GW Students for Japan


March 16, 2011

Help Japan members sit and stand behind table with Help Japan sign

From left to right: Niti Sheth, Aishah Alnesef, Giulia Zappaterra, Dean Susan Karamanian, Alexander Gebert, Ivan Prosperi, Thomas Zott and Mike Durek.

By Menachem Wecker

In the wake of tragedy in Japan, three student groups are trying their best to help out.

When Law School associate dean Susan Karamanian sent an email last weekend asking for students to volunteer to organize a fundraiser for Japan, Aishah Alnesef, Ivan Prosperi and Alexander Gebert responded.

A Facebook post later, the group had 11 student volunteers to staff a table to collect donations throughout the week. And within the first three hours, the group had raised $300 – a number which as of 6 p.m. yesterday, had soared to $2,000, according to Mr. Gebert, a master of laws student.

Following the devastating news reports, images and video footage from Japan, Mr. Gebert says the group realized that “tremendous efforts” would be necessary to help the earthquake and tsunami victims.

“No country in the world, regardless of how strong it is economically, can handle such a natural disaster all by itself, without help from other countries and relief organizations,” he says.

The group also felt a more personal connection to the tragedy through their Japanese classmates.

Though Mr. Gebert and Mr. Prosperi had discussed the need to create a group to help Japanese victims, they hadn’t thought about organizing a fundraiser until they received the email from Ms. Karamanian. The two, Ms. Karamanian and Ms. Alnesef met last Monday to strategize.

The group created posters, purchased office supplies, created stickers to give to donors and set up a table in a lounge at the Law School. It also spread the word that students could donate via text messages or online.

The money collected, the first $500 of which was matched by an anonymous donor, is going to the Red Cross.

“The best donations at the moment are monetary, because there is no infrastructure and a lack of people to deliver supplies,” says junior Emi Kamemoto, president of the GW student group Japanese American Student Alliance. “And the Red Cross and the organizations we are working with prefer to purchase their supplies independently.”

Ms. Kamemoto, who has family in Japan, says her organization has compiled a fact sheet on how to help Japan, and will be selling bracelets to benefit the country.

“We have worked hard to solidify a website and PayPal donation account,” she says, adding that the group has chosen to partner with the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity Japan.

According to junior Kazu Koyama, a member of the board of the Japanese American Student Union of D.C., the intercollegiate organization is planning events on campus and at other D.C. locations.

The union, which was founded in 2009 to promote a “cooperative spirit” among Japanese American students, Japanese foreign exchange students and other area students, will have tables set up in the Marvin Center on March 21 where students can donate.

According to Mr. Koyama, a research analyst at the U.S. Committee for Human Right in North Korea, the union will sell red wristbands that say Hope for Japan, write messages to the Red Cross, craft crane-shaped origami and record video messages to upload to its blog.

The union will also host a fundraiser on March 20 from noon to 3 p.m. at Café Asia (1550 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, Va.), which will cost $5. The event, which will feature music and dancing, is open to the public, and the entrance fees and 10 percent of the food sales will be donated to the Japan Relief Project.

According to the Office of Institutional Research, 30 students from Japan are enrolled at GW this semester: eight undergraduate, 19 graduate and three non-degree students.

J. Greg Leonard, director of GW’s International Services Office, says the university is trying to contact all the students it knows to have ties to Japan.

“We are reaching out to all Japanese students we have records for to offer our sympathy and support,” he says.