The images of devastation inundating the news media from Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines seem far removed from students going about their business at UCLA.
It is clear, though, by walking down Bruin Walk that many UCLA students are giving money in the hopes of helping. Many have donated to both the American Red Cross and a variety of nonprofit organizations aiding those affected by the disaster.
But in terms of the actions taken by the student body at large, the relief effort at UCLA often does not extend far beyond simply making donations.
Although the on-campus response to the typhoon has included a benefit talent show by UCLA Mabuhay Collective planned for this Friday, a thoughtful email from the chancellor and outreach to students directly affected by the disaster, the relief effort has primarily taken shape through various groups soliciting donations on Bruin Walk.
The student body should respond to disaster in a more cohesive and thorough manner, and this responsibility lies primarily with the on-campus service and cultural groups that are interested in contributing to relief efforts. These groups should form a broad, collaborative network to effectively address the need for aid caused by future disasters.
While different cultural organizations may be interested in providing relief based on the population affected by the disaster, building coalitions based on aid and awareness can forge bonds that kick into gear whenever an individual community is impacted.
Interested organizations can use the Undergraduate Students Association Council’s Internal Vice President’s Office to establish a coalition of this sort. The IVP Office has a number of student group liaisons that are well placed to accomplish this goal.
Avi Oved, the USAC internal vice president, said he supports establishing a disaster relief network made up of interested groups.
Instead of one-off events like the single talent show being held to raise funds for the Philippines, this network could organize several or execute large-scale donation drives over the entire campus.
Even major relief groups like the American Red Cross at UCLA face obstacles while responding to disaster without a centralized network to connect them with other groups on campus.
Angela Lam, a third-year electrical engineering student and co-treasurer of the Red Cross at UCLA, said there are many groups on campus that wish to contribute to the current relief effort, but the difficulty of communicating with one another and organizing a relief campaign has left many unable to do much more than collect modest sums of money.
Groups like the Red Cross at UCLA that are already well established and have contributed to relief efforts in the past have a responsibility to reach out to and include groups with fewer members or less experience that wish to aid in relief efforts.
“(The Red Cross at UCLA) has about 50 members, but it’s hard to get the word out to a campus this large with such small numbers,” Lam said.
Connected to a larger network full of motivated clubs, service groups like the Red Cross at UCLA as well as cultural groups on campus could execute a relief response of greater magnitude in less time.
A coalition of this nature would be poised to deal with future disasters in much more complete and effective ways by strategizing in advance and by empowering smaller interested parties to contribute.
Email Guptill at cguptill@media.ucla.edu or tweet him @CharlesGuptill. Send general comments to opinion@media.ucla.edu or tweet us @DBOpinion.
Nice suggestion, but more power to student government? No thanks
“These groups should form a broad, collaborative network to effectively address the need for aid caused by future disasters.” Lol, you mean like the Mabuhay Collective? Which is made up of several Pilipin@ orgs on campus?
While you may think that just collecting “modest” donations is a lazy effort in contributing to the relief in the Philippines, but there are specific reasons as to why these orgs are asking for monetary donations, one of them specifically being that in situations where countries are hit by natural disasters, it takes an overwhelmingly long time to distribute donated goods such as canned foods, shoes, and clothes. Therefore, it’s much more effective to donate money to grassroots organizations in order to expedite relief.
And while you go on and on about how we should be working with Red Cross, there’s another reason as to why Mabuhay refuses to collaborate with them, which is that we aren’t interested in donating to an org that would just stay in the Philippines for a couple of months and leave. Our primary focus as part of the Pilipin@-American community at UCLA is to work with grassroots orgs that are interested in actually rebuilding and restoring the communities affected by this tragedy.
Please. Before you write an op-ed article about a disaster of this magnitude and imply that Mabuhay’s benefit show is a lame attempt at providing relief, actually do your research. Did you actually ask any of the members of the Mabuhay Collective if there will be an ongoing campaign for relief? Or did you just assume that we were just going to put on our talent show, donate $20 and call it a day?
The “author” of this article is a poor excuse for a journalist. Like the person who commented before me said, there HAS been and WILL CONTINUE TO BE a collaborative effort between numerous organizations on campus. Nearly all the undergraduate Pilipino organizations have come together for the fundraising effort, and it doesn’t just stop there. Graduate students are collaborating as well, and so are members of the Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian communities.
Check your facts, Charley. I think you should apologize to UCLA’s Pilipino community (as well as the other communities on campus who have been working quickly and diligently in response to the typhoon), re-write your sadly misinformed article, and inform the students of UCLA of the great work that these organizations have been and will CONTINUE to be doing to help those who are suffering in their homelands.
Furthermore, not only am I extremely disappointed and angry that the author of this article has belittled our efforts, I am also infuriated that the Daily Bruin has utilized the destruction of my homeland, as well as the lives of my people, as a means of political gain. Thousands of lives lost, the suffering of families, the well-being of the survivors, and the destruction of a whole entire country is far more important than a mere university student government election.
A white guy dismissing the relief efforts of the Pilipino orgs on campus? Very shocked by this right now.
“Instead of one-off events like the single talent show being held to raise funds for the Philippines, this network could organize several or execute large-scale donation drives over the entire campus.”
This isn’t a “one-off” event–all the Filipino orgs are looking at the longer term as well–we’re trying to sustain our efforts and help REBUILD the community, not just bring relief.
I admire the Red Cross, but they are solely a RELIEF organization. If I were to donate my money to a nonprofit, it’d be to an organization with long-term interests in rebuilding the affected regions.
Did you even bother interviewing any of the representatives from Mabuhay collective? Or did you just make pretentious assumptions on the amount of work that these people are putting into organizing relief efforts?
TALK to them, and get their side of the story and MENTION it in the article. You’re a journalist, for crying out loud.
how about we STOP trying to make everything about USAC and instead
focus on the actual relief. i love it when smaller groups do great
things, but i’m tired of seeing USAC subsequently whine over how they
couldn’t tag along with an event and get recognition for it. USAC is not central to successful events, contrary to “popular” belief.
Thank you for providing us with a modern day example of Rudyard Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden,” in taking it upon yourself to tell the Mabuhay Collective on how we should collaborate in providing relief for our own affected community. To delegitimize the efforts being made by this collaboration by essentially implying they are inefficient, incohesive, and misguided is to replicate the mentality of classic imperialistic thought. Because what this world truly needs is another white savior to replicate the efforts in “salvaging the misguided attempts of an inferior people.” Please, check your privilege and do your research.