Asia Relief was founded Fall term 2005 in response to the October 2005 Pakistani earthquake that killed 87,000 people and left more than 3,000,000homeless. So far, it has raised $17,000, including $7,000 this term alone,
"We had a bunch of events coming up at the same time," student chair of Asia Relief Sonia Faruqi '07 said of the reasons for this week's success.
Project Bangladesh was started in 2004 when Dartmouth engineering student Matt Sueoka '04 went to Bangladesh to design a replacement orphanage for the current structurally unsound structure. Since its inception, the organization has raised over $68,000; $30,000 of that has come from the Hopscotch Foundation, an organization founded by Sueoka after his graduation.
In September the Tucker Foundation officially adopted the program, pledging to oversee the project in the future and promising to begin student service trips as early as this December.
The focus of Project Bangladesh's fundraising is now a letter writing campaign, with involved students targeting their high schools, churches and families.
"We're trying to reach outside the Dartmouth network for this," Project Bangladesh student coordinator Natalie Allan '06 said.
This past week Asia Relief held five events, with the date auction at Collis Commonground and a dinner co-sponsored by Milan raising $1,000 each.
Zobeida Torres '06, who attended the Milan dinner in Alumni Hall, said she was partly attracted by the event's quality entertainment and food.
"I went because the donations were going to a good cause and I knew some of the performers," Torres said. "The good Indian food and the good show were a plus."
Project Bangladesh held two events: a concert with the Dodecaphonics and Cords at Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity on Friday that raised $250 and an ongoing raffle organized through blitz.
Allan said the success of Project Bangladesh's fundraising was due the enthusiasm of the students involved in the project.
"In the ways that Project Bangladesh exemplifies academic creativity, dedication to service and initiative, it exemplifies all the best qualities of a Dartmouth eduction," Allan said. "Who can help but get excited about an original project created and managed by Dartmouth students which will directly impact the lives of 100 orphans in need?"
