CWS advocates to discuss water efforts at D.C. and N.Y.C. World Water Day forums
New York--Tues Mar. 20-International humanitarian agency Church World Service will join representatives from organizations at the forefront of campaigns to assure adequate universal access to clean water, during World Water Day events in Washington, D.C., and New York City, this Thursday (March 22).
Martin Shupack, associate director for public policy for Church World Service, will discuss the faith community?s advocacy efforts on behalf of safe drinking water at a panel discussion scheduled for 8:30 AM at the National Press Club.
The forum, sponsored by CWS partner Water Advocates, is in celebration of World Water Day 2007, ?Coping with Water Scarcity.? Water Advocates is a U.S.-based non-profit organization working to increase American support for worldwide access to safe, affordable and sustainable drinking water.
Church World Service also will present its Water for All campaign at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City. Drawing on the organization?s experience in Africa, Education and Advocacy Director Rajyashri Waghray will speak about the impact of the CWS campaign on development, gender equality, health, the special needs of children, and water advocacy worldwide. The panel also will include indigenous peoples with expertise in water and experts from the United Nations Children?s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Program and the University of the Poor.
The New York City event also will feature Troubled Waters, a film produced by the United Church of Christ in partnership with the ABC television network.
Church World Service www.churchworldservice.com , the New York-based global agency, supported in part by 35 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican denominations, is part of the Ecumenical Water Network helping churches rally around the cause of water as a fundamental human right.
As part of its leadership in global development and advocacy for water rights through its ?Water for All? campaign, Church World Service has developed a range of educational materials, including brochures, fact sheets and worship resources.
Concerned citizens also participate in CWS Speak Out campaigns to make their voices heard to public officials on behalf of water as a human right so that the needs of an estimated 1.1 billion people worldwide who lack access to safe drinking water won?t be ignored. CWS carries out its water projects around the world by partnering with local organizations to help water-starved communities identify, develop and manage their own sources of clean, safe water for drinking, domestic and agricultural use.
Other water activists scheduled to speak at the Washington, D.C., panel discussion include Melanie Nakagawa of the Natural Resources Defense Council, who will announce NRDC's Global Safe Water Project focusing on international safe drinking water and sanitation; photographer Gil Garcetti, who will introduce Water is Key, a book of photographs documentin g water, sanitation and women in West Africa; and Ron Denham of Rotary International, who will announce the launch of the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group;
Tanvi Nagpal will speak about the work of Global Water Challenge, a new initiative of the United Nations Foundation. Jim Hughes of Emory University 's Center for Global Safe Water will address the scale and scope of global safe drinking water and sanitation challenges; Rev. Al Bailey of New Psalmist Baptist Church will address the role his church is playing in this issue in the developing world; and Mark Winter of Millennium Water Alliance will discuss the collaboration of non-profit organizations.
Media Contacts
Lesley Crosson, (212) 870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org Jan Dragin - 24/7 - (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net