Ryan’s Well
July 2003 – 50’00”
10:00:00 Uganda
RYAN:I can’t wait to meet them all.
HEADMASTER: This is your well. Can you read it?
RYAN: Ryan’s well. Funded by Ryan H. for the community
of Angola Primary School.
10:01:00 NARRATOR
Our story begins here in Kemptville Ontario. A small country town about an hour south of Ottawa,Canada’s capital.
10:01:12 It was just a regular day when 6 year old Ryan Hreljac joined his friends in the grade one class at Holy Cross school.
10:01:22 Nancy Prest was in her first year of teaching and wanted to inspire her young students about their place in the world ...and maybe plants the seeds of sharing and caring.
NANCY: It was during Lent and we were, all the grade one’s were saving pennies for the Lent admissions and I had a sheet of paper from the vice principal that said how much money you could save for what would give the children of Africa and Ryan was really interested in the well and he was interested in the water and that people didn’t have water. So he said, ‘how much was that well again?’. And on the sheet it said seventy dollars. And he said, ‘I’m going to save for that’.
RYAN: She explained that people were dying cause like they didn’t have clean water and that just gave me a bad feeling inside. Because if I just closed my eyes and opened them again, in that classroom I would see more than seventy-five or even a hundred things they didn’t have. So I went home and begged and begged and begged my mom and dad for seventy dollars
10:02:23 NARRATOR
Ryan is the middle son in the Hreljac family where it’s
pretty normal for one or the other to come up to their parents with an unusual request.
10:02:32 The Hreljacs are charitable people but they didn’t take Ryan's request seriously at all.
SUSAN: He went on and on about how people were dying because they didn’t have clean water and he was desperate. He wanted seventy dollars right there and then that he could take back to school. So we thought, ‘oh youknow isn’t that nice. What a nice thing to do but he was six.’ And so basically we just discounted him.
RYAN: They really ignored me at first but I just brought it up again and again and again and finally they said, they said, ‘okay, we’ll give you a chance but we won’t, but we won’t give you the meoney like here’s seventy dollars.
SUSAN: So we sat down with him and we explained to him that seventy dollars was an awful lot of money and that we wouldn’t be able to give it him however if he was serious about it and if he wanted to earn the money that we would help him by giving him some extra chores to do on top of the his regular chores.
RYAN: Some of the chores were washing windows, picking up branches from the ice storm, picking up pine combs from my nan’s crafts and the most one that I hated was vacuuming.
10:03:42 NARRATOR
Ryan’s brothers Jordon and Keegan pitched in and helped in the beginning
JORDAN: I helped out a little picking up some pine combs and brush from the ice storm at my grandma’s motel. He wanted to save up so that the Ugandans didn’t die and that’s fine with me cause everyone would be sad if someone died
Keegan: Jordan.
10:04:06 But this was Ryan’s quest, not theirs, and it wasn’t long before they lost interest.
10:04:14 Ryan kept going and going inching towards his target …. and the people he wanted to help.
10:04:25 After 4 months the cookie jar on the fridge was full of small change closing in on the magic number of 70 dollars.
SUSAN: When it looked as though he was going to reach seventy dollars Mark and I stat down and talked about what we might be able to do about this. We had no idea whre to send seventy dollars to build a well. And so I called a friend of mine, Brenda and asked her whether or not she had any ideas.
RYAN: And Brenda got us in touch with a organization called Watercan. So Mom,Brenda and I took the money to Watercan.
10:04:58 When Ryan arrived at Watercan, a Canadian non profit organization that helps facilitate water projects in Africa, he learned the hard truth: That fact sheet the teacher had was a bit off....
RYAN: And they said, you know Ryan its going to cost a lot more than 70 dollars to build a well. It’s going to cost 2000 dollars really, and after they said that I said I'd do more chores.
10:05:24 Now the goal was 2000 dollars….much more than Ryan could raise among family and friends
10:05:30 About the same time the local newspaper got wind of his story and people were touched by the young boy's spirit
10:05:34 Christina Lubbock, the Executive Director of Watercan wrote about Ryan's quest in their newsletter
CHRISTINA: We spread the word ourselves about Ryan. That here was a young 6 year old who was so moved by what his teacher had told him, his grade one teacher, people were moved that this young boy could be moved himself that he had such a spirit of giving within him.
BRENDA: And I thought it was such an amazing story that I got on the computer and wrote about him. Started off writing about him for myself and sent it out to everybody on my email list and the responses started coming back. This is amazing, wow, what a neat story. Then I had one response from a young cousin of mine who said I would like to match ryan’s donation of seventy dollars. And then that started sort of a flow of people saying, yeah I’d like to support this.
10:06:27 Even the neighbours were surprised by Ryan’s commitment to his well.
BEV AND BRUCE: I was kind of taken by surprise that somebody we have known for a few years was actually this into water for somebody else in another country that he didn’t even know kind of thing. That was what I was thinking, like wow. And at such a young age. Yeah.
NANCY: Well I was really proud of Ryan because even as adults it’s hard to stay focussed on one thing. And continue through a whole commitment like that. As a six-year old, it was really amazing. And he was really determined and we stopped collecting money and we had done our little penny parade. He continued on after that.
10:07:07 It wasn’t long before Ryan was invited to speak at schools.
RYAN: I would like to tell you a story of how my well began. It all began at school in grade one.
MARK I’ve watched him give a lot of talks but the younger kids really do listen to him and pay attention to him. One of the questions asked him was 'are you rich and he got all red in the face and he goes no I’m not rich and all the money that I’m getting is going to these wells in Africa. Another boy asked him, are you famous, do people notice you when you walk down the street. And he just laughed, he said well I live in the country and everybody, everybody knows me already on my street.
SUSAN: There was a journalist from the Eganville Leader who asked him, he said, you know I’m listening to you know all your saying about the work you have done and the letters you have sent and the schools you have talked to and it sounds like such a lot of work. He said, don’t you ever get tired or miss being a kid? He stood on my briefcase and peered over the top. You know, half the time I think about being a kid and the other half the time I think about Uganda but you know he said, you can be a kid and think about Uganda too.
10:08:17 Ryan could easily have been distracted by all the hoopla..he was all of seven years old now, but he never lost sight of his goal. For him it was always about the well.
RYAN: The first TV interviews, well, I was a little shy and stuff like everybody is when they first get on TV. But now today I’m not shy at all about TV interviews. I know I don’t like getting dressed up or anything but really I know it’s good because every time I do this it gets more money for the people in Uganda.
INTERVIEW ON TV: How did you decide to do that and why did you decide to do that?
RYAN: And when I’m grown up I might become a well person making wells.
SUSAN: He was in grade one and they were still learning how to write and we got a cheque in the mail, ‘Ryan’s Well, Kemptville, Ontario’. Don’t ask me how it found us. From a woman up in Renfrew county with a wonderful note. And Ryan didn’t understand what a cheque was, so we explained to him. You know, this cheque is for 25 dollars and when you sign this cheque, we will be able to give 25 dollars to Watercan which will go towards supporting your well. And he got all upset. And I said Ryan what’s wrong. He said I don’t know cursive writing. You know, I can’t sign my name.
