Ryan Hreljac

My hero is Ryan Hreljac who was born on May 31, 1991 in Ottawa, Ontario. Currently he lives in North Grenville, Ontario with his three brothers.

In 1998, when he was in grade 1, his teacher told him people were dying from drinking dirty water. He decided to raise money for them. Beginning with seventy dollars saved from doing household chores, he raised enough money to build his first well in Africa in 1998. Ryan’s Well Foundation was created in 2001. Since he started Ryan’s Well, he has visited 19 countries. He has also created 329 wells in 14 countries. He has helped 491,625 people by getting them clean water. He is a public speaker and also known as a global youth leader with UNICEF.

Ryan is my hero because he saw a problem and he decided to fix it. He also helped so many people by helping them to build wells all around the world. Ryan cares about people because he cares that people don't have clean water to drink. He is generous because he raised 70 dollars and gave it to the people who can’t drink clean water.

Ryan at 16 (http://www.ryanswell.ca/story/index.html)

Today he is 16 and he is in the 11th grade. For his schooling, he spends half his year in a classroom in Nova Scotia and the other half on a tall ship sailing around the world studying.

What Ryan has done with his life is motivating and makes you realize that anybody can do anything at any age.