+
Volume 126 Issue 96
kansan.com
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
+
Second year law students Aqmar Rahman and Madeline Heeren, founders of United Across Borders, hand out Jayhawk T-shirts to Bangladeshi children
Nonprofit group spreads school pride, spirit
VOLUNTEERISM
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
YU KYUNG LEE
news@kansan.com
Aqmar Rahman and Madeline Heeren dream of a day when the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh are filled with crimson and blue.
The two law students are the founders of the nonprofit organization United Across Borders with a simple yet ambitious goal — to provide T-shirts and blankets to the poor around the world with the help of fellow Jayhawks.
SLUMS OF DHAKA
"Our mission is to provide people with certain things that are basic necessities that we don't really think about. We buy T-shirts and we throw them away, and we want to re-purpose that for a good cause for the people that really need it," Rahman said.
Having spent the past 13 years in Lawrence, Rahman, second year law student, considers himself a "townie" and a die-hard Jayhawk. However, his roots lie half way across the world in Dhaka.
Dhaka is the crowded capital of Bangladesh, where more than 30 percent of its population lives in poverty according to World Bank. It's where the highly publicized factory collapse occurred last April, with casualties of more than 1,100 people.
After hearing about the fac
tory collapse last spring, Rahman jumped at the chance to go back to Dhaka as a summer intern at a local law firm, which handled the case for the factory collapse. Madeline Heeren, also a second year law student from Lenexa, joined Rahman.
"We wanted to go and see what really happened, what the factories are really like, if they are as bad as the news made them out to be," Heeren said.
In Dhaka, they couldn't help but notice the irony. In the second largest garment and textile manufacturer in the world, the people working in the garment factories didn't have clothes to wear themselves.
"I grew up there so I was aware of the poverty. When you are in that situation, living among poverty, it becomes so normal you become desensitized to the situation," Rahman said. "But after living in the U.S. for an extended period of time and then going back, it really hits you, the immense level of poverty that's there. The things that we as Americans take for granted on a daily basis are luxuries for people living in poverty in Bangladesh."
BIRTH OF AN IDEA
Heeren took some Reeses chocolate to share with the kids in Dhaka. So many kids gathered around the vehicle,
she couldn't move. After seeing how easily delighted the children were, she also gave away a couple of old Jayhawk shirts out of their own luggage when visiting Dhaaka's slums.
Chocolate, Heeren believes,
is universal — everyone knows
it and loves t. Apparently, so is
a smiling layhawk.
"It was really exciting to give them something that perhaps don't mean that much to us,
a used shirt, but gave them so much joy," Rahman said. "I think all the kids loved the Jayhawk. It's a smiling bird, and they probably didn't understand it, from our point of view, it was exciting to share our Jayhawk pride with them, to see them in crimson and blue."
On their way back, Heeren and Rahman were trailed by children running after the car
for good 10 minutes in hopes of more treats.
BUY A SHIRT, GIVE A SHIRT
"That's when Madeline had the idea to start United Across Borders, to provide basic necessities to people who don't have anything honestly," Rahman said.
the nation to donate old KU shirts and blankets or buy a United Across Borders shirt from the KU Bookstore for its Buy A Shirt, Give A Shirt campaign. For every shirt sold, the organization can give two shirts and a blanket to someone in Bangladesh.
With the help of the Alumni Association, the organization is calling on Jayhawks around
"What happens in Bangla
SEE NONPROFIT PAGE 2
Blair-Lawrence Yates, a theater student from Britain, rehearses a scene. Yates and fellow student Alexander Eleftheriou travelled from London to study at the University for the year as part of a study abroad program.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
CAMPUS
British theater students bring their act to campus
KATE MILLER
For English students Blair-Lawrence Yates and Alexander Eleftheriou, international student orientation last fall was one of the strangest experiences of their lives.
news@kansan.com
Yates and Eleftheriou are both theater majors from the University of Kent who are spending this year studying abroad at the University. Yates is studying to become a director; Eleftheriou an actor.
"All of the orientation leaders lined up at the front, they held hands and they swayed—they were singing the Alma Mater. I was with a bunch of British kids in the back and we were like 'What the hell?' Yates remembered. "At that time, I was regretting coming here. I was like, 'Are they serious?' I get it now; I get that that's just school spirit, but it just felt so patronizing at the time, because everyone at university in Britain is just, 'Uh...I don't know about you, but I can't wait to leave.' But then again, that's just British culture — everything's just a bit more depressive," he laughed.
Index CLASSIFIEDS 7 CRYPTOQUIPS 5 SPORTS 8 CROSSWORD 5 OPINION 4 SUDOKU 5
BLAIR-LAWRENCE YATES theater student
"KU is exceptional. There's really a sense of family... everyone just wants everyone else to succeed."
college town in the Midwest, of all places?
But why would students from an area rich in theater culture choose to come to an isolated
Despite his jokes about coming to a smaller Midwestern town, Eleftheriou had a large smile on his face when he spoke about his fondness for the University.
"Generally, I liked the look of KU." Yates said. "I thought it would be different. I knew that KU had a good drama department. I knew they had experts from the West and East Coast coming in to teach all of them are very prominent in their field."
"I didn't think I'd like the Midwest, but I really do,' he said. "When you think of America, you think that everyone is ultra-religious, Republican — but that's just not the case at all. People are so differ-
Eleftheriou grew up in London, a city known for its abundance of theater. Yates grew up in Canterbury, but would visit London and its theaters often in his childhood, to which he attests his interest in performing.
"The reason I'm here is actually because of Blair," he said. "[Blair] said, 'I'm going to put down Kansas as one of my choices,' and I was like, really? Kansas? Like, are you really going to do that? I looked it up on the internet and I thought, okay. I put this down as my fourth choice, and the lady just put me here, I think because no one else put it down as a choice."
While this also factored into Eleftheriou's decision, he said
the final choice was probably due more to chance. It was only because of Yates that Eleftheriou selected Kansas as one of his choices in the first place (albeit, his fourth choice school).
Don't Forget
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2014 The University Daily Kansan
SEE THEATER PAGE 2
The week is halfway over.
Today's Weather
---
Sun with a few clouds.
Late rain showers. Winds
S at 25 to 35 mph.
HI: 61
L0: 46
I like it.
That's the way I like it.
+