The flooding that devastated Pakistan over the summer has prompted the founding of a student group focused on disaster relief.

Syracuse Cares, a student response to the Pakistan flooding that focuses on disaster awareness and fundraising, is planning a charity event after collecting donations for the past few weeks. In addition, SU’s Baptist Campus Ministry has been donating money to relief efforts in Pakistan.

‘This has received a tremendous following from the day it started,’ said Sabith Khan, a member of SyracuseCares.

The group has been fundraising for Pakistan for the past three weeks and has collected what Khan, a graduate student in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, described as a ‘modest amount.’

Syracuse Cares is the result of several independent fundraising efforts for flood relief in Pakistan, Khan said. As each group realized its common purpose, they collaborated with the South Asia Center to create a university-wide platform.

During the flooding, Pakistan International Airlines launched its Life Box program, which encourages donors to create gift aid boxes of high-energy food and liquids to sustain four individuals for two to three days each. The airline then shipped each box, which costs approximately $35 in supplies, from designated American airports at no charge.

Khan’s original plan was to raise donations to create Life Boxes and bring them to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. After nine boxes, however, Khan realized it was too challenging to create the boxes and raise the money to support them. Instead, the group turned to the South Asia Center for guidance, Khan said.

The group now splits its donations between Oxfam International, a United Kingdom-based alliance of 14 major organizations, and the Edhi Foundation, a nonprofit social welfare program in Pakistan.

‘We’re coming at this with all kinds of perspectives and conditions, but we’re on the same page,’ said Emera Bridger Wilson, outreach coordinator of the South Asia Center.

Comparing disasters can be futile, Wilson said, but it may be necessary to comprehend the scope of the Pakistan disaster.

‘It’s not just ‘flooding one day, water’s gone the next,” Wilson said. ‘Look at the damage Katrina caused. Think about Pakistan, where the number of people affected is most of the population of the United States. If people need a point of comparison, they can look close to home.’

Though none of the members of Syracuse Cares has been personally affected by the flooding, they feel obliged to assist, Khan said.

Binoy Parvathy, a member of Syracuse Cares and a Maxwell doctoral candidate, said she thinks more undergraduate students could get involved in Syracuse Cares’ cause. Undergraduate students often party at least a few hours per week, so they could probably spare a few of those hours to help, Parvathy said.

Syracuse Cares will hold its first charity and awareness event Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. in the College of Law’s Grant Auditorium. Tickets cost $8 in advanced or $10 at the door.

Speakers include Catherine Bertini, a Maxwell professor and 10-year chief executive of the United Nations World Food Programme, and Tomás Gonzalez, senior assistant dean for student life at SU’s College of Law. Khan said there will also be food and klezmer music, a form of Eastern European folk music.

The group’s challenge is to convey the intricacies and complexities of recovery, while also presenting it as ‘edutainment’ and not lectures, Khan said.

Syracuse Cares is not the only campus group donating time and money to help Pakistan.

Over the past two weeks, SU’s BCM donated its weekly tithe to charity organizations operating in Pakistan, said Jen Saunders, a ministry member. Members sometimes travel to aid humanitarian efforts abroad, she said.

‘When you’re in tune with the Lord, you ask for what breaks His heart,’ Saunders said, ‘and this breaks our hearts, too.’

geclarke@syr.edu

Published on September 20, 2010 at 12:00 pm