Göttingen University calls for donations to help disaster victims on the Philippines

Dear Citizens,

The devastation to much of the countryside wrought by Typhoon Haiyan has put millions of people in desperate need. In the wake of this natural disaster, Göttingen University would like to aid stricken Philippine students and their families. Please help us help!

A close partnership binds the University of Göttingen to Visayas State University (VSU), situated on the Island of Leyte. For a decade now, VSU's College of Forestry and Environmental Science has been working together with Göttingen's Faculty of Forest Sciences. Within this partnership, many VSU graduates have come to Göttingen to continue their education in higher degree programmes. Göttingen students regularly organise study projects at VSU.

The typhoon did not pass VSU by; in fact, the campus has been destroyed completely and operations at the university suspended until further notice. Many faculty members, staff and students at Göttingen's partner university have lost family and homes and urgently require humanitarian aid from other countries.

With its emergency assistance donations, Göttingen University is especially aiming to support the young people who have lost their loved ones. Similarly, the University wants to help the nine students, scientists and scholars from the Philippines who are currently on stay here at Göttingen. Most of them are cut off from all contact with their families and are not sure how many of their loved ones have survived. They don't even know when they will be able to return to their homeland. The University intends to provide bridge scholarships to cover financial emergencies.

Given the huge response to its call for donations after the disaster in Japan, we are now hoping for a similarly large outpouring of support for the Philippines from our region. The Georgia Augusta association shall ensure that all donations directly benefit those affected. Donations can be made directly to the emergency aid fund at the

Sparkasse Göttingen - account number 15100019, bank routing code 26050001.

Please indicate "Nothilfe Philippinen" when making donations. For more information, go to www.uni-goettingen.de/en/209753.html.

If you are not interested in making a direct donation, you might want to consider other ways of supporting the fundraising campaign, as was the case with emergency assistance for Japan, by helping inspire third parties to donate their time or money.

We appreciate for your assistance.