Today, I assigned the story The Water Princess as the reading assignment. I wanted to highlight a variety of issues facing our world each day this week as we prepare to celebrate Earth Day. Today’s focus was water. Susan Verde wrote this book based on the life of Georgie Badiel and the challenges she faced every day to get clean water while growing up in west Africa. Georgie Badiel is now a model, author, and actress living in Manhattan and has a foundation that is working to supply fresh water to communities in Africa. The Georgie Badiel Foundation believes that all human beings have the right to available clean drinking water, sanitation facilities and education. They are committed to building, restoring and maintaining wells, as well as providing sanitation facilities in Burkina Faso and neighboring African countries. By helping to provide fresh water, they enable millions of women and children to get an education and contribute to their communities, instead of spending the majority of their time traveling long-distances to fetch water.
We have an amazing connection to this text and Georgie Badiel. I discovered that Georgie Badiel and her husband Chid are Presley’s godparents and close family friends. Chid, Georgie’s husband, met Presley’s dad in high school at Nicolet. Their friendship remained strong and Adam and Chid created the first fair trade garment factory in Liberia. Adam and Katrina were with Chid and Georgie when they married and have continued to share holidays, birthdays and special events over the years. Chid’s mother and brother still live in area, so Georgie and Chid travel to Milwaukee frequently.
Georgie and I are working on finding a time for her to share her story during Zoom. It will be such a wonderful learning experience to hear her life story and the wonderful things her foundation is doing to bring clean water to Africa. I will keep you posted as you may want to join us as well.
Please take a look at the following videos to gain a better understanding of Georgie and the wonderful work that is being done in Africa through her foundation.
