The Nuru Water Walk will begin at the Marshall University Memorial Fountain at 2:30 p.m. April 26.
Participants of the Nuru Water Walk will walk a mile around Marshall’s campus with a bucket of water on their heads.
The entry fee is $5, and the Nuru organization will sell t-shirts, bracelets and scarves.
Kati Holland, volunteer personnel, said all the proceeds go to Nuru International, a non-profit organization that works holistically to end extreme poverty.
“They fund a lot of things, including agriculture, helping loans with small farmers, helping them with better farming techniques, giving them better seeds, etc.” Holland said.
“They also help with education initiatives, healthcare initiatives, water and sanitation issues, and also small businesses and entrepreneurs.”
Participants can register the day of the event or pre-register online.
Holland said this fundraiser will focus on the specific difficulty of collecting clean water. In the developing world, the task of collecting water usually falls on women and young girls.
“They can walk anywhere from one mile to six miles and sometimes spend between three to six hours collecting water that sometimes isn’t even clean,” Holland said.
Holland said the majority of the time girls in developing countries cannot attend school because they must spend their days collecting water.
The purpose of the event is to walk in solidarity of the girls who carry water every day and cannot attend school.
“This event is unique in the sense of you are going to experience something,” Holland said. A lot of times experience is a great link to empathy. As you walk you will feel the burn in your shoulders, but it’s something that so many people in the developing world experience every single day.”
There will be a rally on the Memorial Student Center Plaza after the walk.
The funds from this event will go to a current project in Ethiopia and other projects.
According to Holland, Nuru International is finishing a project in Kenya where they drilled wells and helped with sanitation efforts such as building latrines.
Alpha XI Delta, WMUL, Women’s Studies, Society of Black Scholars, MedLife and other student groups on campus have partnered with the Nuru Organization to help the event take place.
Kristan Davis, volunteer on the planning committee of the event, said this is her fourth year participating and planning for the event.
“I walk because I believe that we are all in this together and that we can end extreme poverty,” Davis said.
Caitlin Fowlkes can be contacted at [email protected].