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RELEASED: Mar. 14, 2002
DANVILLE, KY-There will be several opportunities to learn more about poverty issues and help others at Centre College March 18-24 during Hunger and Homelessness Week. Visit photo page.
"Music from the Streets," featuring homeless performers from Louisville, will take place at the Combs Students Activities Center March 18 at 9 p.m. The audience will enjoy blues, rap, folk music and poetry.
On March 19 a panel discussion on encounters with poverty in the Peace Corps will feature Centre professors Lori Hartmann-Mahmud and Rick Bradshaw. The discussion will be from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at the Nichols Dining Room.
A panel discussion featuring Centre students who participated in the fall 2001 Mexico study-abroad program and the winter 2002 Jamaica program will be at Nichols Dining Hall March 21 from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. The students will speak about encounters with poverty while on their trips.
Also on March 21, a convocation titled "Strangers Among Us: The Struggle of Hispanic Migrants in Kentucky." will be held at Young Hall, room 101 at 7 p.m. The Rev. Jay Von Handorf will speak about migrant issues pertaining to the Hispanic community. Von Handorf's work is devoted not only to providing service but to analyzing the systematic causes of Hispanic migration and the role of the United States in that system.
A fast for hunger relief and development will be March 22. Students can sign up during the week to miss the luncheon meal at Cowan dining hall on that day. The money for lunch will go to hunger relief and development programs.
There will be a day of service at several local clothes outlets, shelters and soup kitchens on March 23. (Contact junior Heather Hayden at hlhayd00@centre.edu for more information.)
Hunger and Homelessness Week will conclude on March 24 with the convocation "Women Negotiating Power in Afghanistan." Sonali Kolhatkar, vice president and secretary of the Afghan Women's Mission, will address Afghanistan under Taliban rule and the situation there regarding women and children as a new government is being formed.
There will also be a clothing drive throughout the week.
For more information on the event, contact Centre Assistant Professor of Religion and College Chaplain Rick Axtell at (859) 238-5245 or e-mail him at axtellr@centre.edu.
"The event is an eye-opening experience for our students for whom it's an opportunity to connect with "the other America" from which we're so often shielded," Axtell said. "The connection is fostered through informative speakers who highlight the dimensions and causes of poverty and homelessness. But these educational events are always supplemented with first-hand experience such as service projects in shelters and direct contact with homeless individuals like those who will be performing their music and poetry on campus Monday night. The combination of speakers, service projects and encounters with the poor makes this annual event a truly memorable part of our students' educational experience."
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Centre College
600 W. Walnut Street
Danville, KY 40422
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