ryan
Ryan Hreljac is a true hero.
Hero: A person who distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.
Ryan Hreljac is a Canadian individual who, at the age of 6 began raising money for those affected by the global water crisis, and has since raised millions for water sanitation projects in Africa.
My story is very simple. One day in January 1998, Ryan was sitting in his grade one classroom. His teacher Mrs. Prest explained that people were sick and some are even dying because they don’t have clean water to drink. He decides to raise money for those who didn’t have clean water, working for four months in order to earn his first $70. Even though a real well costed close to $2,000, Ryan kept on raising money. His first well was built in 1999 when Ryan was seven years old at a school in a Ugandan village. Ryan's determination grew from the $70 collected by doing simple household chores to a Foundation that today has contributed a total of 630 water and sanitation projects in 16 countries bringing clean water and sanitation services to over 700,880 people. The Foundation has raised millions of dollars. The death of someone loved changes our lives forever. And the movement from the “before” to the “after” is almost always a long, painful journey. From my own experiences with loss as well as those of the thousands of grieving people I have worked with over the years, I have learned that if we are to heal we cannot skirt the outside edges of our grief. Instead, we must journey all through it, sometimes meandering the side roads, sometimes plowing directly into its raw center.
I have also learned that the journey requires mourning. There is an important difference, you see. Grief is what you think and feel on the inside after someone you love dies. Mourning is the outward expression of those thoughts and feelings. To mourn is to be an active participant in our grief journeys. We all grieve when someone we love dies, but if we are to
Hero: A person who distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.
Ryan Hreljac is a Canadian individual who, at the age of 6 began raising money for those affected by the global water crisis, and has since raised millions for water sanitation projects in Africa.
My story is very simple. One day in January 1998, Ryan was sitting in his grade one classroom. His teacher Mrs. Prest explained that people were sick and some are even dying because they don’t have clean water to drink. He decides to raise money for those who didn’t have clean water, working for four months in order to earn his first $70. Even though a real well costed close to $2,000, Ryan kept on raising money. His first well was built in 1999 when Ryan was seven years old at a school in a Ugandan village. Ryan's determination grew from the $70 collected by doing simple household chores to a Foundation that today has contributed a total of 630 water and sanitation projects in 16 countries bringing clean water and sanitation services to over 700,880 people. The Foundation has raised millions of dollars. The death of someone loved changes our lives forever. And the movement from the “before” to the “after” is almost always a long, painful journey. From my own experiences with loss as well as those of the thousands of grieving people I have worked with over the years, I have learned that if we are to heal we cannot skirt the outside edges of our grief. Instead, we must journey all through it, sometimes meandering the side roads, sometimes plowing directly into its raw center.
I have also learned that the journey requires mourning. There is an important difference, you see. Grief is what you think and feel on the inside after someone you love dies. Mourning is the outward expression of those thoughts and feelings. To mourn is to be an active participant in our grief journeys. We all grieve when someone we love dies, but if we are to