Rama El Hassan and Catherine Kassar raise $10,000 to Support Sierra Leone after Mudslide Tragedy

Last week, two Year 11 students, Rama El Hassan and Catherine Kassar donated hundreds of boxes of food provisions and more than 100 mattresses to the Sierra Leone Embassy in Accra, in an effort to support the people of Sierra Leone after the tragic mudslide disaster that occurred in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s Capital, killing more than 400 people and displacing another 600. 

Rama El Hassan, is the sister to Leila El Hassan (an ARIS alumnus), who is a founder of the ‘Basma’ non-profit organization, which was founded in 2016. “This is our second big project since Basma (which means Smile in Arabic) was founded. This time we raised $10,000 in total, and bought food provisions and mattresses to send to Sierra Leone,” she said. Her partner, Catherine Kassar, also a member of the Basma ngo, reiterated their excitement, “We are really happy we managed to raise all this. We weren’t expecting to, but we did, and we are super grateful to all those who supported our fundraiser,” she said. 

The two girls, accompanied by Catherine’s mum and two ARIS staff members made their way to the Sierra Leonean embassy at 11 am on Friday the 8th of September to drop off the items. While there, the girls helped off load the items into the storage area, spoke to the counsellor and the commissioner, and were also interviewed by The Daily Graphic newspaper! 

ARIS is super proud of Rama and Catherine, and would like to congratulate them on the great work!