Utah State University contributes to tsunami relief efforts
Utah State University students, faculty and staff are expressing interest in helping with tsunami relief efforts, including those who have been affected personally by the diesaster.
Ranga Perera, a senior majoring in electrical engineering is one of those students.
“My aunt got killed and her daughter was able to save her life. But she still can’t walk,” said Perera, who also has three friends in Southern Sri Lanka who are still missing.
Perera is the President of the Sri Lankan Student Association at USU and said the tsunami disaster is a, “very sad and hard situation for a small, poor country like Sri Lanka.”
Sri Lanka is one of the hardest hit nations in the region and as of today, 31,000 have died and more than 5,000 are still missing, Perera said.
According to reports, Sri Lanka will need $15.6 billion for reconstruction, Perera said. The Sri Lankan Student Association is in the process of finding ways to raise relief funds for the victims.
“The PR and Marketing Office will soon post a tsunami information page on the Web, which will provide a focal point for developing information and
announcements,” said Public Relations Specialist Mary-Ann Muffoletto.
Muffoletto said student-led efforts are already underway to raise money for disaster relief. For example, the Utah State student-athletes and local chapter of the American Red Cross collected funds at the USU basketball game against Cal Poly on Saturday.
“Presidents Hall and Essig will soon issue an official letter expressing
condolences to those within our community who were impacted by the disaster,” Muffoletto said.
Faculty and staff donations are to be supervised by Chris Fawson, vice provost for academic and international affairs.
“We would like to bring the campus community together to provide a unified response to support those who have been affected, both here in Logan and those in the affected countries,” Fawson said.
Vice President of Student Services Juan Franco said USU Student Services has established a committee with four sub-committees to coordinate the various activities.
Franco said the programs committee, chaired by associated students of USU Service Vice President, Sheldon Browning, will hold a campus-wide memorial scheduled for Jan. 26.
Franco said a fund-raising committee, chaired by Gary Chambers, associate vice president for Student Services, will coordinate activities that have been proposed by many student organizations to raise money.
“We have also established a committee to help current students who have been impacted by the disaster,” Franco said.
The committee is being chaired by Jeannie Pacheco, interim director of the International Programs Office.
Fawson said the university is in the early stages of organizing themselves for an institutional response to the disaster and that there will be more details on how the committees are to coordinate the efforts in the next week.
“We are deeply saddened by the consequences of this disaster which has touched the lives of many,” Franco said.
Since Saturday, more than 150,000 people have died resulting from the disaster on Dec. 26.
Franco said students can find out ways to participate in relief efforts by contacting him or one of the committee members.
-doantn@cc.usu.edu