After a tsunami hit Japan, the Asian American Student Union was overwhelmed with offers of money and time.
People wanted to help, so Hope for Japan, a fundraising organization, was created with the immediate goal of raising $5,000 by March 31. With a week to go and only $1,051.05 collected as of Wednesday, the group is reaching out for help.
“There’s definitely kind words, and I do see support,” said Megan Vu, president of Asian American Student Union and an organizer of Hope for Japan. “But I feel that we need to see more action.”
Twenty-year-old Michael Satyapor, who recently took over leading Hope for Japan, said the fundraising is a group effort of many cultural clubs.
But it’s slowly becoming its own organization, and he said it will be around for the rest of the semester and probably in the summer.
The organization is still a newborn, Satyapor said.
He said the group began to grow immediately after it was created, and collections are coming in daily.
“Within days, they designed T-shirts,” he said. “They designed posters. They set up the website so people can make donations.”
He expects more donations to come in during the various cultural events going on this week, including the Asian American Student Association’s closing ceremony to their weeklong cultural celebration, which will be held at 6 p.m. Friday in the University Auditorium.