10:09:36 After 10 months and a lot of hard work, Watercan called to say that Ryan had reached his goal. The next step was to decide where the well would be built, so a meeting was arranged with Gizaw Shibru a Watercan partner from Uganda.
GIZAW: They said this is Ryan who has raised money for a well. And there is this kid, six years or maybe seven years old sitting with his mom. I said this is a kid?? Yes. So I say immediately, so what do you want? Where do you want your well to be?
RYAN: and I said a school because a village that’s like only around 300 people or 200 or 100 but if I give it to a school then more people would go there so then lots of kids will have clean water
10:10:33 The school picked for Ryan's Well was in northern Uganda.. Angolo Primary school with a population of around a 1000 students.
10:10:44 In April 1999, Ryan's Well was inaugurated. The villagers knew a little boy from Canada had worked hard to bring them fresh water and brought a precious chicken as a thankyou gift.
10:11:00 Ryan would have liked nothing better than to get his chicken and see his well and his parents said they’d save up and take him when he was 12.
JIMMY: Dear Jimmy, my name is Ryan. I am 7 years old.
10:11:17 In the mean time, Ryan’s class had started writing letters to the children at Angolo Primary school . Ryan’s new pen pal, Jimmy Akana kept him in touch with news about the well, and the difference it had made to the village.
JIMMY: Do you still drink water from my well?
RYAN: Dear friend Ryan. Africa is hot. I am now 9. Yes I always drink from your well. Your friend, Jimmy Akana.
10:11:52 That was all the encouragement Ryan needed to set himself a new goal.
He now wanted to buy a drilling rig so that the local people could dig more wells. He needed another 25,000 dollars. This time the whole school got involved.
PRINCIPAL: What it has been to us has been a catalyst for a lot of great things. Ryan has been able to inspire the rest of the students as well to be a part of this project.
MARK: It just seems that on one level and then we go to the next level. And then you think it’s just going to stop. And then something else happens and then it goes to the next. So I think I’m almost, I’m not going to make any determination anymore when this is going to stop. Ryan will determine when it stops.
10:12:53 Ryan still made time for friends and neighbours.. when he went next door to play with little Angelica. Bruce and Bev listened closely when he told them how his fundraising was going. He had just turned 9 and they were moved by his continued commitment.
BEV PAYNTER: What I said to Bruce what I want for christmas is.to see Ryan go and see his well I want to be able to give him that. And he says, like, out of all the things in the world. You know I can get you anything, well not anything but. Yeah, that’s what I want I don’t want anything else, I want to be able to give Ryan the ability to go see his well. To help people out.
BRUCE: When Bev mentioned it I started laughing because I had been thinking the same sort of thing. You know, I was worried that him trying to put together the money for a drilling rig was an awful big pile of money for a little guy to collect. And I was worried that he was going to lose momentum as he worked towards it. And I thought well, if he could get over there and see the well and meet the people and understand the impact that he was having. That would probably give him enough momentum to really go after the drilling equipment and get the money.
10:13:57 Bruce and Bev Paynter decided to donate their airmiles to help buy tickets for Ryan and his parents to go to Uganda to see his well.
SUSAN: And they wrote him such a beautiful letter telling him how much they’ve enjoyed watching this grow and watching it develop and so they were going to help get us there. And I don’t think he really understood, (Mark) No, at the beginning. You know when they first came over and he read the letter it took a little bit for it to sink in.
RYAN: It made me feel so great like I was jumping up and down. I was jumping all over. I was like wa-hoo. I’m going to Africa.
10:14:37 Their friends didn’t want them to go empty handed. Brenda rallied her friends and arrived with a cheque for Ryan to take to the school principal to buy 71 desks.
BRENDA: And all these people on these sheets have donated at least one desk. So I have these pins…
NARRATOR:
Others donated maps, soccer balls and books.
MARK: I don’t want to read too much into the trip as to what’s going to happen. I want to just go and I want to enjoy it. I want to watch Ryan and I want to see how this is gonna affect him and what changes it’s gong to have on him for the rest of his life. Cause this is his trip. And I’m just along for the…I want to watch. This is all…this is about, this is about him. And…I’m excited. Don’t get me wrong. I've never been to Europe or definitely not Africa and I’m excited about going but…just I think, jut to watch Ryan, I really…I want to see the people who he’s helped.
SUSAN: Good morning sweetheart. You feel like doing some work today?
RYAN: Okay.
SUSAN: We’re probably going to have to say a few words after that, after the ceremony. So I thought maybe we could spend a few minutes today writing a speech.
RYAN: Okay.
SUSAN: Okay. What was it you said?
RYAN: I’m very happy to be here
SUSAN: Just one very?
RYAN: Yes.
SUSAN: I’m…very…happy…to be here.
RYAN: It all began at school in grade one. We were talking about the poor.
SUSAN: Do you want to say the poor or people in other countries?
RYAN: People in other countries
SUSAN: I am concerned about Ryan. After we make this trip I think I’m concerned that…that it will have a real, an even greater effect on him. Hopefully it won’t consume him because he is so sensitive and because we are going to a place where they don’t have the kinds of things that we have here.
SUSAN: What are you going to say if they give you a chicken? If they still have your chicken? What will you say?
RYAN: Does it lay eggs?
JORDAN: Where are we going to keep it?
RYAN: Can’t we bring it on the airplane?
SUSAN: Bring the chicken on the airplane?! Maybe we’ll ask Christina what the protocol is.
RYAN: Make a little hole then stuff it in there like.
SUSAN: Yeah we’ll bring like a dog cage.
JORDAN: And then just put in the baggage.
SUSAN: Put it in the baggage?
JORDAN: Yeah, people have done that.
SUSAN: What, chickens?
JORDAN: No animals. Just of any sorts.
RYAN: These are candies for the children at Angola school. Because they don’t often get something good to eat. All they eat is like vegetables and meat. They haven’t even had one piece of candy in their life.
10:17:35 Ryan was told he would have to fit in all the gifts in this suitcase or leave them behind. Ryan was not going to let that happen!
Part 2
NARRATOR:
10:18:56 Cradled by mountains, Uganda is often called the pearl of Africa. It’s home to the source of the largest river in the world- the Nile.
10:19:11 It is a country of contradictions. One third of Uganda is covered in water and yet in the northern regions only three out of ten people have have access to clean drinking water.
10:19:25 Years of political upheaval have wreaked havoc in this beautiful country. Poor sanitation, lack of infrastructure and limited opportunity for education all combine to make daily life a struggle for many rural Ugandans.
10:19:43 As Ryan was soon to find out, this is worlds apart from life in rural Canada.
10:19:52 Typically, the welcome is as warm as the weather. Gizsaw who met Ryan in Ottawa two years before, is thrilled to see him here at last.
SUSAN: Thank you so much. Accomodating. The trip was fine.
GIZSAW: Good, good. How are you doing?
RYAN: I’m doing good.
GIZSAW: Good. Good. You must be tired?
