Several years ago, three friends traveled across three continents with one goal: survive on $1.25 a day. They documented their experiences with poverty, injustice, and a life-threatening accident in the documentary Give a Damn?, which they will screen and discuss at UE at the first Global Poverty Awareness Benefit Concert.
Hosted by UE’s Asian Culture Club and Student Activities Board, the Global Poverty Awareness Benefit Concert will take place from 6-8 p.m. Friday, April 13, in the Carson Center large gym. Admission is free, and donations will be accepted.
The evening will feature a screening of Give a Damn? and a question-and-answer session with Dan Parris, Rob Lehr, and David Peterka, the documentary filmmakers who will travel from St. Louis for the event. The Global Poverty Awareness Benefit Concert will also include a UE student “battle of the bands” competition (judged by Parris, Lehr, and Peterka) and a screening of Splash Effect, a basketball trick-shot video made by UE students to raise awareness of childhood poverty.
The concert will benefit When the Saints, a nonprofit organization established by Peterka that focuses on those forced into prostitution and sexual exploitation in Malawi. The organization’s current project is to open a safe house that will house and care for up to 50 women.
“I hope community members will leave the event with a motivation to make a difference and learn what they can do, small or big, to fight poverty,” said UE student Cyril Patra, who is majoring in chemistry and Spanish. Patra has already raised more than $1,000 for When the Saints, which she will present to Peterka at the end of the Global Poverty Awareness Benefit Concert.
