Community Education

International Relief Club at Peninsula High seeks to ease pain abroad

Just in time for Spring Fling, the International Relief Society at Peninsula High School has got you covered with Candy Grams, two bucks apiece, should you want to invite that special someone to the March 9 dance.

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It’s a small start, but the newly formed club, also known as the International Relief Club, has plans for larger fundraisers later this spring and eventually community events, all with the goal of easing people’s suffering in other parts of the world and bringing awareness to their plight.

“I wanted to create the IRC because with all of the huge events happening in the world today, many places are left behind and I just wanted to help out in those areas,” said club founder Adam Massry.

The club, now with around 15 members, is focusing this year on the water crisis in Africa. They’re raising funds to support The Water Project, which provides access to clean, reliable sources of water across sub-Saharan Africa “one community at a time.”

Peninsula High School junior Adam Massry started the school’s International Relief Club with the idea of providing assistance to world problems that get less attention.

About the club founder

Massry, a junior with plans to study dentistry, said he’d been thinking about international aid for some time before deciding to form a school club. He considered a GoFundMe but never launched it, later presenting his idea for the club to the school board for approval. The International Relief Club was officially sanctioned in January.

With wars raging in Ukraine and Gaza, Massry feels compassion for people in those countries. But he wanted to address needs, like the water crisis, that don’t make the daily headlines.

“I kind of felt like those smaller but still big problems, we could make a big impact and help a community of people that doesn’t get as much help as it should,” Massry said.

Massry, a varsity tennis player, is active in volunteering. He formerly helped out at YMCA summer camps. In the summer, he volunteers at Canterwood tennis courts, and he is an “ambassador” at MultiCare Allenmore Hospital in Tacoma, where he assists on wards meeting patients’ non-medical needs.

‘We want to help fix that’

In doing his research to identify a cause for this year, Massry was struck by “the magnitude of people who don’t have clean water,” he said. “You hear a lot, but I feel like it doesn’t really process.”

In rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa, millions of people lack clean, safe water, according to The Water Project website.

“There’s a lot of communities that don’t have access to water in Africa, clean water. And the water they do have access to, they’re walking miles to get, and it’s dirty and causes infections and diseases,” Massry said. “It’s just unclean, and people shouldn’t have to drink dirty water. That just shouldn’t be a problem. We want to help fix that.”

Basic need, big impact

Women and children (mostly girls) spend hours each day fetching dirty water, according to The Water Project. Lack of reliable sources of water results in poor sanitation, which impacts food production, children’s education, community health and economic vitality.

The Water Project works in Kenya, Uganda and Sierra Leone. It coordinates with leaders in each country, local villagers, churches and schools to install or restore water sources based on geography, climate and natural resources.

In some areas like Western Kenya, water is abundant with two seasonal rains, prevalent springs and deep aquifers. Other areas, like Southeast Kenya, are semi-arid. Teams from The Water Project help local people restore or build wells, small dams, rainwater catchment systems and spring protections.

The nonprofit, which currently monitors more than 2,400 water resource sites, estimates more that 860,000 people are living better thanks to their work.

Filling a niche

The International Relief Club is not the only club at the school doing charitable fundraising. During the 2022-23 school year, Peninsula High School’s Key Club sent thousands of Teddy bears to children in Ukraine. The bears finally arrived in October. Massry hopes by focusing on the water issue, his club will fill a niche for unmet needs around the world.

“I just thought it would be a cool thing to do because there weren’t any clubs or activities at the school that target exactly what we do,” he said.

Look for the International Relief Club to host more fundraisers throughout the spring and beyond.

“Instead of just staying at the school, we were thinking of doing community-based events and really just educating people about our topic,” Massry said.