Tahira @ JAAGO

Sunday, 22 January 2012

The BC Bangla student organization from Brooklyn College, along with sponsors of student groups Desi Club and Turkish American Student Association (TASA), organized a fundraiser to benefit underprivileged children of JAAGO Foundation on November 17, 2011.

The hardest part of organizing the Fundraiser was not the bureaucratic process that we had to follow, but to get people in the community interested in our cause. After a lot of campaign on and off the campus (and a few video conferences), we managed to get around 20 something volunteers to help us by donating food, monetary support for the fundraiser or help during the actual event. Volunteers were divided into groups - some were responsible for managing the tables; others were assigned at different places within our campus to hand out flyers and direct people towards our table. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day. Yet, some of my volunteers went out in the rain to hand out flyers. We gave out free JAAGO T-shirts to people who bought $7 worth of food and it turned out to be a big HIT. People seemed to like the T-shirts which also gave them a sense of pride for supporting a good cause. The event was held in front of Brooklyn College - School of Business, 12 pm-5pm. Despite the rainy weather we managed to raise more than $450 which is approximately BDT 31,570/-.

I know what it was like to organize this fundraiser especially around the schedules of all the people involved. Alhamdulillah! It was great. But all this would not have been possible at all without the support of Sahar Afzal, Elvira Dipres, Amber Kasmani, Musab Ali, Mohammad Alam and of course, someone that always stood by me from the beginning Jamila Toaha. This was all because of them and my lovely volunteers.