Saamia Noorali is being spotlighted for her intricate and dedicated work to Pakistan flood relief. After hearing about the floods this past summer, Saamia decided to take action within the UVa community and the Charlottesville city to raise money and awareness. She held an interest meeting at the beginning of the semester and currently has about 20 students directly involved with fundraising. To raise money she has participated in a recent benefit dinner, sold silly bands, and organized a supply drive around dorms to send to relief camps in Pakistan. She has also facilitated discussions about the issue with local churches and attended John Stewart’ s Rally To Restore Sanity this Saturday to help give flood victims media attention they are not receiving.
She has already been able to help raise over $15,000 and has sent 20 boxes of supplies to relief camps that need them the most filled with Gatorade, chocolates, protein bars, fiber bars, and soap. Her immediate goals are to continue raising money and awareness about this issue and by December 15th she hopes to send at least 80 boxes filled with blankets to these camps. Saamia is a fourth year Global Development Studies major and hopes to travel to several relief camps after she graduates to directly aid the victims of the floods. Saamia’ s personal passion and responsibility to this issue is illustrated in the way that she talks about it and more importantly, through her actions to ameliorate the flood victim’ s pain – her work is truly an inspiration.
