US Woman Treks Across Africa for Clean Water

Amy Russell hopes her 12,000-kilometer walk will raise money and awareness

Every day, in rural areas across Africa, millions of women and girls walk for hours to fetch water. An American woman is also walking for the same reason.

Amy Russell hopes her 12,000-kilometer, two-year long trek across Africa will raise money for and awareness of the need for clean water.

So far she's walked across the northeastern U.S. state of Connecticut and plans to tread across 800 kilometers in California.

Russell is getting in shape for an even longer walk - her African trek.

Walking for water

“We’ll be going through seven different countries," says Russell. "South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.”

Amy Russell

Three years ago, while still in college, the 22-year-old founded the non-profit, Walk4Water. Russell says she realized that in order to tackle the big social causes of the day such as poverty, she'd have to get to the root of the issue.