The Goals for the WaterPowerPeace Project are simple:

 Water: Clean and safe drinking water placed at the center of the community that needs it most, schools

 Play: putting playgrounds that pump water and electricity and allow kids to play, empowering them through what they love to do and work to contribute to the bigger world

 Power: through education and the sister school curriculum, teach the science and technology of alternative energy, and also the power of public speaking in all settings (performances, boardroom days, leaders)

 Peace: through connecting schools through the project, bring culture and community service

General Information / Background / Upcoming Plans

In 2008, Woodland Hill Montessori School became the pilot for the water project, a program that features a sister school curriculum centered in science and culture.

Sabre designed playground equipment to generate power and a system to store the power for other uses. The system can be used to pump and distribute clean water and provide light and electricity for schools.

In September, 2008, the test playground was built at the school in East Greenbush, New York and a sister school in Babati, Tanzania was chosen for the pilot program.

Woodland Hill Montessori School has a sister school - the Sinai primary school in Babati, Tanzania. In 2008, the Sinai school had nearly 700 kids, only seven classrooms and no water or electricity. The students had to walk nearly a mile and a half to their nearest water source, an old hand pump well built many years ago.

In November, 2008, four teachers and four Sabre engineers and scientists traveled to the Sinai school in Babati Tanzania. They met and studied the school and community and brought back messages of friendship and need.

Teachers, parents and the Sabre group held assemblies and gave classroom lessons about the world water needs, solar power, kinetic energy and the sister school. Together, the Water Club was formed - a group of students who created a multi-media show about the project and their sister school.

The Water Club presentation, None to Now, premiered on Earth Day 2009 at the GE Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, New York. Featuring original movies, photos and performances woven together with a presentation about and for their sister school, the students raised awareness and left audiences spell-bound. During the live auction that followed, enough funds were raised to bring water and new classrooms to their sister school last year.

In July, 2009, middle school students, engineers, teachers and parents from the WHMS community traveled to Tanzania to work, learn and meet their sister school. Families travelled together, mothers and fathers of thirteen year olds, to work side by side at the school. A new classroom, now touted as the best in all of Tanzania, was built by the parents and students, with help from the Babati community and Sinai school students.

During the winter of 2010, the students will be preparing for a new multi-media presentation of the project, I Have a Dream, which will be shown and performed at the GE Theatre at Proctors in Schenectady, New York on March 24, 2009. The evening will feature a reception and live auction, as well as honored guests visiting from Babati, Tanzania.

As soon as possible, the power generating playground will be built as a permanent exhibit at the Schenectady Science Museum in New York. The playground will feature new equipment designed to generate power, including a zip line and swing set.

In Novemeber 2010, the well and water distribution system will be installed at the Sinai school in Babati, Tanzania. We will also spend time with students at the Sinai primary school and Kwaang secondary school in Babati Tanzania. We will be commencing the sister school story exchange (writing curriculum), and starting 14 level book circles (reading curriculum), as well as working on other exchanges with the students.

The Playground Project curriculum is a yearlong curriculum that begins with the playground. Teachers and students learn about water, electricity, power generation, solar and wind power. A sister school is selected early on to help where kids are not able to go to school because they are walking for water instead, or lack access to basic needs and sanitation.

The pilot program created a sister school curriculum, based in science and peace, and is being adopted for other schools around the world.

The playground does more than pump water. In many places in the world, kids and schools have access to water but it is not safe. With the power generated by the playground, filtration and simple disinfection systems can be installed at the schools to enable clean and safe drinking water.

DO YOU HAVE A BOARDROOM? ? MAY WE HAVE A 30 MINUTE MEETING?

Kids in the Boardroom

An important aspect of the water project curriculum involves outreach to the community and teaching students to present in different forums, including large public gatherings and boardroom settings. The students ask for a thirty minute block of time to present I HAVE A DREAM, a preview of their multi presentation to premiere at Proctors GE Theatre on March 24, 2010 for World Water Week and speak briefly about the project, the playground that pumps water and generates electricity, and their time spent at their sister school in Babati, Tanzania.

Last year, the kids presented to leaders in law, insurance and local technology companies and what follows are some of the comments about the Boardroom program:

"...the level of maturity and civic-mindedness exhibited by these students a very young age...All of my colleagues who attended their presentation were amazed at the poise and intellect exhibited by each child as he or she made their remarks...We were fortunate to host the presentation and I wholeheartedly recommend that others do the same."

Andrew C. Rose
Managing Partner
Nixon Peabody LLP

"The Board Room presentation by the Water Club kids was spectacular and a great success. The board room setting highlighted the kid?s sincere ownership of this project and their passion for its ultimate success. It also really validated our emotional and financial commitment to this project. Everyone wished we could keep the kids longer, and they are on our schedule for 2010. Every company should do the same - it's is truly not to be missed"

Joseph Tessitore
Cool Insuring Agency, Inc.

We are seeking dates for January and February to present to companies and leaders the preview of I Have A Dream event as well seek support for museum playground project and installation trip to Tanzania.

Please sign up for a date in January or February 2010, or contact Karen Cavanagh at kcavanagh@sabretechservices.com

Quotes

On the 7th and 8 grade trip to sister school in Tanzania:

"it was the most eye-opening event of my life." - Daniel Cavanagh, age 13 (8th grader WHMS)

"The trip brought learning beyond generalizations and an outside-looking-in approach. The stories Anna brought back were about real people she met. And she could see firsthand how the resources a person has affects the choices they can make."

"This experience shows itself in quiet ways throughout day-today life. I see even more maturity, confidence and empathy when she talks to people she meets for the first time" - Laura Koennecke, mother of Anna age 13 (8th grader WHMS)

Notable Quotes

In Africa, they say, "Educate a boy and you educate an individual. Educate a girl and you educate a community."

Maria Montessori:

"Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war."

"The things the child sees are not just remembered; they form a part of his soul."

"Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment."

Nelson Mandela:

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, 1937, Nobel Prize for Medicine:

"Water is life's mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water."