BGU-Negev Emergency Fund Launched
BGU-Negev Emergency Fund Launched
January 9, 2009
Negev Development & Community Programs, Press Releases
NEW YORK, January 9, 2009 – American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Americans for Ben-Gurion University) today launched the BGU-Negev Emergency Fund to address the growing crisis at the University and surrounding Beer-Sheva community due to the escalating Gaza conflict.
“For the first time in 60 years, Beer-Sheva is in range of rockets fired from Gaza and has already been hit multiple times,” explains Carol Saal, Americans for Ben-Gurion University president. “Classes at Ben-Gurion University have been canceled indefinitely, while schools, day care programs, clubs, and activities of all kinds are closed. As the American support arm for a renowned institution of higher education, I never imagined that we would be in the business of emergency relief.”
The BGU-Negev Emergency Fund is urgently seeking to raise $10 million. BGU Board of Governors Chairman Roy Zuckerberg of New York and Carol Saal of Palo Alto, California are leading the effort. The Emergency Fund will support critical needs in campus safety and security; distance learning; counseling and psychological assistance; medical equipment; and community services, such as child care.
Professor Rivka Carmi, president of the University, explains that “after years of providing refuge to our distraught neighbors in the Western Negev, we at BGU are suddenly faced with an entirely new reality in which the safety and security of our own faculty, staff, students, and families are now foremost in our minds. We have committed ourselves to doing what must be done by increasing security, providing more social services and bringing long-distance and e-learning options on-line.”
BGU has already begun to augment the city’s alert system, ensuring that the warning siren is heard throughout every corner of BGU’s three Beer-Sheva campuses. Additional equipment is needed to fight fires and carry out possible rescue operations. Facilities need to be adapted to safeguard flammable and combustible materials in laboratories.
The Fund will also support the hiring and training of additional security personnel to manage the movement of people and equipment in the event of a direct missile strike. Psychological services for students are being dramatically expanded, as is the University’s capacity to support distance and e-learning opportunities.
Some 2,000 students from Ben-Gurion University have been recalled for military service. Despite the growing threat, many others, with just seconds to get to a shelter or safe room, have chosen to stay in Beer-Sheva, bringing comfort and support to the elderly, young children, disabled, and others in need.
They are delivering meals, manning hotlines, providing day care, and running programs for children in bomb shelters. And many of BGU’s medical experts and faculty are working around the clock at the University-affiliated Soroka hospital, the primary trauma center for both military and civilian casualties.
“BGU is in crisis and the time to act is now,” Roy Zuckerberg said. “We look to our loyal and generous supporters, and to all who care about the safety of those living, working and studying in the Negev to join us in this time of need.”
For more information or to donate, go to BGU-Negev Emergency Fund or call 800-962-2248.
ABOUT AMERICANS FOR BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY
By supporting a world-class academic institution that not only nurtures the Negev, but also shares its expertise locally and globally, Americans for Ben-Gurion University engages a community of Americans who are committed to improving the world. David Ben-Gurion envisioned that Israel’s future would be forged in the Negev. The cutting-edge research carried out at Ben-Gurion University drives that vision by sustaining a desert Silicon Valley, with the “Stanford of the Negev” at its center. The Americans for Ben-Gurion University movement supports a 21st century unifying vision for Israel by rallying around BGU’s remarkable work and role as an apolitical beacon of light in the Negev desert.
About Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev embraces the endless potential we have as individuals and as a commonality to adapt and to thrive in changing environments. Inspired by our location in the desert, we aim to discover, to create, and to develop solutions to dynamic challenges, to pose questions that have yet to be asked, and to push beyond the boundaries of the commonly accepted and possible.
We are proud to be a central force for inclusion, diversity and innovation in Israel, and we strive to extend the Negev’s potential and our entrepreneurial spirit throughout the world. For example, the multi-disciplinary School for Sustainability and Climate Change at BGU leverages over 50 years of expertise on living and thriving in the desert into scalable solutions for people everywhere.
BGU at a glance:
20,000 students | 800 senior faculty | 3 campuses | 6 faculties: humanities & social sciences, health sciences, engineering sciences, natural sciences, business & management, and desert research.
For all press inquiries, please contact:
James Fattal, J Cubed Communications
516.289.1496
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