A drink of water may not seem like much for the average person, but for students at a primary school that live in a rural village in southern Kenya, Africa, it is a blessing.

Leboo is is more than 8,000 miles away from Selma, but entering Integrity Worldwide’s iPad giveaway could help supply its school with water.

“In the United States, we don’t think of water as being a part of education. We just assume that it is there,” said Averee Hicks, co-founder of Integrity Worldwide. “But when you’re dehydrated and you don’t have anything to eat or drink, you can’t study. It is just supplying a basic need so they can achieve, dream and be all that God created them to be.”

The iPad giveaway costs $10 per entry, and the winner will be drawn Friday, May 15. To enter, people can call Integrity Worldwide at 322-1201 or go online to integrityworldwide.org.

The non-profit Christian organization is responsible for several water projects in Kenya. After drilling a well for Meto, another village, Integrity wanted to continue their work with water by drilling a well for Leboo.

“They had no close source of water before this well was dug,” Hicks said. “The closest one was probably 12 miles or so away.”

Leboo Primary School has around 350 students, and they have no direct source for water.

“The students’ mothers were backpacking water into the school on the backs of donkeys,” Hicks said. “It is a long way for them to go. It is about 6-7 miles one way.”

Hicks and her husband Alan, who helped found Integrity, will return to the village at the end of May. They will officially open the well in Leboo and its school.

Crews are currently digging the trenches for the pipes to the school, and the money raised from the giveaway will help pay for the pipes that are needed to connect the school to the well.

Selma natives Clint and Ellen Mitchell will also join the Hicks on the trip to Leboo.

They are newlywed missionaries that will

Hicks hopes the easy access to water will improve life for people in the village.

“Water to me is a basic right, and they don’t have a water source, so that is why we’re stepping in to help them find a way out of the poverty that they’ve been stuck in,” Hicks said. “Their education is one of the stepping stones that they have to step out of that lifestyle of poverty. Water is a necessary part of that.”

spend nine weeks in Africa this summer.

Hicks said they are also raising money to support the Mitchells. Donations can be made online for their mission as well.