RYAN: No, not at all.
SUSAN: Not at all.
RYAN: It feels great. When I take my first step onto the grass it will be even greater.
IMMIGRATION OFFICER: Hello.
SUSAN: Hi. How are you?
IMMIGRATION OFFICER: Fine. How long are you going to stay?
SUSAN: We will be here approximately 11 days.
IMMIGRATION OFFICER: 11 days. I will put two weeks.
RYAN: Gizsaw. Have you ever tried eating grasshoppers or white ants or termites?
GIZSAW: Termites, here?
SUSAN: Yes, we we heard that there is something called Eeshwah.
GIZSAW: Yes.
SUSAN: Is that a termite?
GIZSAW: Yes it is a termite. Actually, it is a delicacy here.
SUSAN: Oh.
GIZSAW: Oh yes.
RYAN:Lots of birds in Uganda hey mom.
SUSAN: So far.
RYAN: Yes, so far.
SUSAN: They don’t look the same like the birds at home.
RYAN: Yeah.
10:21:53 The termite taste test would come later, first there’d be a little rest at this hotel in Kampala and the inevitable briefing session that any visiting diginitary, no matter how young, has to sit through.
GIZSAW: No problem with the security with the road. You will be, you will be starting at the marches by the falls. Yes, Ryan.
RYAN: Would soccer balls be a good idea for the classrooms at the school.
GIZSAW: Yes, they usually play soccer and handball for the girls usually. But I see boys and girls play, play, play football too but soccer would be excellent.
10:22:33 Ryan is excited as they set out to travel north to a camp closer to the site of his well and to a meeting with his penpal, Jimmy.
GIZSAW: This is Tom, he is the program director. Now we will be in his hands.
10:23:33 The ground work for the well building projects in Uganda is handled by Watercan’s partners - an organization called CPAR - Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief.....
10:23:47 CPAR's Program Director,Tom Omach is excited to meet the young boy from Canada who has brought fresh water to his own community.
TOM: It was amazing. In the first place, water that, that the child, the boy was raising the money was very young. Which is to many people here is not possible. Because a child, a boy of 6 years or 9 years somebody who cannot raise that money. It was amazing. It was great. Everybody was...like magic you know. So, it’s a great thing, it’s a great work.
ROSE: Yeah, it just a 7-year old boy who was the one who has funded the money for the water. They are so excited and I know they are very eager to see him and I don’t know tomorrow what will happen when they see him physical.
10:24:48 The drive to Ryan’s well takes over an hour and as they bump along the country roads and through small villages, people stop to look and wave. Everyone has heard about this boy from Canada.
TOM: Should I expect more than what you think you are going to see. The arrangements are great. The school has arranged, the parents have participated and Ryan’s relationship is now a big, big relationship between Ryan and the entire community of Apach now. Just in appreciation of what Ryan has done.
HEADMASTER: That one is your friend. That one standing over there.
RYAN: Jimmy?
RYAN: Really, I was looking forward to the most was really meeting my pen pal Jimmy Akana. I’d been writing to Jimmy and I really wanted to see what he looked like.
10:27:18 Shortly after arriving in Uganda, Ryan learned that Jimmy was an orphan being raised by his aunt. Jimmy hadn’t mentioned this in his letters.
10:27:34 For Jimmy, the relationship with Ryan has changed his life. He now has higher status in the village. After all, he is the pen pal of the boy who has brought water to their community.
HEADMASTER: This is your well. Can you read it?
RYAN: Ryan’s well. Funded by Ryan H. for the community of Angola Primary School.
10:28:21 The crowd applauds and approves of this new inauguration of the well. It’s now official because Ryan is here. And to them the two boys symbolize the bond between two communities, two schools, two nations.
10:28:39 People from surrounding villages turn out to thank Ryan and to show him how much the well means to them. A song has been written to commemorate his visit.
SONG
Our friends from Canada
You are welcome
Our friends you’re welcome
To our school in Angolo
Thank you Ryan
For the water
You have brought that to our school.
Than you, thank you, Ryan
Thank you, thank you for this task.
10:29:48 The village elder, Simba the Lion Woman, pays her respects and gives her blessings.
10:30:29 The festivities are worthy of a very important visitor and Ryan has trouble remembering that he is the important person they have come to sing and dance for.
10:30:40 Jimmy has the honour of officially introducing his friend and welcoming him to the community
JIMMY: All friends from Canada and all places. I am very happy for you to visit our home school and country. I will never forget this day. One day I would like to visit and study in Canada too. Send our greetings to all the children and parents of Canada.
RYAN: Hi everyone, thanks Headmaster Foraski, thanks and thanks to the students of Angolo Primary School for asking me to come all the way to Uganda. I am very, very happy to be here. I am nine years old and I go to Holy Cross School in Kemptville, Ontario. I dream of the day when everyone in Africa has clean water. That’s a big dream. I have learned that you can do anything if you want to but only if you really try hard and you really want to. If we all work together I think we can make the whole world a great place for everyone. Thanks for listening to me. Here’s a cheque for 71 desks at your school.
GIZSAW: Why don’t you hold it?
RYAN: Is it safe or is it wild?
GIZSAW: What are you going to do with the goat?
RYAN: What they told me to do, eat it (laughs). What they told me to do (laughs).
10:34:13 The people in the villages surrounding Angolo have reason to rejoice. Now they have clean water at Ryan's well, but in many other areas even in the same district, women still have to walk several kilometers just to get to a watering hole like this one.
10:34:34 Tom Omach remembers a time not long ago when his family had to drink water from swamps.
TOM: My mother was walking something like 10 km to get 10 litres of water. We are about 10 in the house, 10 children, so we are using about 20 litres of water. That is for domestic use only. The rest of us were, we just walked in the swamps somewhere and get it. But it was very hard to save water.
SOPHIA: Mostly women are suffering. They are getting a lot of difficulty, you know when they come in from Rigging, holding a baby on their back. Going far away, almost 30 km away for water. So now we need more assistance. There is no any clean water.
10:35:31 The scene at the watering hole was one that Ryan would never forget.
RYAN: The thing that scared me most was when I saw where the people were getting their water. I couldn’t believe it. They were drinking from the lake. Their buckets were going in and coming out. There were like almost 10 or 5 people there at every second they were dipping their buckets in and carrying them back. All I have to do is nine steps and there I have it. They have to take even like a hundred steps even to get to the watering hole for dirty water. It’s terrible. And they have to take like seven thousand steps maybe even more to get to another well if they don’t have any near them.
10:36:34 This is Ryan’s drilling rig in operation. He reached that goal too and takes comfort in the fact that the new well will soon provide safe water for people in these villages, just like Angolo.
10:36:47 Eddie Odur CPAR’s water program officer, introduces Ryan to the community members who have been taught to use the rig.
RYAN: Actually, I do have a question. How long did it take to drill a well before you got the drill?
EDDIE: Well, before we got the drilling rig, it would take us one week to drill a successful well. But now it can take one or two days only.
10:37:23 Impressed with the efficiency of this new rig, Ryan's mind races ahead, he’s heard about something even bigger and better.
