State College raises $10,000 for Ecuador

Students of the Dominica State College (DSC) raised more than $10, 000 for the people of Ecuador who were affected when their country was hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on April 18.

As of November 9, 2015 thirty-five Ecuadorian students had been enrolled at DSC where they are taking classes so that they can teach the English language when they return to Ecuador.

Ellena Bowers, the domestic coordinator for Ecuadorian students at the DSC said: "On Friday April 29, DSC hosted the Ecuador t-shirt Day so all students at the DSC were allowed to wear the Ecuadorian colours which is blue, yellow or red and to wear that you would pay $2 to donate to them."

She stated that the students of the college were also asked to bring dry food products and bottled water.

Bowers added that April 30 was dubbed "Ecuador Relief Day" and the students along with the DSC ambassadors visited several supermarkets namely: S-Mart, Miniya's 7-11 Canefield, A.C. Shillingford, Astaphans, Greens Wholesale, Whitchurch and Savealot where they solicited donations from Dominicans.

"We collected $8000 in cash from the Dominican public and we collected about 20 boxes of dry goods; Whitchurch offered to match whatever amount we collected at Whitchurch and at there we collected $2152.84," she said.

Bowers said that DSC decided to assist those affected because Dominica has good diplomatic relations with Ecuador and following Tropical Storm Erika, Ecuador assisted Dominica with supplies.

"The students attend school here and most of them are from the region that was devastated they were not personally affected but they had friends, family, business places that were affected," said Bowers.

The Ecuadorian students will graduate on June 7, 2016 and they are scheduled to return during the period June 8 – 13, 2016.