The Graduate Employees Organization at the University of Michigan stands in solidarity with our Turkish and Syrian co-workers, faculty, staff, students, and all those affected by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
We are directing members who can to send money to these relief efforts:
Turkey
The Turkish Student Association at the University of Michigan are collecting donations through Venmo @TurkishStudentAssociaton, and they will try to match donations 1-1 through large corporations. You can keep up with their fundraising efforts through their Instagram page @tsaumich and this informational website they created.
One of our Ph.D. Candidates in Architecture, Emine Seda Kayim, is raising funds with her local partners in Kahramanmara? to provide 3000 people and families with mattresses to be used at their place of temporary shelter. Donate here. A Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology at Princeton (Venmo @Hazal-Hurman) is also organizing a direct relief campaign to provide tents to the unhoused in Gaziantep. You can read about her efforts here.
Also, the Research Institute on Turkey, a grassroots academic research cooperative based in the US, is raising funds for Ahbap Derne?i and other respected non-governmental organizations in the region. Donate via this link.
Syria
Northwest Syria is one of the most neglected regions affected by the earthquake. Please donate to this campaign led by an archaeology professor at the University of Texas, Austin. They send funds directly to their trusted contacts in the region that are “in the towns and villages most impacted, working with very little support to help however they can.” In the Rojava region, the Kurdish Red Crescent NGO is working for the relief of the region. Please donate to the organization here. And consider extending your help to the White Helmets, which is continuing its rescue and relief efforts across Syria with 3000 volunteers.
This unfolding disaster abroad highlights the need for the University of Michigan to use its vast wealth to provide better financial and administrative support for its many international grad workers.
Grad workers from the region have already expressed concern for how this disaster might affect their personal finances, fearing whether their families will still be able to send them money given the crisis.
In our ongoing bargaining with the university, we have asked for the university to guarantee continuity of compensation in the event that workers, due to forces beyond their control — such as a natural disaster — prevent them from completing their immigration processes. We are also asking for the university to pay for the visas and other immigration fees required by international grad workers to maintain legal employment.
Such changes would cost the university little, yet go far to bring affordability and dignity to their working lives. Alleviating these financial burdens of living abroad would help to support those in our campus community during times of turmoil back home.
GEO is committed to doing more than just bettering the lives of our fellow workers in the workplace. Rather, we also seek to improve our lives outside of work and living within our community and the wider world, and that is why we stand alongside our colleagues and all those affected by this disaster.
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