By Elizabeth Pagliacoto
Ryerson students and staff are extending their hands to help victims of Hurricane Mitch.
The drive to help the victims is being led by the Latin American Students Association of Ryerson (LASAR), which plans to donate the $400 it has earned from holding dance lessons at Oakham House.
“They need money over there for transportation and to build houses. It’s important to do our part and not be selfish with our profits and to give back to the community,” said LASAR v.p. Lydia Mason.
The donation will go to help victims in Honduras, a Central American country that was hit hardest by Hurrican Mitch, which killed about 11,000 people and left more than two million homeless.
LASAR is giving to Pueblito Canada, an international development organization. Pueblito will then redirect donations to Casa Canadiense, an organization based in Nicaragua that’s providing hurricane victims with medicine, clean water, clothing and food and helping them reconstruct their homes.
“We started to make plans — first we thought of sending old clothes [to Honduras] and the we decided it would be less cumbersome to send money,” said Hamzat Braimo, who helps produce LASAR’s advertising.
Dance lessons for this term will end next week.
The group is also accepting donations.
Lawrence Altrows, an urban and regional planning professor, is also trying to contribute to the aid process by organizing fundraising activities at Ryerson. He’s thinking of placing donation boxes around campus in the next week or two. “People have been saturated with pictures of suffering,” so awareness about the needs of hurricane survivors is widespread, he said.
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