Students, faculty and staff wishing to contribute to the relief of the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster victims in southeast Asia may do so through a special fund that has been set up at UCA.
As an Asian Studies Development Program Regional Center, UCA may collect money that will be matched by private donors to the East-West Center, which is spearheading one of the biggest relief efforts in the United States. As of Jan. 7, the East-West Center had already raised and distributed more than $230,000, and updates its Web page each week to specify to what purposes the money has been placed.
Although much has been donated from across the world to support the rescue, emergency medical care, and immediate needs of disaster victims, money will continue to be needed for months to come to shelter, feed and clothe the homeless, according to Raymond Frontain, coordinator of Asian Studies.
?Funds donated through mid-February will serve as important a purpose as those donated in the immediate wake of the disaster,? Frontain said.
Donating through UCA’s East-West Center fund will be particularly effective for the UCA community, Frontain explained, in that the East-West Center is intimately familiar with the region, and is knowledgeable about how the money can be most effectively dispersed.
The East-West Center also assesses no overhead or operating cost, guaranteeing that every dollar collected will go directly to meet the needs of the disaster victims. Private donors are also matching every dollar collected by ASDP alumni and regional centers, ?enhancing the power of our gift,? Frontain said.
President Lu Hardin said the university?s administration is also considering other possible options to help tsunami victims, such as adopting a village school in one of the ravaged areas of southeast Asia.
?Such a project would not only allow members of our university family the opportunity to assist a village in rebuilding its communal life, but could allow UCA students the ongoing occasion to work with people of another culture who are greatly in need of our friendship and support,? Hardin said.
Checks made payable to UCA Foundation should include “EWC Tsunami Disaster Relief Fund” on their memo line. They may be delivered to the secretaries in the College of Liberal Arts office (Irby 120) any work day from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The money will be held in a special Foundation account until a composite check is written to the East-West Center Tsunami Disaster Relief Fund on Feb. 10. A receipt that can be presented for tax deduction purposes will be issued at the time of the donation. UCA donors will be credited with a contribution to the UCA Foundation that is acknowledged by the Asian Studies Development Program Regional Center at UCA.
Hardin will present the money collected through this fund to East-West Center officials when they are on campus for the “Teaching India” workshop that UCA co-hosts Feb. 11-12.
For more information, call Frontain at 450-5122.
