This past Saturday, RPI’s Pakistani Students Association held a fundraising dinner to raise money for earthquake relief in Pakistan and other affected areas. Even prior to that event, which raised $11,862, PakSA had already raised $250 from International Festival food sales.
Through their activities, PakSA received a commitment from RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson to donate $10,000 to UNICEF. PakSA has also partnered with RPI’s Foundation for International Medical Relief for fundraising. The PakSA initiative has a goal of raising $25,000 and is not connected with RPI Relief, the group that spearheaded tsunami aid last year and Hurricane Katrina aid most recently. The money will be going to EDHI—Pakistan’s version of the Red Cross.
A magnitude 7.6 earthquake hit Pakistan on Saturday, October 8, centered in the Kashmir area. The quake is estimated to have taken over 55,000 lives and left over 3.5 million homeless. Relief forces from the U.S., U.N., and a plethora of other entities have gone to Pakistan with food, manpower, and tents, but due to a fast-approaching winter, reaching the isolated mountainous region near the quake’s epicenter has been difficult. India and Pakistan recently agreed to ease border crossings for aid purposes—crossings that have been severely restricted since the late 1940s.
The dinner was held at the Heffner Alumni House and had around 80 attendees, including students, faculty, and local community members. Mahwish Hamlani, president of PakSA said, “we coordinated the dinner in the two days after the earthquake. Getting a location and a speaker were the biggest initial challenges.” The evening of the dinner, the Consul General of Pakistan, Haroon Shaukat, came to speak. He was generous with praise for PakSA, saying “It is commendable that these young students are trying to raise funds for the victims. The overall response of the Pakistani-American community has been overwhelming.”
Additionally, a slide presentation narrating some of the events in Pakistan was shown, and Cynthia Smith, assistant dean of the Office of the First Year Experience, came to discuss the philanthropic activities of RPI students overall. She commented that “this effort has made me proud to be part of the RPI community … and it shows that RPI students can be both generous and resourceful when it’s most important.” The slideshow illustrated the plight of many children in Pakistan in terms of both poverty and medical needs; some children were still being unearthed 14 days after the earthquake.
Over the next few months, Hamlani indicated, PakSA would be pursuing many more fundraising avenues, including a display of Pakistani culture at the Festival of Nations next Monday, a Chandraat Party, holiday card sales, a clothing drive, and an annual variety show in February.
