Aaron Vehling

The Geography Club is only one of many groups of students at UW-Eau Claire that will be coinciding with President Bush’s proposal to assist the Iraqi people this month and in early April.

Through April 4, the club is collecting items for relief kits, said Paul Kaldjian, assistant geography and anthropology professor and one of the club’s advisers.

He said the items being collected for the kits include simple personal hygiene products, such as bath soap, shampoo, powdered laundry detergent, toothpaste, bath towels, hair brushes, fingernail clippers, bandages and sanitary pads. The items collected must be new.

“Our president has said that our war is not with the Iraqi people,” Kaldjian said.

The efforts made by the Geography Club are very consistent with the message that has come from the White House, he said. Putting together the kits is a small measure in assisting the Iraqi people, he said.

Donating items for the kits is a way to get students who are interested in being involved with helping the people of Iraq, Kaldjian said.

“Students who feel the need to do something material or active … this is an option,” he said.

Senior Kyle Oberg, Geography Club president, hung posters for the event and prepared small informative handouts telling people how they can help displaced Iraqis.

“We feel this is one small way for people that feel the need to help can no matter how pressed for time or money (they may be),” Oberg said.

The project is rooted in the Mennonite tradition. The Mennonite Central Committee is the program collecting the relief kits for shipment to Iraq, Kaldjian said. At the end of next week, the items collected at Eau Claire will be delivered to northern Indiana, he said.

In Indiana, the items will be packed into five-gallon plastic buckets and then loaded into 40-foot cargo containers.

The containers eventually will be sent to Jordan on a ship and then over land to Iraqis in need of the items, Kaldjian said.

MCC has worked in Iraq since 1991, according to the group’s Web site. In Iraq, MCC seeks to serve in the midst of suffering and learn from the strengths of the Iraqi people.

Twelve years of economic sanctions have exhausted many Iraqi families’ resources and the current war will create further needs, stated the Web site. Prior to the current war, the United Nations estimated that more than 1 million Iraqis were displaced. Many are families with children who lack access to basic hygiene supplies and are living in desperate conditions, according to a flyer prepared by Kaldjian.

“The Mennonites have made a very conscious effort to support peace,” Kaldjian said.

The main goal of the Mennonites is peace. In difficult situations, they try not to take sides, as they are against violence, Kaldjian said.

“I will not say they are against the war,” Kaldjian said. “But they are against war, recognizing that war is suffering.”

Oberg described the Mennonites’ goal as “people helping other people.”

He said he thinks the Mennonites focus all energy and efforts on establishing peace and providing aid to all of those in need.

“The Geography Club feels we are doing just the same … like some far away neighbor just helping out families in need,” Oberg said.

Geography Club members will be staffing the two drop-off sites, but volunteers are welcome, Kaldjian said. Other organizations have expressed interest in the event, he said.

The first collection site runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. through April 4 and is located in the lobby of Phillips Hall.

The second collection site will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through April 4 in Hibbard Hall lobby.

Funding to send out the items collected comes directly from volunteers, Kaldjian said. The Mennonites don’t accept any government money.

“I have my own goal,” Kaldjian said. “I’m hoping we get 20 or 25 kits.”

Other students also have helped to raise donations for Iraqi citizens, including sophomore Andrew Werthmann and senior Brian Koskey, who camped out Wednesday on Campus Mall.