Emily Parry, a PhD student from the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering shares the initiative that she and her colleagues formed in response to the conflict in Libya. Every week, a Libyan charity is selected and funds collected (£5 per person) are donated. This was sparked by their feelings of solidarity with their Libyan collegues at the university and those Libyans experiencing the conflict first hand.
Last week, Parry and colleagues selected the Libyan Humanitarian Action, a charity formed by American Libyans to help Libyan refugees in the Remada Refugee Camp in Tunisia (their current project aims to raise enough funds to send Air Conditioning units to the refugees at the camp; to donate please click here).
In an effort to boost participation amongst the students and raise more funds, Parry volunteered to become a test subject for a psychology post doctorate study on pain at the University Centre for Pain Research. The experiment sought to investigate how well people are able to carry out cognitive tasks whilst under the influence of mild pain.
Her brilliant idea would serve two purposes; contribute to the post doctorate research which may one day prove useful to individuals suffering from chronic pain and simultaneously raise money for various Libyan charities.
Parry can be seen below in photos of her bravely enduring the pain experiment. This entailed that Parry endure 45 minutes of thermal pain on her ankle which she describes as, “so mild it was just an irritation, insignificant compared to the pain I know the Libyan people to be suffering both mentally and physically as they struggle to find freedom”.
Parry exclaims, “As they say; No pain! No gain!” as she describes her plans to recruit more people for the experiment in hopes of raising more funds.
Libyans and non-Libyans alike have come up with unique ways of raising awareness and fundraising for humanitarian relief efforts in Libya. We are overwhelmed by the University of Bath students’ initiative and commend their creative expression of compassion to Libyans. We invite other international groups to contribute and share their efforts with everyone. To contribute please visit our contact page.
Source- S.L/LYM Member Ayat Mneina
Many thanks for your efforts and support Emily. It makes me proud to have people like yourself with us in our time of need.Best wishes for your research and fund raising.
Libyan / British academic originally from Misurata and fellow engineer.
Comment by Dr Nuri Badi — July 22, 2011 @ 10:03
We’re just trying to help a little. We can’t always donate £5 per week (we are *students* after all!), and some students have more cash than others! But we just give whatever we can, whenever we can. I’m lucky at the moment – my fiance just took a job very close to where we live, so he can drop me off at uni. This means I can donate most of what I would have paid as taxi fair!
The collection only came to *our* office this month so we’re still working posting up which charity we’re giving to each week, not that it matters – all are for humanitarian aid of some description or other. Due credit should go to all the other students who are giving – I’m just the one who is handling publicity because I think it’s very important – and beneficial – for people to hear about efforts like ours. It improves moral all round and if I can get it published on the university website, it will also raise awareness of the need to support Libya and these charities.
Comment by Emily — July 23, 2011 @ 08:19