A passionate young Pakistani-Canadian elementary school student from Bedford today launched a personal fundraising campaign for the victims of the devastating flooding in Pakistan called “Madad Pakistan”. Behraam Raja, a Grade 6 student at Basinview Drive Elementary, wants to raise $5,000 by this Sunday, Sept. 12 , the deadline the Canadian Government has set for their Pakistan Flood Relief donation-matching program.
Behraam’s “Madad Pakistan” campaign – madad being the Urdu word for help – was kicked off today with the launch of his appeal video and the publishing of his UNICEF fundraising web page at http://www.madadpakistan.ca. In the video, Behraam and a group of friends from his school reveal how moved they are by the devastation so many their own age are facing in the flood-stricken country.
The video and fundraising page were the result of two weeks of planning and discussion with friends and family about what Behraam could do to make a difference – prompted by Behraam’s passionate appeal to his mother for help after hearing stories from family in Pakistan and seeing news reports about the floods.
“I feel very lucky here in Canada. I have family still in Pakistan, and they have told me how badly the country needs help.” Behraam says. “I talked to my mother about it to see what I could do to help.”
Behraam’s mother, Ambereen Raja, an administrator with Dalhousie University’s School of Social Work, was quick to offer encouragement to her son and started to make phone calls to people she thought could help.
“My son was so moved by the stories we were hearing from our family,” Ambereen says. “I’m very proud that Behraam wanted to do something for the people in Pakistan, and so I called friends and family for help.”
Help was not in short supply. Family, friends and neighbours weighed in with ideas and after a two weeks of planning and hard work, Behraam and his team established a UNICEF fundraising page, and produced his “Madad Pakistan” video with a “kids helping kids” theme – brought about by Behraam’s desire to help.
Behraam’s hope is that with the help of Facebook, Twitter, email, and word of mouth, the video and his fundraising page will get lots of traffic that will hopefully translate into donations toward his goal.
“I decided to organize donations through UNICEF because I knew they were in Pakistan delivering help already,” Behraam says. “Everybody – even kids – know about UNICEF and trust that they will help”.
To view Behraam’s video and to have your donation doubled by the Canadian Government, visit and donate at http://www.madadpakistan.ca by Sunday, Sept. 12th.
