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The hardest thing you can do is to take that very first step.

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We all have something that motivates us or confuses us about the world

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 we live in. Why does something have to be this way? Why is this that way? 

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And our communities are in the larger world and I think today we have the

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opportunity to say, "this is what you can do." Even if it's in a really small way

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locally  or something bigger that you take that first step.

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What's important is that when  I was a kid there wasn't anything too special

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about me, but through the years other kids have realized that you don't have to

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be special. You can be ordinary and make a profound difference..

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It all started when I was really in grade one. When my grade one teacher was

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talking about people who didn't have toys, Nintendo, or even clean water, and

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she explained that people were dying because they didn't have clean water.

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That just gave me a bad feeling inside.

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When nine-year-old Ryan Hreljac was here a few years ago he proved that

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just one person can make a huge difference in the world no matter how

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old they are. Watch this.

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Six-year-old Ryan was stunned when his first grade teacher taught his class

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about poverty in Africa.

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I had a sheet of paper from the vice principal that said how much money

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you could save what it would give children in Africa, and Ryan was really

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Interested in the well. He said, "How much is that well again?"

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On the sheet it said  70 dollars.

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He goes, "I'm going to save for that."

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The first well that was constructed was in Northern Uganda. It was at a school

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called Angolo Primary School

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Last summer Ryan traveled to Uganda to visit his well and the community it

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had helped. The people there welcomed him with open arms.

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This is your well. You read it.

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Ryan's well, funded by Ryan H.

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Little people can do big jobs. You don't need to be a grown up before anybody

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listens to you.

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That first well gave kids the opportunity to go to school, to build an education,

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to build a life for themselves.

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what I took from my very first trip was the strength of the community itself.

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The community and the school and the people around it who believed

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in the idea that their kids could have a better future.

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That started with having water at their school.

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Because we don’t have enough classrooms

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I’d prefer we have classrooms first and we buy the desks later.

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How about I save some money and I come back and hand it to you

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for the classrooms.

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Ryan, as a 6 year old originally thought that  building a well would

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solve the clean water crisis in the world.

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He soon discovered that there were

many many communities without

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access to clean water. And it was Ryan who determined to raise funds

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for the next well and the next drilling rig and the next truck. The journey that was initially one well, and is now hundreds of wells later, was again

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inspired by Ryan.

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His resiliency and I'm not saying this because he's my son has been

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absolutely incredible. The things that have been requested of him and how

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he's risen to the occasion every time is amazing. He understands the dynamics

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of the people and the importance of what we're doing, which is incredible.

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Why are we here?

We are here, I save money for

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underdeveloped countries to get clean water wells.

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The fact that it wasn't a quick fix really bothered me. That it wasn't actually

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finished and so as long as there is something that I can effectively do to

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create opportunities for people and for sustainable development

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to happen then I'll keep on doing this for as long as I can.

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We are just a couple of people with one little boy, but who knows? With a lot of

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work and a lot of help from big governments around the world, maybe

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things will change.

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With Mark and with me, we really felt at a certain point that we needed to

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become part of this and we needed to help nurture it. It more or less took on

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a life of its own, and grew and grew and took us along with it.

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It grew to the point where we actually formed the Ryan's Well Foundation.

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Ryan’s Story has motivated millions around the world to take action

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Now, 15 years after he built his first well,

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Ryan is returning to Northern Uganda where this story began.

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I've been lucky, I've been able to travel over these 16 years.

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I've been to around 40 countries. One thing that I've learned throughout

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it is that this world is a complex place. There's a lot of rich cultures and

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different opinions and people from all stretches of life,

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but at the end of the day I think we all want the best things for ourselves, our

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children, our future generations, and their planet.

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We were greeted by our local partners- Divine Waters and their

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Executive Director Deleo who had arranged a tour of the villages where

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our wells have been built over the past year.

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It's awesome to be back here. I remember a little bit from 2000.

