Supreme Master Ching Hai Donates $20,000 to The BARKA Foundation for Water Initiative in Burkina Faso

A charitable donation is being made by spiritual leader Supreme Master Ching Hai to The BARKA Foundation in support of the Peace, Water & Wisdom Walk designed to raise awareness and funds about the need for clean water in Burkina Faso. Funds will go toward BARKA's operating expenses and the drilling of the first "BARKA well" in La Petite Village, Fada N'Gourma. The BARKA Foundation focuses on clean water as a way to achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goals in Burkina Faso. Excerpts from BARKA's documentary film "BARKA! BURKINA" and Live Footage from Peace, Water & Wisdom Walk to be Featured on Supreme Master Television.

Bangor, Maine (PRWEB) June 1, 2009 -- Supreme Master Ching Hai has made a charitable donation to The BARKA Foundation in the amount of $20,000. This generous donation was granted in the midst of BARKA's Peace, Water & Wisdom Walk, a 500-mile, 20 city in 20 day journey through 6 states starting at the United Nations in New York City and ending in Bangor, Maine.

The objective of the "Walk for Water" is to raise awareness and funds about the extreme need for clean water in Burkina Faso, West Africa, one of the world's poorest countries. The BARKA Foundation works both locally in the US and internationally in Burkina Faso. Through creating connections with US-based schools, women's associations, faith-based organizations, businesses, and civic and political leaders, BARKA is pioneering a grassroots model for joining hands on the local level to work practically on international issues of poverty eradication, peace-building and the preservation of the world's remaining indigenous cultures and their spiritual wisdom traditions. Specifically, BARKA functions as a bridge to indigenous communities in rural and urban areas of Burkina Faso.

Through its work and relations with the United Nations, The BARKA Foundation came to understand the centrality of water's role in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. As a way to raise funds for its clean water initiatives in Burkina Faso and to create relationships with new communities in the northeastern US, it organized the Peace, Water & Wisdom Walk.

Joining the Walk for Water campaign is Danny Garcia, internationally known as the "Walking Man", who has walked more than 25,000 miles on 5 continents for various causes over the past 13 years. When Ina & Esu, BARKA's co-founders, told him of the urgent needs of the people of Burkina Faso, and how women walk for miles every day to carry water to their families he felt compelled to help. Danny agreed to do a Walk in order to raise funds for BARKA's efforts to address the problem both here in the US through education and awareness raising, and in Burkina directly through projects such as well drilling, irrigation and water purification. "I was walking from Greenfield, MA to Brattleboro, VT when Ina & Esu told me the news about the donation from Supreme Master Ching Hai," said Danny. "I began to cry and thanked God for this generous expression of support."

"Our hearts are overflowing with gratitude for Supreme Master Ching Hai's recognition of our work and the intense need that exists in Burkina Faso. We are working in solidarity with her and Supreme Master Television to work toward a sustainable future for our children's children's children," said Ina & Esu.

Through documentary filmmaking BARKA is able to connect people, schools and organizations together in the US and Burkina Faso through an ongoing 'filmic dialogue' in which entire communities are able to be in conversation despite geographic separation. At FESPACO, Africa's largest film festival, "BARKA! BURKINA" a feature- length documentary about BARKA's work premiered. Supreme Master Television will broadcast excerpts of "BARKA! BURKINA" and feature live footage of the Peace, Water & Wisdom Walk as it arrives in its final destination of Bangor, Maine on May 30 at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Bangor, Maine where the $20,000 donation will be presented to BARKA's co-founders.

The funds will be used for BARKA's operational expenses and to drill its first well in Fada, the eastern region of Burkina Faso.

About Supreme Master Television
Supreme Master Television, founded by Supreme Master Ching Hai, is a 24-hour free-to-air satellite TV station with exclusive focus on uplifting news and inspirational, constructive programming. Supreme Master Television offers audiences a new way to view television--in a constructive light. From its live broadcasts of peace-building events, to interviews with presidents, celebrities and the extraordinary peace wishes of ordinary people, Supreme Master Television is a bridge for understanding through its features on the beauty of all nations and cultures. www.SupremeMasterTV.com

Quote From the Supreme Master Ching Hai: Now concerning water: one serving of beef is 1200 gallons; one serving of chicken, 330 gallons and one complete vegan meal including tofu, rice, vegetables etc. is only 98 gallons. Now everybody was talking a lot about food shortage and water shortage, the main cause is again, livestock raising. That is not including the contamination of most world bodies of water and related usages. We cannot afford it forever like this. We have to stop the meat consumption. We have to stop the meat, in order to even survive.

About Danny Garcia and Global Walk
Garcia is 64 years old, a native of New York's Spanish Harlem, a former Marine, former law enforcement officer, and an ordained minister. The aims and purposes of all Danny's walks throughout the world are the same: to facilitate, promote, and support the needs of children and their families, which include engaging in humanitarian aid to victims of fire, poverty, flood, earthquake, or war. On July 4th, 2009, a new chapter will begin with a Peace Walk across the United States, South America and Asia. For more information, visit www.globalwalk.cc.

About The BARKA Foundation
The BARKA Foundation is a 501(c)3 charitable organization based both in the US and in Burkina Faso, West Africa. BARKA works with the support of UN agencies, Burkina Faso and US governments, and indigenous villages to eradicate extreme poverty, empower women, foster education and co-create a culture of peace and sustainability for the global village. On Peace Day 2008, The BARKA Foundation unveiled the BARKA Burkina Consortium, an international collective of organizations working collaboratively toward an innovative model to achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). BARKA and Consortium partner ZZYX Entertainment/Global Harmony are co-producing the Peace, Water & Wisdom Concert and Festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, September 19-21, 2009, to raise funds for the Consortium's "Clean Water for All" initiative designed to ensure a well in every village in Burkina Faso by 2015. BARKA is a member of the Culture of Peace Initiative, a project of Pathways To Peace.

PRESS CONTACTS:
Ina & Esu
The BARKA Foundation
P.O. Box 69
Housatonic, MA 01236
413-446-7466
Email: InaAndEsu(at)BARKAfoundation.org
http://www.barkafoundation.org

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