Pakistani Student Association raises $4,500 for victims
By
Chip Cutter |
POSTED AT
12:00 AM ON Oct. 31, 2005
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After a three-day campaign across campus, the Pakistani Student Association said it has raised $4,500 for victims of the Oct. 8 earthquake in South Asia.
The money, which was collected at five campus locations Oct. 24 through Wednesday, represents 45 percent of the $10,000 goal the PSA set for the campaign.
Hassan Raza, the PSA earthquake committee chair, said his organization is pleased with the response and is also aware that previous natural disasters, including December's tsunami in Southeast Asia and Hurricane Katrina, might have caused people to give less money to the fund-raiser.
"People have already exhausted their pockets," he said.
To date, 80,000 people have died as a result of the quake, and an additional 3.3 million have been left homeless, according to Associated Press reports. During the weekend, U.N. officials reaffirmed the need for supplies and funds in order to continue relief efforts in the region, which is surrounded by the Himalayan Mountains, the AP reported.
Other organizations are also contributing, Raza said, including the Asian Student Union, which has pledged all of its profits from its sporting events, and the Indian Student Association, which has offered to help the PSA plan a Pakistani cuisine fund-raising dinner in the future. For its part, Dean of Students Richard McKaig said the administration helped with publicity for last week's campaign. He said the University pointed the PSA toward groups on campus available to help, such as the Leo R. Dowling International Center, but it did not donate cash directly, following University policy.
"I don't know of any major additional efforts on behalf of the University," he said.
Raza said he would like to see more from the University, including an official public statement or heightened efforts to publicize future events to the student body, possibly through the University's main Web site.
"We bring in the fees, we're bringing the cultures and traditions and IU promotes itself based on the fact that IU has people like us as international students," Raza said. "They were contacted, and it would be great if they helped us out."