What started out as a modest fundraising goal has quickly brought in more than $100,000 to help the Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing Myanmar.
Sabrina Meherally and Tasleem Dhanji initially set out to raise $5,000 to donate to Doctors Without Borders, specifically to aid Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar into Bangladesh.
“When we first started we were planning this on a zero-dollar budget, we wanted to do it within a five-week period of time,” Dhanji said. “We thought realistically we wouldn’t be able to raise more than $5,000 but for five weeks’ worth of work that was a good amount.”
The pair started organizing and selling tickets for an event, which took place earlier this month, with entertainment and keynote speeches from a Rohingya refugee, Yasmin Ullah, who now lives in Vancouver, as well as a representative from Doctors Without Borders.
The cause quickly took off. With people already making donations when they purchased tickets to the event, the pair surpassed their initial goal before the day of the event. And the donations continued to stream in at the event.
“I think that the two speeches, especially Yasmin’s, really pulled on the heartstrings of individuals and it resulted in a significant number of donations following the speech,” Meherally said. “We saw the number spike there and we knew we were going higher than expected but I think at the end of the day when we looked at our numbers we were still super shocked to be at $24,000.”
While the event was a success, donations have continued to come in over the last few weeks bringing the total collected so far to $53,000. The federal government is currently matching any charitable donations Canadians make for the crisis, bringing the total to $106,000.
It’s estimated that more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar since August following army-led violence that has been described as ethnic cleansing, and the United Nations is calling it one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world right now.
“The crisis is significant,” Meherally said. “It’s horrific what’s happening in Myanmar and we’re hoping that the awareness piece that we can bring as well compels people to contribute with or without matching… funds are so desperately needed right now.”
The pair said they chose Doctors Without Borders because they felt the it was more transparent than some about how funds are used, and like that the organization was helping on several fronts.
“The money that goes towards Doctors Without Borders is not only medical aid, which is in dire need, but its food, water, they help make the camps, they have pharmacists, nurses, midwives, all of course which are heavily burdened right now because they don’t have enough people, they don’t have enough supplies, they don’t have enough money and that’s why, especially with the high levels of malnutrition, Doctors Without Borders, in our opinion, would be able to tackle all of that,” Meherally said.
The pair said that as well as raising money, they are hoping to raise awareness around what’s happening.
“We also know that advocacy and going down the political route has more power when it comes impacting and influencing the route of the issue here, the root being that these tactics employed by the Myanmar militia are still occurring,” Meherally said. “Villages are still being burned, people are still being thrown into the fire and murdered and that hasn’t stopped. So while we can treat the refugees that are fleeing to Bangladesh, if we want to look at it from a broader lens of what else we can do as individuals I think we need to look at influencing our government and political parties to take a stronger stance against what’s happening.”
For more information, or to contact Meherally and Dhanji about making a donation, visit fb.me/standupforrohingya.
Donations can also be made online until the end of December. Be sure to add "Stand Up For Rohingya" in the message box to add to the local campaign.
The Canadian government will match any money donated before Nov. 28.