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but it was so long ago

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It’s a 6 hour drive to the first village.

But the roads have improved a little

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Today is going to be a lot of driving. Where we're going is in an area where

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we have been working for the last three years. It's called Aromo.

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We built 10 wells there last year. We’re just continuing the work there.

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They have to give their okay for Deleo to do the work in the areas he's

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working in. It's just when you're going into somebody's back yard

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it's nice to say hello.

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She was explaining and saying that before this well was constructed they

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were fetching water from the stream down, and that stream was giving them

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stomach ache. From the time this well was drilled, what when she's coming to

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when she's enjoing it.  She say  “This wonderful piece. Who am I'm going to

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leave this piece.I'm going to die soon, but  this piece came too late in my life”.

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Is Dorris married? She is? That's too bad, because Ryan's looking for a wife.

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I am always embarrassed. I was a shy kid, and having a father like that

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doesn't really help. I think he marries me off every time he meets anyone, no

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matter if it's in Uganda or not. He has a strange sense of humor.

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The wedding didn't happen actually, sadly. He'll keep on trying so we'll see.

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Me and Ryan and our entire group are very happy because you're so well

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organized. You're making all of the women especially happy to see so

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many women in important roles in the committee. Everything that we've done

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here means nothing unless you do your job, and you're doing so well.

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It's a real crucial element to have ownership go over to the community.

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Because if it's an organization that's responsible for it then it won't

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necessarily go a long way, but if the community wraps around it and they

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have that committee and they have ownership then it can really be

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something that they can be proud of and build around. It's something that

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really goes a long way so that's another important part to it.

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We encourage women involvement, but in most cases we're trying to

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encourage that women are the chairperson and the treasurer because

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they are the ones that are responsible for getting the water.

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Each village that we have done work in is different. It's interesting to see how

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water changes that,. To have the freedom to go to school for their kids, and to not have to worry about getting sick. It just opens up such

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an opportunity of being able to live your life with a little bit of freedom.

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We were forced out of this village by rebels,

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and lived in displaced camps.

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When we returned, our only source of water

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was contaminated, and we had no choice.

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Our children got diarrhea, typhoid and malaria.

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We thought it was from the mosquitoes

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from the congested camps

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But it was the result of poor water.

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The new well was drilled for us,

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and our children are healthy again.

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We take good care of the well

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because it is our community lifeline.

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Life in the village is good.

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We are at one of the sites of a well

that was constructed in 2006.

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The people in the community have brought us down and shown us their

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former water source, which is behind me, and of course was the source of

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many diseases for them before their well was constructed.

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Typhoid, especially typhoid and malaria.

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So you find children out of school all the time,

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the women are sick all the time,

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the men can not go to work.

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So I think we are so grateful to Ryan.

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When you look down at that you wonder how anyone could consume

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something like that. But when you don't have a choice ...

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it makes me sick  to my stomach. It's very upsetting so many people

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in the world still live like this.

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One in 6 people

lack access to clean drinking water.

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71%

of families who travel to fetch clean water

rely on Girls to do the work

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A lot of the times particularly the girls, young girls will have to

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spend their days just getting water for their families. If they didn't,

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their families wouldn't have any water for the day.

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We have a large extended family.

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We have to fetch water

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for everyone in the family.

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That's why we go so many times.

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We don't know where the closest clean water source is

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this is our only option.

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They have to sacrifice going to school, they have to sacrifice their livelihood.

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They have to give so much for something that in Canada I consider so

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immediate. It's hard to see that people have to commit so much of their time

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and so much of themselves to get water for their families.

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When I was a kid my dad taught me how to play chess.

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He was a very good chess player, and I was just learning.

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I remember we played for about five years and he never let me win once.

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I failed and I failed and I failed to beat him.

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My mom used to be like, "Oh why don't' you just let him win once?"

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Then he was like, "Well then it wouldn't be worth something."

