As you may be aware, an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale hit the western state of Gujarat in India on the 26th of January. Tremors were felt as far as the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal in the north, Madras in the south and Pakistan in the west.

It is difficult to relate to the scale of misery being experienced by thousands of injured and the now millions of homeless survivors. One might feel helpless to do something physically to mitigate the misery of people half way around the world, but one CAN do a lot by helping those who have volunteered their time and effort to be present in Gujarat at this very moment fighting this great human catastrophe.

The Association for India's Development is a voluntary organization consisting of students across 19 campuses in the United States. We are now accepting donations to support the earthquake relief efforts in India. 100% of the donations collected by AID will be directly sent to the affected areas. AID will achieve this by sending your contributions to grassroots voluntary organizations in Gujarat with which it has associated with great success in developmental efforts. Through AID projects, we have established a good rapport with these organizations and are fully confident that your contributions will be effectively utilised for relief efforts. These organizations are active locally in the areas that have been hit by the earthquake and have proved their credibility through the various activities that they have undertaken in the past.

Potential organizations may include Self Employed Women?s Association (SEWA),  SAATH, Utthan, and AID Saathis who live and work in the villages of Gujarat.

You CAN make a difference. For further information regarding the Gujarat earthquake relief efforts, please contact AID at aidsc@psu.edu or call (814)237-2630. The latest information on AID's involvement with the relief efforts can be found at our main site

• Donation tables: Tables with collection boxes and information flyers will be set up from 8:30am to 5:00pm on
  • Thursday, Feb 1st at the HUB entrance on Pollock Rd.
  • Friday, Feb 2nd at the Willard patio.
  • Monday, Feb 5th at the Shortlidge, College Ave intersection
  • Tuesday, Feb 6th at College Ave, Allen St intersection
  
  
• Departments: Graduate students in several departments have put up flyers explaining how check/cash contributions can be made to the relief effort. If your department is not in the list please consider putting up an information flyer on a public bulletin board. Also, if you are collecting donations, you may want to use either the large box label or the small box label on the collection box after making appropriate changes. You may want to send this mail to your colleagues in the dept. after making suitable changes.
   
• Music concert: scheduled for Saturday, Feb 10th, will be the last fund raising activity for the earthquake relief fund. Here are the details.