Pumped Up for Peace offers students the opportunity to participate in finding solutions to global problems. It combines learning with social action. This project puts a personal face on a widely cited statistic: 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. By following the community of Huacaria's efforts to improve the quality of their water, you and your students can learn about this important global issue up close. Begin by having your students view the slide show. Please note that discussion questions are embedded in the slides. When you click on , a journal will pop up that your students can write in and then print out. The slide show can be printed in two different formats (either one slide per page or 3-4 slides per page) or you can simply print out one slide at a time. The printed copies can be bound into a booklet for your students. Add your own discussion questions to those we have provided. Two activities are included to help you and your students explore water-related themes discussed in the slide show: one on filtering water and one on testing rainwater. You can find other water-related activities in a new United Nations publication on water: Every Body Counts, Every Drop Matters. We also encourage you to develop more in-depth activities that involve testing the quality of water in your community. You may want to send samples of water to a laboratory or test it yourself with a water testing kit. If you do it yourself make sure you test the chemical, biological, and physical characteristics of the water. Each category will help you evaluate how healthy your water is. Water testing kits can be found on the Internet. Familiarize yourself with what benchmarks environmental scientists look for to determine whether water is safe to drink or for fish to live in. To extend your explorations you can choose to introduce a more in-depth investigation of indigenous peoples Or examine water-related health issues. The Cyberschoolbus web site offers a good introduction to both topics. Finally, you can have your students explore the Millenium Development Goals by researching the progress your country has made toward increasing access to safe drinking water. In order to participate in Pumped Up for Peace, you must register your class. Once you have registered, you will receive regular updates from the Huacaria community about the progress they are making to improve the quality of their water and to build a healthier environment. Learning about the world's most precious resource should be accompanied by action to protect it. Registered schools are asked to organize a fundraising campaign in their communities to raise awareness and funds. The funds will be used to implement plans to renovate the water system in Huacaria and build a new hygienic centre with bathrooms and showers for the children. In a few weeks we will be adding interactive forums so that your school will be able to interact with other schools around the world that are helping the native community of Huacaria.