AUBURN – The Barka Foundation’s 500-mile, 20-city Peace Water & Wisdom Walk will arrive here the evening of Tuesday, May 26.

Through its 20-city Walk for Water tour, the Barka Foundation, based on Housatonic, Mass., hopes to raise awareness about water as a basic human right and the need for developing sustainable solutions to address water scarcity in West Africa.

“Women in Barkina walk for miles every day to get water. When a village has a well, women can sustain micro business, girls can attend school, and irrigation leads to increased crop yield and disease declines. It is the single most important thing” that can be done to improve quality of life, according to a statement from the Barka Foundation, founded by Ina and Esu Anahata.

Participants stepped off from the United Nations in New York on May 11, and will finish their walk on May 30 in Bangor. Their path will take them through Danbury, Conn., Pittsfield, Mass., Brattleboro, Vt., and Manchester, NH, before arriving in Maine on Sunday.

On Tuesday at 7 p.m., the First Unitarian Universalist Church on Pleasant Street will show the film, “Barka! Barkina,” which documents the efforts of the Barka Foundation to establish a well in every village in Barkina Faso by 2015.

The evening will include performances by Leah Wolfsong, Darlene Jarome and Godfrey Banda, a native of Zimbabwe.

The group will leave Auburn on Wednesday, May 27, at 9 a.m. from their starting point at Auburn Hall, and is scheduled to arrive in Augusta later that day.

For more information, go to www.barkafoundation.org

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