 | | PAGE 1/A SECTION |
TODAY o February 4, 2001
|
|
Thousands in aid raised in metro area
Saeed Ahmed - Staff
Sunday, February 4, 2001
The news traveled fast among members of metro Atlanta's Indian community.
And their response has been equally swift.
Within days of the Jan. 26 earthquake that rocked the Indian state of Gujarat, Gujaratis and other
Indian-Americans in Atlanta poured tens of thousands of dollars into relief funds, anxious to help
friends, relatives and countrymen cope with the calamity.
"For us, the earthquake wasn't some distant event in some distant land. It hit very close to home,"
said Fred Schwartz, president of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, which is headquartered
in Atlanta.
The association represents a third of the nation's hotels and is composed entirely of Indian hotel
owners, most of them from Gujarat. Immediately after the quake, it donated $25,000 and asked its 7,500
members to mobilize their communities to match that amount.
Other organizations dug deep into their pockets as well. Horizon Bank, a community bank in Decatur that caters to
the 40,000 to 50,000 Indians who call Atlanta home, established an earthquake relief fund with $5,000.
The amount has since grown to $95,000.
"People who may have never known about Gujarat have opened up their hearts and wallets and
showed such compassion it's really touching," said R.C. Patel, the bank's co-founder.
As the death toll continues to climb in the western Indian state, churches and schools in Atlanta have
joined with businesses --- mostly those with Indian employees or a presence in the country --- in helping
with relief efforts.
Coca-Cola, which owns a bottling plant in Gujarat that sustained minor damage, is dispensing potable
water to people in the area. And all Coke employees at the company's headquarters in Atlanta donated a
day's pay to the relief effort, a company spokesman said.
Home Depot donated generators --- a priceless commodity for rescuers who had been unable to
search the rubble after dark without lights.
And the Atlanta-based relief agency CARE raised its fund-raising requirements for recovery efforts to
$30 million Friday --- the highest it has ever set for an emergency.
In the days to come, the Indian community here plans additional fund-raisers, including cultural
programs and e-mail solicitations to members of professional groups.
"It's extremely sad and painful for a country to be devastated twice like this," said Kumkum
Kashiparekh, a Gujarati native and a CARE employee, referring to the cyclone in Orissa that rendered 10
million Indians homeless in 1999. "Those who have departed are gone. It's up to us now to take care of
those who live."
| 
Yellow Pages
Sunday