RYAN: There’s a drilling truck I could do and it will drill well, even deeper than a drilling rig. Even then an automatic drill, it would even drill deeper than that.
10:37:44 Ryan’s well has meant a lot more than clean water for the children at Angolo Primary School…
TOM: First of all, the school did not have any water point point so during lunch time the pupils were walking something like 5 kilometers to get to safe clean water. So by the time they came back to class everyday they would lose one or two hours. The safe water has improved the lives of the children, it has also increased the performance of the school. Of course now they can concentrate more. Now they have more time to stay in class. Also it has, somehow it has created some morale within the pupils because they know if this young child could produce this then of course they can do something. So it’s a lesson to them.
RYAN: It was just so different because I heard that they were dying and stuff and when I got there. Just gave me an inspired feeling because I saw how happy they were, inspired they were and that they had clean water.
TEACHER: Yes good morning class.
STUDENTS: Good morning sir.
TEACHER: This morning we have our friend Ryan who is here right now. Can we clap for him? That’s good.
RYAN: It was really crowded and a little bit small. And then there was only one chalkboard and three desks. And the three desks were shared by three students. My guess is they all shared turns at the desks. And we learned about the human skeleton that day.
TEACHER: You know what. Our bodies are made up of flesh and what…and bone. So outside here we have the flesh and inside there we have the bone. Is that clear?
STUDENTS: Yes.
TEACHER: Yes. So this bone is called what?
STUDENTS: Metacarpal.
TEACHER: And this one here is what we call the thumb.
STUDENTS: Thumb.
TEACHER: Thumb.
STUDENTS: Thumb.
TEACHER: Thumb.
STUDENTS: Thumb.
TEACHER: Yes.
10:40:00 Ryan is given an opportunity to present Brenda’s map of Canada to the class.
TEACHER: So Ryan has brought to you a map of right now. So maybe you can see how…
10:40:22 Ryan's Well has inadvertently put more demand on the school resources. Since the well went in the school enrolment has jumped to 1700 students from 1000. As soon as Ryan realizes that there aren't enough classrooms for all the new students he starts planning for the future. The first step - a meeting with the principal, George Opiny.
GEORGE: Because we cannot put these desks outside the classes because there are not enough classrooms. I prefer we have classrooms first and then we buy desks later and put them inside.
RYAN: How much does it cost for each classroom.
GEORGE: Classrooms cost, this one, this one here cost 32 million.
RYAN: Can we buy materials for it like mud or walls or hay to build it on top. And then build it like that manually, just to buy the equipment. Would that cost less.
GEORGE: I think that will be better even cheaper. Then the community will be involved in making bricks.
RYAN: How about I save some money and then I come back and hand it to you for a classroom.
GEORGE: This boy is really a wonderful boy for that. A boy who has done a lot of miracles which the government could not even do. So, actually I don’t even know how. What insight he has. He was being taught and then he got the concept of the lesson. He felt it in his own heart and and then he decided to raise the money.
10:41:58 It wasnt long before 9 year old Ryan's attention turns to games. Only here in Uganda he learns that soccer is called football.
RYAN: I found that me and Jimmy have a lot of similarities. Like we’re both the goalie in soccer. We both have really strong kicks. Jimmy is very nice. Nicer than some boys at my school, lots of boys at my school. Even nicer than some girls.
We had just a great time hanging out. Just being kids.
RYAN: I felt sad when I was leaving Africa because I wanted to stay and spend more time with Jimmy.
GEORGE: Now we have come to the time when we have to part with our very best friend who has done a lot for us in this school and that is in the person of Ryan. You can imagine a young boy like this. He can get the incentives what teachers teach him in class, he can go and apply it to convince big people to help him, to come and assist the poor people of I want to say that you in Angolo Primary School could do the same also. I am saying that the people of Angolo and the community at large are so grateful to you that from now on they are taking you as their son and brother for what you have done for them. They will never forget you. And we have now made it that every year on the 27th of July, Angolo Primary School will be marking Ryan’s Day.
Every year from next year on the 27th of July we shall have Ryan’s Day in this school.
Part 3
RYAN: Guess what I did on my holidays this summer. I went all the way to Africa to see my well and my new drilling equipment. I drank from my well too. It tasted so good.
10:45:07 Within one week of his return from Uganda, Ryan is back on the speaking circuit as a keynote speaker at a conference for teenage volunteers.
RYAN: In Uganda, they all say water is life. Now I really understand what they mean. I try to tell people here in Canada to help others. I dream of the day when everyone in Africa has clean water. That’s a big dream but I learned that you can do anything but only if you really try hard and you really want to.
10:45:42 Ryan Hreljac hasn't just built and well and bought a drilling rig for a community a world away, he has made a difference to people here at home.
DENISE CAMPBELL There are lots of connections I think between what Ryan is doing in Uganda andwhat young people are doing here. And to see a little boy who started something when he was six and two years later is still dedicated to it and is happy and more fulfilled because he has seen the results of it. I think helps them understand that you know at 14, 15, 17 years old, they can do it.
RYAN: I know that I’m lucky because I was born in country that had lots of clean water. This world belongs to all of us.(cutaway of parents) I pray at night for clean water not just for my family but for every single family on earth.
SUSAN: There’s something special about Ryan that I can’t quite put my finger on it. He’s doing these things that many adults strive to do when they become adults.
RYAN: My message is that if we all help really hard and we all pitch in just a little bit we can get clean water for all of Africa.
10:47:08 Children across Canada understand his message and have been inspired by his example and have even started campaigns of their own.
JACK: It was the day before Valentine’s Day and I was making this card and I had a couple of dollars and I thought I would help Ryan out with his well.
WOMAN: The young girl who is 11 has just called in to say she is close to a thousand dollars. She lives in Carp.
CHILD 1: I’m building a well. Just like Ryan.
CHILD 2: Mom, can I save up for a well like Ryan.
CHILD 3: My school is collecting to help our friends in Africa.
CJOH NEWS REPORT: An 8-year old Ottawa area boy has done what few adults can do. He has inspired others to adopt his cause of clean water for the world’s children. Today, Ryan Hreljac met one of his fans. A five year old boy who has raised more than two hundred fifty dollars all by himself.
JANET CLARKE: We were upstairs getting ready for bed and all of a sudden my son Taylor, reached up in his closet and grabbed his piggy bank and went down on the floor and just dumped it all over the floor and started sorting his money. And I had no idea what he was doing and I said, what are you doing with this money all over the floor? And he said, I want to get a well myself just like Ryan. And I couldn’t believe it.
10:48:21 After months of lemonade stands and simple chores Taylor finally reaches his goal and he wants his hero Ryan to be the first one to know.
RYAN: I feel great because he’s doing a great job earning his well. It was a hard job earning my goal. And he earned his goal too. Eh, Taylor buddy. He always comes back he’s a little chomper of a guy. But he’s not little. That’s the point. Little people can do big jobs. You don’t need to be a grown up before anybody listens to you. You can be a kid and you can be more responsible than an adult. Only if you try…and I know what that means now.
