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
