Matt Weir / The Collegian

California State University, Fresno students want to help those who survived the tsunami in the South Pacific islands through a donation drive on campus.

Fresno State has eight donation boxes throughout campus that will be available from Oct. 21 to Oct. 29. Students, with help from the Magkaisa Filipino club, are collecting clothing, non-perishable goods, medical supplies and toiletries to be sent to the islands via the San Francisco Association of the Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa.

The church will send any donations made.

An organizer of the donation drive, senior Jubilee Fano, has family in Samoa. Even though her family was not extremely affected by the tsunami, Fano said that the cause hit close to home, Fano said.

“I have a lot of friends whose houses were wiped away,” Fano said. “They’re homeless and seeking shelter in their churches.”

Disaster struck the Samoa and American Samoa islands with a tsunami that killed 180 people and left many still missing.

The deadly tsunami was triggered by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake at 6:48 a.m., according to MSNBC.
The “plate flexure” earthquake located that caused the tsunami about 120 miles south of the Samoa islands, according to a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

There were a total of four waves that rushed onto American Samoa that reached upwards of a mile once they reached inland, according to a Fox News report.

Because of the shortage of medical personnel, the islands need support in aiding the hundreds of injured people. Casualties are still being found as police search different areas through the widespread wreckage.
The alert from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center gave residents about 10 to 15 minutes to flee to higher land before their homes and belongings were washed away.

Residents found themselves with no homes, clothes, food or personal belongings. Instead, a swamp of mud and sludge crept through the devastated villages that faced the roaring waves hours earlier.
“It’s important for students to get involved with things like this,” said communication health major, Diana Suliman.

Someone has to go out there for the cause and grab the attention of others until it gets it the help it deserves, which is exactly what these donation boxes are doing, Suliman said.