Day Three: Poverty and health

> Morning session
> Afternoon session

Morning session: Poverty and health

Key focus: Poverty and health, with particular emphasis on the need for a clean water supply.

Activities
> Clean water helps children live (15 mins)
> Every picture tells a story (30 min)
> Water and health (30 mins)
> Water problems: case studies (45 mins)
> Water solutions: case studies (45 mins)

Background information for teachers
Today’s activities focus on the links between poverty and health, and in particular on the importance of a clean water supply. The first activity looks at MDG 4 (To reduce the number of babies and children who die), where attention can be drawn to the fact that one essential ‘ingredient’ needed to reduce child mortality is a clean water supply. It should also be noted that clean water is a necessary ingredient for achieving MDGs 5 (to improve maternal health), 6 (to fight infectious diseases) and 7 (to clean up the environment).

The rest of the morning or day’s activities focus on the importance of such a water supply for all, and the last three use Cool Planet’s Water for All. Water for all is a flexible resource with a large quantity of images and ideas around the theme of water. You may wish to plan your own day using this resource in the way you choose, but below is a suggested selection of activities and means of implementing them which would work in the time available.

Activity 1: Clean water helps children live (15 min)

You will need
> MDG 4 poster front (88KB pdf)
> MDG 4 background notes and Monica's story (26KB pdf)

Show the class the front of poster 5 (MDG 4: To reduce the number of babies and children who die). Let them know that one essential ‘ingredient’ needed to reduce infant mortality is a clean water supply.

Read the class the background information and ‘Monica’s story – Kenya’. Explain
that there is a link between health and poverty. (It is harder to stay healthy if you are poor) and that having a clean water supply nearby is vital.

Group rotation
With the exception of Activity 2: ‘Every picture tells a story’, which can be done with the whole class, the remainder of today’s activities are best suited to pupils working in groups. You will probably wish to organise this in your own way to suit the particular needs of your own class.

It will be necessary to take into account the number of computers with internet access available, the ability of individual children to work independently and with each other in groups and how much support you have from teacher’s assistants/other adults. Ideally there should be at least one and preferably two other adults working with the class.

Divide the class into 6 groups. Give each member of the group a role, such as operating the computer, taking notes from the relevant pages on the screen and presenting research to the rest of the class.

Assuming you have at least 3 computers with internet access available, the groups can carry out the following activities in rotation.

Activity 2: Every picture tells a story (30 min)

Every picture tells a story lesson plan (from the Water for All online resource)

Activity 3: Water and health (30 min)

You will need
> To know how many pupils there are in the school and to have worked out how many 15. 8 per cent of this total would be
> Materials for making posters
> Copies World water facts (27KB pdf)

Ask the class how many pupils there are in the school, then ask if any of them can work out how many pupils would constitute 15.8 per cent of this total. Tell them that the infant mortality rate in the world’s poorest countries is 15.8 per cent*. This means that the same proportion of children they have just calculated for their school would die by the age of five in those countries. Are they surprised?

Go on to use the information in World Water Facts to show that access to clean water plays a key role in infant health. Read each of the quotations and encourage pupils to comment and ask questions.

Use the information as a basis for pupils to produce posters which explain to others how important it is that we continue to work to improve access to clean water for everyone in the world. (You could point out that things have been improving already, but that improvements need to continue.

Footnote: This figure refers to the world’s least-developed countries, as defined by UNICEF.

Activity 4: Water problems: case studies (45 mins)

Water problems: Case studies lesson plan (from the Water for All online resource)

Activity 5: Water solutions: case studies (45 mins)

Water solutions: case studies lesson plan (from the Water for All online resource)

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