Students will be flooded with ideas regarding the scarcity of water tonight for Better Together at Ohio University’s screening of the documentary Thirst.
Thirst tells the stories of communities in Bolivia, India and the United States who lack what most believe should be a human right — clean and safe water, said senior Rachel Hyden, campus organizer for Better Together.
“People need to understand fresh water is a scarce resource and not a commodity,” she said.
Better Together was brought to OU last year by OU graduate Guru Khalsa and is registered as a subsection of United Campus Ministries. The organization is accepting the nationwide challenge to take on community-service initiatives and will work to alleviate domestic poverty and international water shortage, Hyden said.
“Better Together is a well-known organization, and teaming up with UCM provides a great ally and place to run out of,” said senior Michael Lupsa, who is on the steering committee and a UCM intern.
This year, Better Together has helped host other events such as the interfaith peace walk held Sept. 11 and the stream cleanup of Monday Creek in Nelsonville, Hyden said.
The organization is working toward an overall goal of raising $5,000 to help build a well in Africa.
“(Screening Thirst is) part of an awareness phase to show people the necessity of building wells,” Lupsa said.
The movie will last one hour with a 20-minute interfaith discussion to follow.
“We look past the fact we’re different faiths and traditions and find similarities and ways to make the world a better place,” Hyden said.
Hyden said she wants students to realize the problem of water scarcity is not present only in developing nations.
“We want to educate Athens and the community to understand that there is a serious issue out there and even in our country,” she said.
Thirstwill screen at 7 p.m. tonight in 124 Bentley Hall.
“I hope people take away an understanding of the seriousness of the global water process,” she said. “At the end of the day, we all have a common cause: to believe in a better future.”
af234909@ohiou.edu
