Majed Abdulsamad, a 5th Year B.Arch. student set to receive his degree in December 2015, has posted an appeal to support Syrian refugees on IIT Syrian Student blog.
Before listing a set of NGOs to which donations can be made to support Syrian refugees, Majed outlines steps each of us can take to help:
1. Educating yourself on the current crisis, rejecting stereotypes, getting to know Syrians/refugees, and sharing these information with your networks is in itself, a great contribution.
2. No contribution, Whatsoever, is too small. $1=+300 Syrian Pounds= bread for a whole family for a day. It’s more helpful than you think.
3. Although it’s extremely helpful, contributions don’t have to be monetary. Showing solidarity with refugees through social media and to your local politicians/ representatives makes a big difference.
The IIT Syrian student blog is an independent writing project led by undergraduates enrolled at Illinois Institute of Technology that provides a non-partisan and non-political platform for reflections about our experiences as students since our arrival at Illinois Tech beginning August 2012. Our goal is to build a better a world and future for Syria and Syrian undergraduates whose education is being shaped by the current crisis in higher education in Syria. We do this by sharing our narratives and by adding context to our education. Over time, we hope that our collective stories will contribute to greater clarity, deeper reflection and more sustained conversation as to the role of higher education during a time of crisis. In addition, we hope that our narratives will support and amplify the efforts of our undergraduates across our globe who experience the disruption in their own educational experiences through war, violence, conflict, poverty, natural disaster, discrimination, prejudice, and other factors leading to the loss of their ability to further support their country and communities because they are unable to pursue advanced studies and research.