A west-end middle school’s quest to raise $30,000 to help sponsor a family of Syrian refugees has prompted the Toronto District School Board to launch a board-wide initiative of its own aimed at raising money to help the millions of others displaced by the country’s bloody civil war.
The TDSB held a news conference at Dewson Street Public School on Tuesday morning to announce its “TDSB Cares” initiative, in which the board’s 588 schools will be encouraged to raise funds for the Red Cross’s efforts to help those affected by the refugee crisis.
The launch of the fundraising drive, which will go until December 11, comes almost two week after the students at Dewson Street Public School launched a campaign of their own to raise the estimated $30,000 required to sponsor the immigration of a Syrian refugee family to Canada.
So far that campaign has raised $5,000.
“This is definitely a chance for students to recognize that what we have here not everybody has across the world and that you can still do something to help other people even if it is far away,” TDSB Chair Robin Pilkey told CP24 on Tuesday. “I think it is very important that kids recognize that these things can be done and that they can be done at a grassroots level.”
According to the TDSB, donations for the Syrian refugee campaign will be collected in schools and online and will then be matched as part of a federal government initiative.
Though the TDSB has not set a firm target for the amount of money it hopes to raise, the board did raise $180,000 for relief efforts following the Nepal earthquake last April.
Speaking with CP24 at Dewson Street Public School, one student urged anyone who has been contemplating donating to the Syrian refugee crisis to hurry up and do so.
“They shouldn’t just think about it they should do it without any hesitation,” the student said. “We are lucky. We have food, money, clothes, shelters and everything but people in Syria are very unlucky. They don’t have any shelter or food or clothing.”
A letter will be going home with TDSB students this week informing parents of the board-wide fundraising campaign and outlining how they can contribute.
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