After observing the scarce water resources in South Africa, 14-year-old Brittany Young knew she wanted to do something to help. She did not realize that providing this aid would turn into her life’s work.
In 2007, Young — now a rising sophomore in the College — created A Spring of Hope, a non-profit that drills wells for rural African schools in order to improve student health and promote education at a grassroots level.
Last week, the organization finished fourth place in a Facebook competition led by Chase Community Giving. A Spring of Hope was granted $100,000, which the charity will use to advance its aspiration of widespread water availability.
When Young first visited Beretta Primary School in the Acornhoek area of South Africa, she was shocked by the amount of students that fit into each classroom and the lack of school supplies. What impacted her most, though, was the extreme dearth of water.
A government truck would occasionally deliver water to the school, but it would never be enough water for the school’s dying garden or to clean and feed the students, she explained in an e-mail.
“I vowed to Lynette Sithole, the principal of Beretta, that I would do everything within my power to improve the conditions at Beretta Primary,” Young wrote.
Young kept her promise, and within a year she raised $10,000 — enough to build A Spring for Hope’s first well at Beretta Primary School.
Young and her friends traveled to South Africa that summer to create a documentary about the transformed environment. The documentary fueled the growth of Young’s mission, and ultimately led to the creation of five new wells in South Africa and one in Uganda.
“In a few days, it may be 6!” she wrote. Young is currently in South Africa overseeing and helping with well building, as she tries to every summer.
Penn’s Center for High Impact Philanthropy acknowledges the importance of clean water and applauds Young’s work.
“Community access to clean water is an essential component of access to health and community,” Global Public Health and Research Director Carol McLaughlin said.
“Since most women and children spend several hours a day collecting water instead of going to school or tending to crops, water access makes an economic impact as well as a health impact,” she added.
Young plans to major in English, but knows that A Spring of Hope is her life’s calling.
“The foundation is everything I love: working with people, solving problems, thinking critically, and even design, marketing, writing, and visual media,” wrote Young.
During her time at Penn, Young hopes to gain as much as possible from the resources the University offers. And has already worked with students, alumni and professors to learn and to develop her ideas.
One Penn alumnus, Jacob Lief — president and founder of the Ubuntu Education Fund — has mentored Young and serves as her role model. Lief, in turn, recognizes Young as an inspiration on the Penn campus and beyond.
"From personal experience I understand the challenging path of starting a non-profit organization while balancing academics and social life on the Penn campus," Lief said. "It takes incredible selflessness to work toward improving the world around us, far from Locust Walk."