July 2003 – 50’00”
10:00:00 Uganda
RYAN:I can’t wait to meet them all.
HEADMASTER: This is your well. Can you read it?
RYAN: Ryan’s well. Funded by Ryan H. for the community
of Angola Primary School.
10:01:00 NARRATOR
Our story begins here in Kemptville Ontario. A small country town about an hour south of Ottawa,Canada’s capital.
10:01:12 It was just a regular day when 6 year old Ryan Hreljac joined his friends in the grade one class at Holy Cross school.
10:01:22 Nancy Prest was in her first year of teaching and wanted to inspire her young students about their place in the world ...and maybe plants the seeds of sharing and caring.
NANCY: It was during Lent and we were, all the grade one’s were saving pennies for the Lent admissions and I had a sheet of paper from the vice principal that said how much money you could save for what would give the children of Africa and Ryan was really interested in the well and he was interested in the water and that people didn’t have water. So he said, ‘how much was that well again?’. And on the sheet it said seventy dollars. And he said, ‘I’m going to save for that’.
RYAN: She explained that people were dying cause like they didn’t have clean water and that just gave me a bad feeling inside. Because if I just closed my eyes and opened them again, in that classroom I would see more than seventy-five or even a hundred things they didn’t have. So I went home and begged and begged and begged my mom and dad for seventy dollars
10:02:23 NARRATOR
Ryan is the middle son in the Hreljac family where it’s
pretty normal for one or the other to come up to their parents with an unusual request.
10:02:32 The Hreljacs are charitable people but they didn’t take Ryan's request seriously at all.
SUSAN: He went on and on about how people were dying because they didn’t have clean water and he was desperate. He wanted seventy dollars right there and then that he could take back to school. So we thought, ‘oh youknow isn’t that nice. What a nice thing to do but he was six.’ And so basically we just discounted him.
RYAN: They really ignored me at first but I just brought it up again and again and again and finally they said, they said, ‘okay, we’ll give you a chance but we won’t, but we won’t give you the meoney like here’s seventy dollars.
SUSAN: So we sat down with him and we explained to him that seventy dollars was an awful lot of money and that we wouldn’t be able to give it him however if he was serious about it and if he wanted to earn the money that we would help him by giving him some extra chores to do on top of the his regular chores.
RYAN: Some of the chores were washing windows, picking up branches from the ice storm, picking up pine combs from my nan’s crafts and the most one that I hated was vacuuming.
10:03:42 NARRATOR
Ryan’s brothers Jordon and Keegan pitched in and helped in the beginning
JORDAN: I helped out a little picking up some pine combs and brush from the ice storm at my grandma’s motel. He wanted to save up so that the Ugandans didn’t die and that’s fine with me cause everyone would be sad if someone died
Keegan: Jordan.
10:04:06 But this was Ryan’s quest, not theirs, and it wasn’t long before they lost interest.
10:04:14 Ryan kept going and going inching towards his target …. and the people he wanted to help.
10:04:25 After 4 months the cookie jar on the fridge was full of small change closing in on the magic number of 70 dollars.
SUSAN: When it looked as though he was going to reach seventy dollars Mark and I stat down and talked about what we might be able to do about this. We had no idea whre to send seventy dollars to build a well. And so I called a friend of mine, Brenda and asked her whether or not she had any ideas.
RYAN: And Brenda got us in touch with a organization called Watercan. So Mom,Brenda and I took the money to Watercan.
10:04:58 When Ryan arrived at Watercan, a Canadian non profit organization that helps facilitate water projects in Africa, he learned the hard truth: That fact sheet the teacher had was a bit off....
RYAN: And they said, you know Ryan its going to cost a lot more than 70 dollars to build a well. It’s going to cost 2000 dollars really, and after they said that I said I'd do more chores.
10:05:24 Now the goal was 2000 dollars….much more than Ryan could raise among family and friends
10:05:30 About the same time the local newspaper got wind of his story and people were touched by the young boy's spirit
10:05:34 Christina Lubbock, the Executive Director of Watercan wrote about Ryan's quest in their newsletter
CHRISTINA: We spread the word ourselves about Ryan. That here was a young 6 year old who was so moved by what his teacher had told him, his grade one teacher, people were moved that this young boy could be moved himself that he had such a spirit of giving within him.
BRENDA: And I thought it was such an amazing story that I got on the computer and wrote about him. Started off writing about him for myself and sent it out to everybody on my email list and the responses started coming back. This is amazing, wow, what a neat story. Then I had one response from a young cousin of mine who said I would like to match ryan’s donation of seventy dollars. And then that started sort of a flow of people saying, yeah I’d like to support this.
10:06:27 Even the neighbours were surprised by Ryan’s commitment to his well.
BEV AND BRUCE: I was kind of taken by surprise that somebody we have known for a few years was actually this into water for somebody else in another country that he didn’t even know kind of thing. That was what I was thinking, like wow. And at such a young age. Yeah.
NANCY: Well I was really proud of Ryan because even as adults it’s hard to stay focussed on one thing. And continue through a whole commitment like that. As a six-year old, it was really amazing. And he was really determined and we stopped collecting money and we had done our little penny parade. He continued on after that.
10:07:07 It wasn’t long before Ryan was invited to speak at schools.
RYAN: I would like to tell you a story of how my well began. It all began at school in grade one.
MARK I’ve watched him give a lot of talks but the younger kids really do listen to him and pay attention to him. One of the questions asked him was 'are you rich and he got all red in the face and he goes no I’m not rich and all the money that I’m getting is going to these wells in Africa. Another boy asked him, are you famous, do people notice you when you walk down the street. And he just laughed, he said well I live in the country and everybody, everybody knows me already on my street.
SUSAN: There was a journalist from the Eganville Leader who asked him, he said, you know I’m listening to you know all your saying about the work you have done and the letters you have sent and the schools you have talked to and it sounds like such a lot of work. He said, don’t you ever get tired or miss being a kid? He stood on my briefcase and peered over the top. You know, half the time I think about being a kid and the other half the time I think about Uganda but you know he said, you can be a kid and think about Uganda too.
10:08:17 Ryan could easily have been distracted by all the hoopla..he was all of seven years old now, but he never lost sight of his goal. For him it was always about the well.
RYAN: The first TV interviews, well, I was a little shy and stuff like everybody is when they first get on TV. But now today I’m not shy at all about TV interviews. I know I don’t like getting dressed up or anything but really I know it’s good because every time I do this it gets more money for the people in Uganda.
INTERVIEW ON TV: How did you decide to do that and why did you decide to do that?
RYAN: And when I’m grown up I might become a well person making wells.
SUSAN: He was in grade one and they were still learning how to write and we got a cheque in the mail, ‘Ryan’s Well, Kemptville, Ontario’. Don’t ask me how it found us. From a woman up in Renfrew county with a wonderful note. And Ryan didn’t understand what a cheque was, so we explained to him. You know, this cheque is for 25 dollars and when you sign this cheque, we will be able to give 25 dollars to Watercan which will go towards supporting your well. And he got all upset. And I said Ryan what’s wrong. He said I don’t know cursive writing. You know, I can’t sign my name.
