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North Adams Transcript (MA)
May 22, 2009
To the Editor:
Something truly extraordinary took place the other day in North Adams at the superintendent's office. The BARKA
Foundation and Danny Garcia met with Anna Saldo-Burke and students from
her Sullivan Elementary School third-grade class and their parents and
grandparents.
These students have been
studying the water cycle as part of their curriculum, and Ms.
Saldo-Burke, for the second consecutive year, has integrated issues of
water scarcity in West Africa. The students created artwork and jewelry
that was sold to raise funds for the drilling of a well in Burkina
Faso, West Africa.
They presented Ina and Esu Anahata, co-founders of The BARKA
Foundation, with beautiful hand-crafted necklaces and a check for $700.
One 10-year-old student even told her family that she wanted all her
birthday money to go toward the fundraising effort -- she raised almost
$90 single-handedly.
Burkina is considered to be the second poorest country in the world by
the United Nations Development Programe. The women and girls who live
there must walk for miles everyday to carry water on their heads for
their families.
As you may already know, the work of Housatonic-based nonprofit, The BARKA
Foundation, is focused on eradicating extreme poverty in Burkina Faso
and developing new models for co-creating a culture of peace within a
global village, in particular by creating connections between Berkshire
County and Burkina Faso.
The $700 from these Sullivan School students will be added to monies
raised last year by Monument Mountain High School and the Railroad
Street Youth Project and others in a Walk for Water in Great
Barrington. Those students raised $4,000.
Currently BARKA
is hosting a 500-mile, 20-city in 20-day Walk for Water entitled the
Peace, Water & Wisdom Walk. Danny Garcia is leading the walk. Danny
has walked 25,000 miles around the world and has been given audience by
Nelson Mandela, Presidents Clinton and Carter, Yassir Arafat, Muhammad
Ali, Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II, among many others.
When he heard about BARKA's
need to raise funds and awareness about its effort to increase the
availability of clean water in Burkina Faso as a way to achieve the
UN's Millennium Development Goals, he jumped in and said let's do a
walk.
We think this is an important local as well as international story and we thank you for your consideration. "Barka" is an African word of blessing, gratitude and reciprocity.
Barka,
Ina and Esu Anahata
Housatonic
May 20
To learn more about the ongoing efforts of the BARKA Foundation, visit www.barkafoundation.org.
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