Fundraising Efforts

It has been a fun-filled and effective week of fundraising for our upcoming Nghe An trip to the North to donate coats for the children. Although, we had to significantly adjust our original plans I would have to it has been an overall success due to the collective efforts of the UCHANU group. Further, I feel it has tremendously helped us become more integrated into the Hanu University campus by making the students aware of our presence and our willingness to volunteer and help. In retrospect, “if we would have known back then what we know now” we would have started these fundraising and made efforts to be a part of Hanu in the beginning.

There was a lot of enthusiasm in the beginning as we prepared for our less than two week intensive fundraising campaign. The goal was $1,500 and while the numbers raised are unavailable, it has been wonderfully successful. In addition to setting up an information booth to make the Hanu students aware and presenting our cause in the classrooms, we were able to sell food and beverages and put on a “High Roller” Casino Night to raise money and celebrate all of our work. Of course, the fundraising efforts were not without some problems. At onset of the fundraiser, many people were very vocal about doing this and that and were very adamant about their inputs. While that is perfectly fine, when push came to shove and action was required, suddenly these voices vanished and only a select group of people really put in work to make this fundraiser successful. I shouldn’t be surprise because this is normally the case but its definitely important that we address it. In particular, the “High Roller” casino night, which should had the most volunteers had less than 10 people helping. There was a great deal of work to do be done that included, transferring tables and chairs from the classrooms to the roof, purchasing material, decorations, and setting everything up. At the end of the day, we were completely exhausted. I am not using this complain or nag, but simply to state what many people have overlooked. People are always inclined to voice their opinion but normally the loudest voice has the weakest conviction and follow through. Nevertheless, the fundraising was very successful and for those who helped I thank you tremendously.