Media and humanitarian attention to devastating Pakistan floods is dwindling, but the ASSU is implementing a second wave of campaigns to revamp its Pakistan flood relief effort and, organizers hope, spike attention for the 20 million people affected by the summer disaster.
Spearheaded this August by Asfandyar Ali Mir ’12, a Pakistani student appointed as ASSU executive director of Pakistan flood relief, along with ASSU President Angelina Cardona ’11 and Vice President Kelsei Wharton ’12, the campaign is a partnership with the United States Agency for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (USA for UNHCR), the United Nations refugee agency. Stanford has partnered with six other schools–Caltech, UC-Berkeley, Vanderbilt, Rice, University of Ontario and Gettysburg College–and is targeting 30 high-school and collegiate partners in the near future.
Stanford is leading the fundraising efforts with an estimated $11,100 raised so far, with the second-largest donation totaling $4,000 from Caltech. Cardona said the focus is not on reaching a monetary benchmark, but instead on raising awareness about the disaster on and around campus.
Vineet Singal ’12, who has been helping with the campaign, said he recently removed a personal plea in his e-mail signature because of several questions from individuals who believed the disaster and campaign were over.
“I got several e-mails from people who were like, ‘Aren’t the floods over?’” Singal said. “No, it’s not. The relief effort is still going on.”
A major obstacle continues to be raising funds and encouraging involvement regardless of waning international support. Mir called the floods “one of the biggest in the history of humanitarian disasters” but believed media coverage has been inadequate. A native of Rawalpindi, Mir has friends whose houses were swept away in August by the floods. His high school in Nowshera also was destroyed.
Singal attributed the drop in public awareness to the declining media coverage.
“When the international response subsided, so did the media attention, and then so did the personal attention,” Singal said.
The Stanford effort has used a number of strategies, including Facebook statuses and postings, personal appeals as e-mail signatures and a blog with resources such as interviews by UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie. A number of students participated in “Walk for Pakistan” on Sunday in Fremont, an effort by the nonprofit organization Focus, which is unaffiliated with the ASSU.
One of the most effective methods so far was a letter sent on Aug. 27 to students from Cardona and Wharton, asking students to donate just $5 to the cause.
“It’s something they spend on a Subway sandwich, it’s something they spend on a Starbucks coffee,” Singal said. “It’s nothing. It got people to think they could either have a coffee or help people in Pakistan who need it.”
Given the success of the letter, the next wave will likely focus on one-on-one strategies, such as having ASSU senators send out personal e-mails. The ASSU has also gotten Rotaract, a student service group, to agree to match contributions, but the details of this agreement have yet to be defined. Mir is planning a panel discussion on students’ role in such humanitarian crises.
The empathy that Stanford student feel in response to humanitarian tragedy has a history of generating of financial support on campus. Last year, the ASSU ran a similar campaign for relief for the earthquake in Haiti, raising thousands of dollars with partner organizations. A number of contributions came from the “Heal Haiti” event held in Stern Dining, which raised $4,000 in just a few hours, Cardona said. Many of the individuals who worked for Haiti relief are also working for Pakistan relief.
“We have a lot of talent on our team,” Cardona said.
According to Mir, Stanford students “have a tradition of stepping up.”
“We did it for Katrina, for the Southeast Asian tsunami, for Haiti and have done it in part for Pakistan as well,” he said. “But more needs to be done still.”