10:09:36 After 10 months and a lot of hard work, Watercan called to say that Ryan had reached his goal. The next step was to decide where the well would be built, so a meeting was arranged with Gizaw Shibru a Watercan partner from Uganda.
GIZAW: They said this is Ryan who has raised money for a well. And there is this kid, six years or maybe seven years old sitting with his mom. I said this is a kid?? Yes. So I say immediately, so what do you want? Where do you want your well to be?
RYAN: and I said a school because a village that’s like only around 300 people or 200 or 100 but if I give it to a school then more people would go there so then lots of kids will have clean water
10:10:33 The school picked for Ryan's Well was in northern Uganda.. Angolo Primary school with a population of around a 1000 students.
10:10:44 In April 1999, Ryan's Well was inaugurated. The villagers knew a little boy from Canada had worked hard to bring them fresh water and brought a precious chicken as a thankyou gift.
10:11:00 Ryan would have liked nothing better than to get his chicken and see his well and his parents said they’d save up and take him when he was 12.
JIMMY: Dear Jimmy, my name is Ryan. I am 7 years old.
10:11:17 In the mean time, Ryan’s class had started writing letters to the children at Angolo Primary school . Ryan’s new pen pal, Jimmy Akana kept him in touch with news about the well, and the difference it had made to the village.
JIMMY: Do you still drink water from my well?
RYAN: Dear friend Ryan. Africa is hot. I am now 9. Yes I always drink from your well. Your friend, Jimmy Akana.
10:11:52 That was all the encouragement Ryan needed to set himself a new goal.
He now wanted to buy a drilling rig so that the local people could dig more wells. He needed another 25,000 dollars. This time the whole school got involved.
PRINCIPAL: What it has been to us has been a catalyst for a lot of great things. Ryan has been able to inspire the rest of the students as well to be a part of this project.
MARK: It just seems that on one level and then we go to the next level. And then you think it’s just going to stop. And then something else happens and then it goes to the next. So I think I’m almost, I’m not going to make any determination anymore when this is going to stop. Ryan will determine when it stops.
10:12:53 Ryan still made time for friends and neighbours.. when he went next door to play with little Angelica. Bruce and Bev listened closely when he told them how his fundraising was going. He had just turned 9 and they were moved by his continued commitment.
BEV PAYNTER: What I said to Bruce what I want for christmas is.to see Ryan go and see his well I want to be able to give him that. And he says, like, out of all the things in the world. You know I can get you anything, well not anything but. Yeah, that’s what I want I don’t want anything else, I want to be able to give Ryan the ability to go see his well. To help people out.
BRUCE: When Bev mentioned it I started laughing because I had been thinking the same sort of thing. You know, I was worried that him trying to put together the money for a drilling rig was an awful big pile of money for a little guy to collect. And I was worried that he was going to lose momentum as he worked towards it. And I thought well, if he could get over there and see the well and meet the people and understand the impact that he was having. That would probably give him enough momentum to really go after the drilling equipment and get the money.
10:13:57 Bruce and Bev Paynter decided to donate their airmiles to help buy tickets for Ryan and his parents to go to Uganda to see his well.
SUSAN: And they wrote him such a beautiful letter telling him how much they’ve enjoyed watching this grow and watching it develop and so they were going to help get us there. And I don’t think he really understood, (Mark) No, at the beginning. You know when they first came over and he read the letter it took a little bit for it to sink in.
RYAN: It made me feel so great like I was jumping up and down. I was jumping all over. I was like wa-hoo. I’m going to Africa.
10:14:37 Their friends didn’t want them to go empty handed. Brenda rallied her friends and arrived with a cheque for Ryan to take to the school principal to buy 71 desks.
BRENDA: And all these people on these sheets have donated at least one desk. So I have these pins…
NARRATOR:
Others donated maps, soccer balls and books.
MARK: I don’t want to read too much into the trip as to what’s going to happen. I want to just go and I want to enjoy it. I want to watch Ryan and I want to see how this is gonna affect him and what changes it’s gong to have on him for the rest of his life. Cause this is his trip. And I’m just along for the…I want to watch. This is all…this is about, this is about him. And…I’m excited. Don’t get me wrong. I've never been to Europe or definitely not Africa and I’m excited about going but…just I think, jut to watch Ryan, I really…I want to see the people who he’s helped.
SUSAN: Good morning sweetheart. You feel like doing some work today?
RYAN: Okay.
SUSAN: We’re probably going to have to say a few words after that, after the ceremony. So I thought maybe we could spend a few minutes today writing a speech.
RYAN: Okay.
SUSAN: Okay. What was it you said?
RYAN: I’m very happy to be here
SUSAN: Just one very?
RYAN: Yes.
SUSAN: I’m…very…happy…to be here.
RYAN: It all began at school in grade one. We were talking about the poor.
SUSAN: Do you want to say the poor or people in other countries?
RYAN: People in other countries
SUSAN: I am concerned about Ryan. After we make this trip I think I’m concerned that…that it will have a real, an even greater effect on him. Hopefully it won’t consume him because he is so sensitive and because we are going to a place where they don’t have the kinds of things that we have here.
SUSAN: What are you going to say if they give you a chicken? If they still have your chicken? What will you say?
RYAN: Does it lay eggs?
JORDAN: Where are we going to keep it?
RYAN: Can’t we bring it on the airplane?
SUSAN: Bring the chicken on the airplane?! Maybe we’ll ask Christina what the protocol is.
RYAN: Make a little hole then stuff it in there like.
SUSAN: Yeah we’ll bring like a dog cage.
JORDAN: And then just put in the baggage.
SUSAN: Put it in the baggage?
JORDAN: Yeah, people have done that.
SUSAN: What, chickens?
JORDAN: No animals. Just of any sorts.
RYAN: These are candies for the children at Angola school. Because they don’t often get something good to eat. All they eat is like vegetables and meat. They haven’t even had one piece of candy in their life.
10:17:35 Ryan was told he would have to fit in all the gifts in this suitcase or leave them behind. Ryan was not going to let that happen!
Part 2
NARRATOR:
10:18:56 Cradled by mountains, Uganda is often called the pearl of Africa. It’s home to the source of the largest river in the world- the Nile.
10:19:11 It is a country of contradictions. One third of Uganda is covered in water and yet in the northern regions only three out of ten people have have access to clean drinking water.
10:19:25 Years of political upheaval have wreaked havoc in this beautiful country. Poor sanitation, lack of infrastructure and limited opportunity for education all combine to make daily life a struggle for many rural Ugandans.
10:19:43 As Ryan was soon to find out, this is worlds apart from life in rural Canada.
10:19:52 Typically, the welcome is as warm as the weather. Gizsaw who met Ryan in Ottawa two years before, is thrilled to see him here at last.
SUSAN: Thank you so much. Accomodating. The trip was fine.
GIZSAW: Good, good. How are you doing?
RYAN: I’m doing good.
GIZSAW: Good. Good. You must be tired?
RYAN: No, not at all.
