Contact Search


Youth & Economic Empowerment


What is Walk4Wells?

Walk4Wells is a unique walk-a-thon where you walk for water so that boy or girl doesn’t have to. When you, your friends, and your community join together for a 5K Walk4Wells event, you begin to understand the challenge of finding clean water – and you become part of the solution.

Why Walk?

Plan International USA focuses on building wells because they are a simple, sustainable solution to many complex problems, including school attendance, gender inequality, and disease caused by dirty water

By providing clean water, you can:

  1. Improve school attendance. Both boys and girls are more likely to go to school when there’s water there. That’s because instead of taking a long walk to a faraway river, lake or well, they can walk to school, stay there to learn, and then return home with water for their families in the evening.
  2. Decrease gender inequality. In most families in developing countries, it is a girl’s responsibility to fetch water. The long walk may force her to miss school, and if her school doesn’t have clean water, she is even less likely to attend class, because she won’t be able to get a drink or wash her hands. But by providing access to water and separate bathrooms for boys and girls, the number of girls who are in school can increase by up to 15%.
  3. Decrease disease. In developing countries, diarrhea caused by a lack of clean water is the second leading cause of death for children under the age of 5. That’s why we construct boreholes for schools and communities—a borehole for a well can reach safe, uncontaminated water deep underground. And because disease can spread when people don’t practice proper hygiene, we also build latrines (aka bathrooms) and let people know how important it is to wash their hands.

When you participate in Walk4Wells, you walk for millions of young people who struggle to find clean water every day. Walk4Wells and help students reach their dreams!

Who Can Walk?

Anyone can walk! Walk4Wells is an event you can put on with a club, a community group, or with your entire school. We encourage your family, friends and classmates to participate.

How to get started:

Get started by downloading a toolkit and then request an event pack. You’ll receive step-by-step instructions on how to host your very own Walk4Wells.
