Associate Professor of Digital Media, Kristen Palana recently closed out a fund raising project on her website at http://aurashouse.com that raised $2450 to send one hundred needy children from Kolkata, India to school. It was just one of dozens of projects over the years to help raise funds for housing, health, income generation, and education projects for needy children in developing countries. Aura’s House was founded in 2004 and has raised over $75,000 to date.
The India Tuition Project was completed thanks to the efforts of Professor Palana’s student volunteers Claire Moskowitz and Dorothy Brown from her COM408 Media, Art, and Social Activism course and Spring 2011 intern, Refat Ara Jerin. Together, the three students held a bake sale in the Garden at AUR on May 3, 2011 and raised $208, enough to send eight children to school.
Aura’s House was originally created to raise $4500 to build a safe, sturdy brick home for Kristen Palana’s sponsored child, Aura Hernandez and her family in Guatemala. Since that goal was met and exceeded in November of 2004, the website continued to launch other small projects that bring big changes to the lives of families in developing countries. Aura’s House works closely with top-rated US charity, Children International and has also worked with Kenya Kids in Need, Child Focus Fund, and in collaboration with The American University of Rome and The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization to benefit The Cape Coast School for the Deaf in Ghana.
Aura’s House is unique because it is run exclusively by volunteers, so 100% of donations go toward its projects and are 100% US tax deductible. Current projects at the site include an Income Generation project and a Housing Project, both to benefit families in The Philippines. Aura’s House also recently launched its first ever USA Education Project to help raise $500 for a Peer Mentor Library for UALR Children International to benefit public school students in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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