Clare Auchterlonie, Los Angeles California, U.S.A
The one fundraising idea that stuck in my mind was to hold a Nintendo wii tennis tournament, as it was fun, low-cost, and had a wide appeal. As a transplant from London to LA - I still mostly know people from work, so I asked my boss if we could hold it one night after work in the office. He readily agreed and said he’d supply refreshments that we could then sell as his contribution.
I emailed my co-workers inviting them to compete for a trophy after paying an entrance fee of $10. I brought a gold engraved trophy from an online store for cheap and downloaded a bracket scoring card from a website for free.
On the night some people dropped out but still gave their entry fee, so we had 9 players in the end. Some people stayed to watch and donated for food and drinks.
I brought in my TV and wii system that we set up in the main office. After showing Ben Affleck’s Gimme Shelter, I explained about my involvement in the project and how tonight’s goal was to raise $200 for a tent Somalis forced to flee their homes.
The games were a lot of fun – one of my coworker’s niece was over visiting from the UK, and she whipped us all before beating my husband to win the trophy! All in all, people had a really good time – so much so they talked about doing it again next year, if not sooner.
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Pamela Murra, Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico
The event went great! I was really happy to share with my friends something I care about and see them get interested in it, too.
The event was originally going to be a Hamburger Sale, but due to a recent alert of the H1N1 in my area, I had to cancel it because there wouldn't be enough sales.
I talked to some of my friends and we decided to carry out a BBQ where everyone brought something they already had in their houses (part of the food was from a previous party and the other one was bought between some of us). There were even little party-hats a friend decided to bring from his sister's birthday.
I placed a small url on the hats, so that everyone could memorize the website and spread the word around. During the BBQ I brought my laptop outside for them to view the real situation of refugees through some of the videos available in Youtube in the UNHCR channel.
Almost none of my friends knew that situations such as the ones in the video were still real, so they felt even more connected to this activity we were doing. Everyone donated, knowing that our goal to reach were $200, what they could into a container we had in the entrance.
I really loved having this BBQ and sharing with my friends something I don't usually talk about with them. I felt it was a very positive event, were we got together to help a good cause, providing shelter for a family.
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Lisbeth Garassino, New York, New York, U.S.A
This past Friday I had a refugee event at my apartment to raise $200 for a family of refugees in Somalia.
The first time I saw the refugee problem firsthand was in Bosnia in 2006. I was volunteering in Sarajevo with the organization Builders for Peace. Najeb, our tour guide for the day, showed us a spot where enemy fighters hid up on a hill overlooking Sarajevo. A crowd of young boys ran up to us. They were shy at first and then clamored for attention and to take pictures with us. The boys wore shorts or a pair of boxers with no shoes. Najeb said that they were refugees living in the hills and they would remember this day, meeting us, for the rest of their lives.
I got involved with the UNHCR Gimme Shelter campaign because I think that those boys — and all people — deserve to have a safe place to live. For my refugee event, I sent out an invitation on Facebook to my friends with the details of my event: a party to raise money to provide one tent for a family of refugees. I asked that my friends show up and donate $10.00.
Before my event I decorated my apartment with information regarding the work that UNHCR does and the current situation in Somalia. Once my guests arrived, I played Ben Affleck’s short film about UNHCR’s work. Next we read refugee accounts of the current situation in Somalia. These can be found on the Give Them Shelter website and are powerful stories that really communicate what is going on.
When my guests first arrived, I asked them to wear a nametag with a number on it. After the refugee readings, I explained what these numbers meant. These were statistics of refugees, asylum seekers, and other displaced people in Somalia. To tie these numbers back to my guests, I gave statistics on where we live, Manhattan. I explained that the number of people of concern in Somalia is close to the same as the population of the burough of Manhattan. I said that if suddenly all of Manhattan were in this situation there would be an uproar, but since this is Somalia no one cares.
To finish the event, we had a raffle for three UNHCR T-shirts that I bought at UNIQLO. We raised over $200 for a tent, which is a home for a family of refugees in Somalia.
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Jessica Perry George, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A
I decided to write emails to my family and friends asking them to contribute
what they could as many of them knew that I worked as a volunteer within the
Somali Bantu refugee community in Baltimore for several years.
I am constantly touched by the resilience, optimism and spirit of the
Somalis I have met, most of whom spent the majority of their lives in refugee
camps only to come to the U.S. and struggle to make ends meet. When mentoring a
newly arrived family, I met Habibo, a single mother of three, who spent 15 of
her 28 years living in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.
When she arrived in the US, 7 years after she applied for resettlement, she
spent a night sleeping under a highway overpass with her three children because
she took the wrong bus route to get to the resettlement center in Baltimore.
Habibo, who had never had a job before, began working 40 hours a week in a
factory packaging frozen chicken, so that she could support her family.
Despite all of these challenges, every week when I would spend time with
them, Habibo and her children laughed and smiled and lifted MY spirits. They
reminded me of the importance of family and health. They know they are among
the fortunate few Somalis who make it to another country, where they can live
their lives and make plans for the future, instead of being confined to a
refugee camp where they are dependent on aid organizations for food and
shelter.
Even in the refugee diaspora, some are more fortunate than others. Many
Somalis continue to be displaced and live in informal settlements and refugee
camps, in makeshift shelters built from sticks and rags.
Together with my friends and family, we have raised more than enough money
to give shelter to a displaced Somali family!
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