SUSAN: Not at all.
RYAN: It feels great. When I take my first step onto the grass it will be even greater.
IMMIGRATION OFFICER: Hello.
SUSAN: Hi. How are you?
IMMIGRATION OFFICER: Fine. How long are you going to stay?
SUSAN: We will be here approximately 11 days.
IMMIGRATION OFFICER: 11 days. I will put two weeks.
RYAN: Gizsaw. Have you ever tried eating grasshoppers or white ants or termites?
GIZSAW: Termites, here?
SUSAN: Yes, we we heard that there is something called Eeshwah.
GIZSAW: Yes.
SUSAN: Is that a termite?
GIZSAW: Yes it is a termite. Actually, it is a delicacy here.
SUSAN: Oh.
GIZSAW: Oh yes.
RYAN:Lots of birds in Uganda hey mom.
SUSAN: So far.
RYAN: Yes, so far.
SUSAN: They don’t look the same like the birds at home.
RYAN: Yeah.
10:21:53 The termite taste test would come later, first there’d be a little rest at this hotel in Kampala and the inevitable briefing session that any visiting diginitary, no matter how young, has to sit through.
GIZSAW: No problem with the security with the road. You will be, you will be starting at the marches by the falls. Yes, Ryan.
RYAN: Would soccer balls be a good idea for the classrooms at the school.
GIZSAW: Yes, they usually play soccer and handball for the girls usually. But I see boys and girls play, play, play football too but soccer would be excellent.
10:22:33 Ryan is excited as they set out to travel north to a camp closer to the site of his well and to a meeting with his penpal, Jimmy.
GIZSAW: This is Tom, he is the program director. Now we will be in his hands.
10:23:33 The ground work for the well building projects in Uganda is handled by Watercan’s partners - an organization called CPAR - Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief.....
10:23:47 CPAR's Program Director,Tom Omach is excited to meet the young boy from Canada who has brought fresh water to his own community.
TOM: It was amazing. In the first place, water that, that the child, the boy was raising the money was very young. Which is to many people here is not possible. Because a child, a boy of 6 years or 9 years somebody who cannot raise that money. It was amazing. It was great. Everybody was...like magic you know. So, it’s a great thing, it’s a great work.
ROSE: Yeah, it just a 7-year old boy who was the one who has funded the money for the water. They are so excited and I know they are very eager to see him and I don’t know tomorrow what will happen when they see him physical.
10:24:48 The drive to Ryan’s well takes over an hour and as they bump along the country roads and through small villages, people stop to look and wave. Everyone has heard about this boy from Canada.
TOM: Should I expect more than what you think you are going to see. The arrangements are great. The school has arranged, the parents have participated and Ryan’s relationship is now a big, big relationship between Ryan and the entire community of Apach now. Just in appreciation of what Ryan has done.
HEADMASTER: That one is your friend. That one standing over there.
RYAN: Jimmy?
RYAN: Really, I was looking forward to the most was really meeting my pen pal Jimmy Akana. I’d been writing to Jimmy and I really wanted to see what he looked like.
10:27:18 Shortly after arriving in Uganda, Ryan learned that Jimmy was an orphan being raised by his aunt. Jimmy hadn’t mentioned this in his letters.
10:27:34 For Jimmy, the relationship with Ryan has changed his life. He now has higher status in the village. After all, he is the pen pal of the boy who has brought water to their community.
HEADMASTER: This is your well. Can you read it?
RYAN: Ryan’s well. Funded by Ryan H. for the community of Angola Primary School.
10:28:21 The crowd applauds and approves of this new inauguration of the well. It’s now official because Ryan is here. And to them the two boys symbolize the bond between two communities, two schools, two nations.
10:28:39 People from surrounding villages turn out to thank Ryan and to show him how much the well means to them. A song has been written to commemorate his visit.
SONG
Our friends from Canada
You are welcome
Our friends you’re welcome
To our school in Angolo
Thank you Ryan
For the water
You have brought that to our school.
Than you, thank you, Ryan
Thank you, thank you for this task.
10:29:48 The village elder, Simba the Lion Woman, pays her respects and gives her blessings.
10:30:29 The festivities are worthy of a very important visitor and Ryan has trouble remembering that he is the important person they have come to sing and dance for.
10:30:40 Jimmy has the honour of officially introducing his friend and welcoming him to the community
JIMMY: All friends from Canada and all places. I am very happy for you to visit our home school and country. I will never forget this day. One day I would like to visit and study in Canada too. Send our greetings to all the children and parents of Canada.
RYAN: Hi everyone, thanks Headmaster Foraski, thanks and thanks to the students of Angolo Primary School for asking me to come all the way to Uganda. I am very, very happy to be here. I am nine years old and I go to Holy Cross School in Kemptville, Ontario. I dream of the day when everyone in Africa has clean water. That’s a big dream. I have learned that you can do anything if you want to but only if you really try hard and you really want to. If we all work together I think we can make the whole world a great place for everyone. Thanks for listening to me. Here’s a cheque for 71 desks at your school.
GIZSAW: Why don’t you hold it?
RYAN: Is it safe or is it wild?
GIZSAW: What are you going to do with the goat?
RYAN: What they told me to do, eat it (laughs). What they told me to do (laughs).
10:34:13 The people in the villages surrounding Angolo have reason to rejoice. Now they have clean water at Ryan's well, but in many other areas even in the same district, women still have to walk several kilometers just to get to a watering hole like this one.
10:34:34 Tom Omach remembers a time not long ago when his family had to drink water from swamps.
TOM: My mother was walking something like 10 km to get 10 litres of water. We are about 10 in the house, 10 children, so we are using about 20 litres of water. That is for domestic use only. The rest of us were, we just walked in the swamps somewhere and get it. But it was very hard to save water.
SOPHIA: Mostly women are suffering. They are getting a lot of difficulty, you know when they come in from Rigging, holding a baby on their back. Going far away, almost 30 km away for water. So now we need more assistance. There is no any clean water.
10:35:31 The scene at the watering hole was one that Ryan would never forget.
RYAN: The thing that scared me most was when I saw where the people were getting their water. I couldn’t believe it. They were drinking from the lake. Their buckets were going in and coming out. There were like almost 10 or 5 people there at every second they were dipping their buckets in and carrying them back. All I have to do is nine steps and there I have it. They have to take even like a hundred steps even to get to the watering hole for dirty water. It’s terrible. And they have to take like seven thousand steps maybe even more to get to another well if they don’t have any near them.
10:36:34 This is Ryan’s drilling rig in operation. He reached that goal too and takes comfort in the fact that the new well will soon provide safe water for people in these villages, just like Angolo.
10:36:47 Eddie Odur CPAR’s water program officer, introduces Ryan to the community members who have been taught to use the rig.
RYAN: Actually, I do have a question. How long did it take to drill a well before you got the drill?
EDDIE: Well, before we got the drilling rig, it would take us one week to drill a successful well. But now it can take one or two days only.
10:37:23 Impressed with the efficiency of this new rig, Ryan's mind races ahead, he’s heard about something even bigger and better.
