How many Twentysomethings would look up from their computer game and think about Syria? Yet, this group of students, with differing interests and priorities, are helping raise funds for refugees in that country 2,000 miles away. Called Aurora Charitable Society, they have raised nearly Rs 50,000 by selling merchandise since January 2016. “The idea for Aurora was born over plates of fries and chocolate milkshake in the middle of the night during finals week,” said the group’s founder Jerry George Thomas (21), an engineering student at SSN University.
The Syrian crisis is said to be the worst refugee crisis since WWII. Millions of people have fled the war-torn country and 6.5 million people are internally displaced. “Gauging the scale of the crisis, we wanted to do our bit, however, small,” said Sruthakeerthi M. Another vital cog in the Aurora framework is Priya Subramaniam, a final-year student of humanities at IIT-M -- who feels it would be silly to discuss such poignant issues in the classroom and not do anything about it in real life, and Shreevidhya R, a fellow at Teach for India, agrees.
Why Syrian refugees?
Imagine that your city came under attack. You lose everything, you don’t know where your family is and you’re beaten, flogged and forced to flee to Pakistan or Bangladesh on foot. Syrians face an even worse situation. One in four people in Jordan is a Syrian refugee. The disturbing reality of violence and destruction in Syria led us to help.
You're all in college. How do you find the time for this?
It’s all about priorities. For us, making a difference, however, small it might be gives us a sense of satisfaction. It is just a few movies unwatched. It is just a few TV shows not binge-watched. Or another reunion cancelled. It is the cause that unites us and drives us to sacrifice our free time to do such a thing.
How did your families take it when you told them you were raising funds for Syrian refugees?
Paranoid, actually. They think ISIS will come and get us or that we might get into some kind of legal trouble. They think we are too young to handle such a huge responsibility. They are secretly proud but openly worried. As long as we keep the balance, they would never stop us from doing anything.
When will the funds reach refugees?
The funds will be sent to UNHCR as they have a massive shortage of funds. There is an insufficient government contribution from India and one does not have the option of making individual donations to UNHCR either. So, we act as a bridge between you and UNHCR. So far, we have had tie-ups with cultural fests and events like IITMUN, Outlawed, SSN’s Instinct, MY theatre festival, SRMMUN, etc where we sold our team’s self-designed badges, notebooks, posters, and greeting cards, attracting many buyers as well as promoting the cause.
How tuned in are young people when it comes to caring for global causes such as this?
People have a misconception about students. We conducted a social experiment at Besant Nagar beach in Chennai. We showed film footage from Syria and asked them to identify it. That genuinely looked like a scene from The Avengers or another action movie. But, to our surprise, most of them couldidentity the country. Some of them even went to the extent of pointing out which city in Syria the footage was from. So, a good number of people are aware of what is going on in the world. We have over 50 young and enthusiastic volunteers in Aurora working hard.
Were people eager to pitch in for a crisis thousands of miles away, especially given that there's no dearth of causes closer home?
We had mixed responses. Some of them needed no persuasion to donate money while some were hesitant. For those who couldn't relate to the cause, we sell goodies, like badges, posters, etc to incentivize.
Aurora is hot on Facebook. How has social networking helped spread the word?
Social media has got a great role to play, because it cuts across geographical limitations and boundaries, making it easier to get noticed by the right people at the right time. We are currently spreading the word and expanding across cities like Kolkata, Hyderabad, Delhi, Coimbatore, etc with the help of social media.
Those interested can volunteer with Aurora by signing up on their Facebook page or their website www.aurora-outreach.in.