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Eventually, I think I finally beat him when I was 14. I had to get used to

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the idea of failure in order to actually succeed and become something better.

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Its not an easy fix getting the world clean water. Its  a lot of

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complicated issues but I think that one important thing that I try to remember

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now is to be stubborn enough to think that you still can make a difference.

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The first well at Angolo Primary School it's been 15 years since it was first

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Established and a lot has changed since I was here last.

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The area itself around Angolo has gone through a lot of turmoil in the last 15 years.

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There's been civil war, there's been the school shutting down because of it.

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I think at the end of the day to see what it's come through and see

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the resolve of the community would be amazing so I'm looking forward to that.

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The community itself has transformed.

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The whole place has transformed.

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Although we cannot claim that is has come because of that well,

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we can assure you that we can claim that safe water has contributed greatly

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towards the development of the community

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I think the story

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is that this small vision of this small boy

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The discussion that Ryan had with his mother

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it has grown, it has become big, it has become a reality.

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Ryan we welcome you back to the root of the dream.

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It's been 15 years. Hopefully I don't screw it up this time.

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Ryan's Well founded by Ryan H. for Community of Angolo Primary School.

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In many parts of the country girls actually drop out of school because of

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the unsanitary conditions and lack of toilets.  For the last number of years

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we've started building latrines and hand washing stations at schools.

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We are told that there are few girls compared to boys because of dignity.

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If they find that they don't have dignity they probably would drop out of school

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so we hope that this is one step ahead. We request you to

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hand over this latrine to our senior secondary school.

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So I'm back to Angolo Primary School.

It's been 14 years since I was nine

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There was two makeshift classrooms over there that aren't there anymore,

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and they've got a new building here. It's kind of bizarre to be back

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It's interesting to come back and see everything changed.

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A lot of development; a lot of things have grown. It's come a long ways since Ryan's Well first went in.

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Coming back to Uganda after 14 years has been a big thing for me

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I'm not sure what I expected to see. I guess I did expect to see some change

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and in many ways I saw a transformation. Now they have clean

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water, now they have latrines, their lives have been transformed .

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They are spending time in school and are learning and are living much more

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safe healthier and more meaningful lives,

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and that's a huge, huge, accomplishment.

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The first time we came to Uganda in 2000, I was green.

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Didn't know anything about Africa, didn't know anything about Uganda,

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didn't know anything about international development

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I look back and I see that from trip to trip that I make now and how far

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I've come and just because I've had such good teachers

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Its definitely enriched my life beyond imagination

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from where I was at when we started to now it's been incredible.

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We are celebrating the impact of one well,

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which was constructed here.

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This has gone beyond Angolo Primary School.

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To me this is a living testimony

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of selflessness, and service to humanity

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where it is most needed.

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That dream of that little boy has touched so many lives.

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I'm very proud of Ryan. He is a vision, even for my own children.

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I am glad to say many of them have now succeeded

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In Africa they see water as life. Now I really understand what they mean.

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Really the world I'm thinking about is a world with peace and clean water.

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Where everybody has a chance to go to school,

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so just to give everybody a chance to dream

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It's like a big puzzle this world, and everybody has a little piece and

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they have to find out where that fits.

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The 1,000 or $2,000 that was collected by Ryan,

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it has been accepted it has been translated.

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We now see that the community themselves,

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they're supporting Ryan in his effort

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Because the wells that have been constructed,

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community are maintaining it,

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which implies that they have bought into the idea

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that with support from Ryan they also need to contribute something

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Contribute their time, contribute their resources,

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So that this vision will continue to grow.

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Thankfully for me, I'm still as naïve and stubborn as I was when I was six.

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It gets a little harder when you realize how vast

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some of the problems are in this world.

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Things are complicated some times and

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there's a lot of different problems that surround even clean water,

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but sometimes you just focus on what you can do and

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you learn from experience

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and you put that into practice and you do what you can.