Students raise funds for victims of South Asia earthquake

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/unicef_mac.jpg” caption=”Fathima Khosa, left, and Amber Idris give a presentation to a math class in Togo Salmon Hall, Rm. 120.”]When a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, on October 8, its aftershocks hit close to home.

Like many McMaster students, third-year students Fathima Khosa, Rafia Waraich and Amber Idris have family in these regions. Fortunately they did not lose immediate family members in the disaster, but they can sympathize with others who have.

“When I got news of the earthquake I knew how hard it was to reach family,” says Khosa, an international student from Pakistan, who is studying economics at McMaster. Like many, she at first had difficulty reaching her family and friends. “A lot of McMaster students are from Pakistan and so I know how difficult it is for them.”

The three students are visiting classrooms in an effort to educate students about the tragedy and also raise funds, which they will provide to Unicef Canada. Since Wednesday they have visited large undergraduate classrooms and smaller graduate classrooms and will continue their quest until next Friday.

“So far, the response from people has been really good,” says Khosa, adding they raised more than $1,500 over the first two days. “It's much more than what we expected.”

On Wednesday, Unicef at Mac set up a booth in the McMaster University Student Centre collecting donations to send to Pakistan and northern India. They hope to set up another booth next week if there is space available.

To make a donation, e-mail saearthquake@yahoo.com or visit http://www.unicefmac.tk/. Alternately, donations can be made to Unicef Canada. The Canadian government will match all individual donations received by October 25, 2005.

For more information, contact Rafia Waraich at waraicr@muss.cis.mcmaster.ca.