Students plan aid for India
The earthquake that hit India on the morning of Jan. 26 has Utah State University Indian students concerned – and hoping to help.
Supriyo Ghosh, a graduate student at USU, said he has a good friend in India who still has not been able to locate his father among the ruble that once was the city of Bhuj, near the epicenter of the quake.
Ram Swaminathan, general secretary for the USU Indian Student Association, said Bhuj, which has the approximate population of the Cache Valley, is completely destroyed.
“Imagine, the whole valley gone,” he said.
More than 300 aftershocks have been felt since the quake, and there have been aftershocks as far away as Bangalor, approximately 750 miles to the south, Swaminathan said.
The Indian Student Association spoke at the fund raising table on the first floor of the Taggart Student Center Thursday, which Swaminathan hoped would raise money to help the relief effort
“All my friends in all universities are raising money,” he said.
All money donated to the Indian Student Association goes to the Red Cross, which has been on the ground at the disaster sites, Swaminathan said.
He said all Indian students are encouraged to give one hour of their hourly wages to the relief effort.
Swaminathan said he expects donations from students to be about $500 but said if the fund raiser went well, they would also have a table again on Monday.
Students or faculty who wish to donate can visit a Web site devoted to the disaster at the Indian Student Association’s Web site, www.usu.edu/~isaedit..