school around water and sanitation has changed. Their students share what they have learned with their families and in their communities. All of Asunción feels the impact!