RYAN: There’s a drilling truck I could do and it will drill well, even deeper than a drilling rig. Even then an automatic drill, it would even drill deeper than that.
10:37:44 Ryan’s well has meant a lot more than clean water for the children at Angolo Primary School…
TOM: First of all, the school did not have any water point point so during lunch time the pupils were walking something like 5 kilometers to get to safe clean water. So by the time they came back to class everyday they would lose one or two hours. The safe water has improved the lives of the children, it has also increased the performance of the school. Of course now they can concentrate more. Now they have more time to stay in class. Also it has, somehow it has created some morale within the pupils because they know if this young child could produce this then of course they can do something. So it’s a lesson to them.
RYAN: It was just so different because I heard that they were dying and stuff and when I got there. Just gave me an inspired feeling because I saw how happy they were, inspired they were and that they had clean water.
TEACHER: Yes good morning class.
STUDENTS: Good morning sir.
TEACHER: This morning we have our friend Ryan who is here right now. Can we clap for him? That’s good.
RYAN: It was really crowded and a little bit small. And then there was only one chalkboard and three desks. And the three desks were shared by three students. My guess is they all shared turns at the desks. And we learned about the human skeleton that day.
TEACHER: You know what. Our bodies are made up of flesh and what…and bone. So outside here we have the flesh and inside there we have the bone. Is that clear?
STUDENTS: Yes.
TEACHER: Yes. So this bone is called what?
STUDENTS: Metacarpal.
TEACHER: And this one here is what we call the thumb.
STUDENTS: Thumb.
TEACHER: Thumb.
STUDENTS: Thumb.
TEACHER: Thumb.
STUDENTS: Thumb.
TEACHER: Yes.
10:40:00 Ryan is given an opportunity to present Brenda’s map of Canada to the class.
TEACHER: So Ryan has brought to you a map of right now. So maybe you can see how…
10:40:22 Ryan's Well has inadvertently put more demand on the school resources. Since the well went in the school enrolment has jumped to 1700 students from 1000. As soon as Ryan realizes that there aren't enough classrooms for all the new students he starts planning for the future. The first step - a meeting with the principal, George Opiny.
GEORGE: Because we cannot put these desks outside the classes because there are not enough classrooms. I prefer we have classrooms first and then we buy desks later and put them inside.
RYAN: How much does it cost for each classroom.
GEORGE: Classrooms cost, this one, this one here cost 32 million.
RYAN: Can we buy materials for it like mud or walls or hay to build it on top. And then build it like that manually, just to buy the equipment. Would that cost less.
GEORGE: I think that will be better even cheaper. Then the community will be involved in making bricks.
RYAN: How about I save some money and then I come back and hand it to you for a classroom.
GEORGE: This boy is really a wonderful boy for that. A boy who has done a lot of miracles which the government could not even do. So, actually I don’t even know how. What insight he has. He was being taught and then he got the concept of the lesson. He felt it in his own heart and and then he decided to raise the money.
10:41:58 It wasnt long before 9 year old Ryan's attention turns to games. Only here in Uganda he learns that soccer is called football.
RYAN: I found that me and Jimmy have a lot of similarities. Like we’re both the goalie in soccer. We both have really strong kicks. Jimmy is very nice. Nicer than some boys at my school, lots of boys at my school. Even nicer than some girls.
We had just a great time hanging out. Just being kids.
RYAN: I felt sad when I was leaving Africa because I wanted to stay and spend more time with Jimmy.
GEORGE: Now we have come to the time when we have to part with our very best friend who has done a lot for us in this school and that is in the person of Ryan. You can imagine a young boy like this. He can get the incentives what teachers teach him in class, he can go and apply it to convince big people to help him, to come and assist the poor people of I want to say that you in Angolo Primary School could do the same also. I am saying that the people of Angolo and the community at large are so grateful to you that from now on they are taking you as their son and brother for what you have done for them. They will never forget you. And we have now made it that every year on the 27th of July, Angolo Primary School will be marking Ryan’s Day.
Every year from next year on the 27th of July we shall have Ryan’s Day in this school.
Part 3
RYAN: Guess what I did on my holidays this summer. I went all the way to Africa to see my well and my new drilling equipment. I drank from my well too. It tasted so good.
10:45:07 Within one week of his return from Uganda, Ryan is back on the speaking circuit as a keynote speaker at a conference for teenage volunteers.
RYAN: In Uganda, they all say water is life. Now I really understand what they mean. I try to tell people here in Canada to help others. I dream of the day when everyone in Africa has clean water. That’s a big dream but I learned that you can do anything but only if you really try hard and you really want to.
10:45:42 Ryan Hreljac hasn't just built and well and bought a drilling rig for a community a world away, he has made a difference to people here at home.
DENISE CAMPBELL There are lots of connections I think between what Ryan is doing in Uganda andwhat young people are doing here. And to see a little boy who started something when he was six and two years later is still dedicated to it and is happy and more fulfilled because he has seen the results of it. I think helps them understand that you know at 14, 15, 17 years old, they can do it.
RYAN: I know that I’m lucky because I was born in country that had lots of clean water. This world belongs to all of us.(cutaway of parents) I pray at night for clean water not just for my family but for every single family on earth.
SUSAN: There’s something special about Ryan that I can’t quite put my finger on it. He’s doing these things that many adults strive to do when they become adults.
RYAN: My message is that if we all help really hard and we all pitch in just a little bit we can get clean water for all of Africa.
10:47:08 Children across Canada understand his message and have been inspired by his example and have even started campaigns of their own.
JACK: It was the day before Valentine’s Day and I was making this card and I had a couple of dollars and I thought I would help Ryan out with his well.
WOMAN: The young girl who is 11 has just called in to say she is close to a thousand dollars. She lives in Carp.
CHILD 1: I’m building a well. Just like Ryan.
CHILD 2: Mom, can I save up for a well like Ryan.
CHILD 3: My school is collecting to help our friends in Africa.
CJOH NEWS REPORT: An 8-year old Ottawa area boy has done what few adults can do. He has inspired others to adopt his cause of clean water for the world’s children. Today, Ryan Hreljac met one of his fans. A five year old boy who has raised more than two hundred fifty dollars all by himself.
JANET CLARKE: We were upstairs getting ready for bed and all of a sudden my son Taylor, reached up in his closet and grabbed his piggy bank and went down on the floor and just dumped it all over the floor and started sorting his money. And I had no idea what he was doing and I said, what are you doing with this money all over the floor? And he said, I want to get a well myself just like Ryan. And I couldn’t believe it.
10:48:21 After months of lemonade stands and simple chores Taylor finally reaches his goal and he wants his hero Ryan to be the first one to know.
RYAN: I feel great because he’s doing a great job earning his well. It was a hard job earning my goal. And he earned his goal too. Eh, Taylor buddy. He always comes back he’s a little chomper of a guy. But he’s not little. That’s the point. Little people can do big jobs. You don’t need to be a grown up before anybody listens to you. You can be a kid and you can be more responsible than an adult. Only if you try…and I know what that means now.