POV DAY

POV holds Poverty Awareness Day
By Fritz Klug
Western Herald

(Photo courtesy Thomas Wrench) Chuck Dombrowski, a representative for Clean Water for the World, explains to WMU students the impact his organization’s water filtration system has on small communities around the world. Clean Water for the World was one of the recipients of the money raised at the Poverty Awareness Day event on Friday at the flag poles on campus.
With the smell of bratwurst on the grill, sounds of jazz and R&B and sunny 60-degree temperatures, a passerby would think that there was a celebration for the first day of spring.
Rather, it was a celebration to bring awareness to a subject often left in the dark: global poverty.
People Organizing Victory (POV), held Poverty Awareness Day on Friday.
“Poverty is more than money,” Barbara Howes, Western Michigan University social work instructor, said. “If it was, our welfare system would have taken care of it.”
Growing up in generational poverty, Howes knows first hand the far-reaching affects it can have.
Her poverty simulation showed how hard it is for people to get out of poverty. The money may have been paper, but the situation was all too true.
Thirty-eight million people live in poverty nationwide, 1,376,658 in the state of Michigan, and 39,079 in Kalamazoo County, according to statistics provided by the United States Department of
Health and Human Services.
“We all can do something about victory over poverty,” Tom Wrench, head of publicity for POV, said.
Ceramics were on sale, donated by the Frostic School of Arts. Concept Catering Solutions provided bratwurst and hamburgers. Students for a Sustainable Earth, Intervarsity Crossroads and
Michigan Organizing Project had information tables.
At 2 p.m., 15 people went on the 1.5 mile clean water walk.
“The walk is to recognize the countless miles women and children have to walk to get water,” Kristien Ramer, a WMU alumna and one of the event organizers, said.
“And that water might not even be clean,” Jared Siangani, a WMU student from Kenya, added.
The walk went from the Kalamazoo Peace center, under Haenicke Hall, to the Valley dormitories, and finally to the Goldsworth Valley pond.
The walk was to bring awareness to an American culture that uses so much water with little effort.
Although Michigan has one of the largest natural supplies of fresh water in the world, “we don’t want our recourses to dry up,” Ramer said.
Christina Terry, who works with Intervarsity Crossroads, was amazed by the 80 to 100 gallons of fresh water the average American uses.
“It normally takes me a few seconds to get fresh water in Kalamazoo,” she said.
Inside the Peace Center, organizations such as the Affordable Housing Project, Loaves and Fishes, and Project Homeless Connect, People United to Secure Housing and C.R.O.P. (Communities
Responding to Overcome Poverty) passed out information as music groups The 27s, Compendium and the WMU Gospel Choir performed.
Outside, Clean Water for the World had a sample purification system on display. Jerry Bohl started making water purification systems on mission trips to El Salvador in 1996 and 1999 with St.
Thomas Moore Parish in Kalamazoo.
“The water was so dirty that they told us to close our mouths when we showered,” Bohl said.
Bohl, and his wife Judy, were so struck by the lack of clean water that they decided to do something about it. They contacted Sara Brownell, a graduate from Rochester Institute of Technology, who
worked on an ultraviolet water disinfecter, killing bacteria, which causes Polio, Hepatitis A and B, and Dysentery. All materials in the $700 device are commercially available, and pumps out two
gallons a minute, 300 per hour and two million a year.
Currently, Clean Water for the World has made some 40 units, which are being used in places such as Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Haiti.
“We don’t want to change the world, but provide relief,” Bohl said. “They have a quarter cup of water and we have the full cup.”
People Organizing Victory was founded last month by WMU 2008 graduate Kristen Ramer, Rachael Eid-Ries in music performance, Nicki Hurley in social work and English, Elizabeth Ablan in
elementary education and Charles Fisher who major in Social Work.
POV is “dedicated to encouraging students to interact with the campus and community by volunteering time, personal strengths, creativity, patience and empathy toward all social justice issues that
impact the world,” reads it’s mission statement.
Hurley is looking for POV’s next event to raise awareness for people with disabilities.
“A lot of college students think that poverty is something far away, in another part of the world,” Hurley said. “We want to be that connecting force.”

Public Letter

On March 20th, 2009 from 2- 8 pm, there will be a festival on Western Michigan University's Campus. The purpose of this festival is to raise awareness and educate faculty, students and the greater Kalamazoo community as to how they can tangibly help fight global and local poverty. Booths will be set up to represent local organizations whose mission is to end poverty. Faculty and students within the Social Work program will conduct a poverty simulation to allow participants to empathize with those living in poverty. In addition, there will be a clean water mission walk around campus at the beginning of the festival to represent the one and a half miles countless people around the world must walk every day in order to get clean water. Throughout the day, there will be performances held in dance and music. Art work as well as t-shirts and food will be available in order to raise money to help end poverty. There will be a worship celebration at the end of the night from 6pm -8pm to celebrate everyone’s efforts.



We refer to our event as a festival because we are celebrating the hope of ending poverty. This is our contribution to the collaborative efforts being done world wide. If this social justice issue is of concern to you, we urge you to spread the word of this event within your academic departments and contact us for fliers. If you are interested in volunteering, please email us at blessedarethepoor3@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

The POV Team (People Organizing Victory)
Kristen Ramer: WMU grad 2008
Rachael Eid-Ries: Music Performance, 2011
Nicki Hurley: Social Work, English, 2010
Elizabeth Ablan: Elementary Education, 2012
Charles Fisher: Social Work