Students are creating and selling bracelets to help UNICEF (The United Nations Children’s Fund) reach their monetary goals to help Pakistanis affected by flooding.

Simone Pike, a freshman in the Honor’s program, started the program after hearing about the devastation in Pakistan caused by heavy monsoon rains. Pike said she didn’t hear about it through the news.

“Well I never really saw it on the news,” Pike said. “I heard about it from my dad. I have a really good friend whose family lives in Pakistan.”

Fellow freshman, Kaitlynn Fish said she thought the media had not paid as much attention to the flooding in Pakistan as they had to other disasters in the past.

“Pakistan relief things is not so advertised as Haiti and Katrina were,” Fish said. “People don’t want to know so much about Pakistan because of personal beliefs.”

Fish said she believes that people cannot ignore the suffering in Pakistan just because of its location.

“Even if we don’t want to hear about it we should because these people in Pakistan are still human,” Fish said.

UNICEF estimates that 17 million people were affected by the flooding. This is an increase of 14 million individuals from initial estimates of 3.2 million Pakistanis displaced and impacted by the heavy monsoon rains and subsequent flooding.
With an increase in the number of individuals affected, there has also been an increase in the amount of money needed to $141 million.

“We’re going to give all the money [we raise] to UNICEF,” Pike said. “I hope to raise one thousand dollars.”

Pike is selling bracelets for 2 dollars. She needs to sell 500 bracelets to reach her goal. Pike has designed them to mirror the Pakistani flag.

“They are all going to be green and white which are the flag colors for Pakistan,” Pike said. “They will have different designs so that people will have variety.”

Fish said despite the lack of coverage in the mainstream media, they have seen support from the WTAMU community.

“I think we’ve had a lot of support actually,”Fishsaid.“CircleKasked if [Simone] wanted help. Some individuals have asked her questions and offered to help.”

People wanting to help make or sell the bracelets can contact Simone Pike at [email protected]. Bracelets are available for purchase directly from Pike. Anyone interested in donating to Pakistan through UNICEF can do so at unicef.com/support