Harvard Students Raise $60,000 in Fundraiser for Myanmar Earthquake

Harvard Students for Myanmar — in collaboration with around 30 other universities — raised more than $60,000 as of Monday through a GoFundMe campaign for relief efforts following a Friday earthquake in Myanmar.

The earthquake was recorded at 7.7 in magnitude and left more than 2,000 dead, with thousands more injured. Thousands of homes were destroyed and hospitals around the country are reported to be increasingly overwhelmed.

Sammy Tin ’26, an international student from Myanmar, has led the efforts at the College to raise awareness about the devastation that has occurred. Tin originally established the fundraiser on her own after a phone call with her family, some of whom reside near the epicenter of the earthquake.

“Following this earthquake, honestly, my first instinct was to start a GoFundMe,” Tin said. “I had quite a number of family members impacted.”

She quickly began gaining support from Burmese student associations at other schools, and as of Monday morning, there were more than 100 people in the group chat for fundraising efforts.

“We’re working on spreading awareness, working on collecting resources for people, and that’s been the biggest blessing,” Tin said.

The fundraiser aims to send proceeds to Better Burma, a non-profit based in the U.S. that was created in response to the 2021 Myanmar coup. The organization aims to assist with necessary efforts by providing emergency food supplies, critical medical aid, basic necessities, and shelter support for displaced families.

The GoFundMe effort has since spread to Burmese student associations at other universities across the country, including Cornell, Tufts University, University of Michigan, Northeastern University, and Boston University.

The earthquake follows a string of political upheaval the country has faced over the last decade. Since 2017, the military has persecuted the Muslim Rohingya people who largely reside in the state of Rakhine, a portion of the country in the Southwest that borders Bangladesh.

In February 2021, a coup d’etat in the country killed at least 50,000 — including at least 8,000 civilians. Three years later, the state introduced compulsory military service that applies to men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27. Even as essential infrastructure in the country has been devastated by the earthquake, the military junta continues to use aerial bombings against rebel groups.

The continued bombings have inhibited foreign assistance — Taiwanese interior minister Liu Shyh-fang recently stated that the Taiwanese government disbanded a rescue group on standby due to the dangerous environment.

As the death count in Myanmar continues to rise, Harvard Students for Myanmar is continuing to run the fundraiser and raise awareness for the issue in increasing collaboration with other student organizations.

Tin said that she was surprised the fundraiser took off to the degree it did.

“I’ve had more people reach out to me than I’ve been reaching out to,” Tin said. “We have a group chat and it’s honestly blown up into this great thing where people are continuing to add more people that are interested in the cause, that are passionate about it.”

According to Tin, the Harvard Students for Myanmar fundraiser was one of the first donation sites available after the earthquake, and it “just went viral.”

But Tin added that from her perspective, the fundraiser has gained less attention on Harvard’s campus.

“We’ve been continuing to try and create attention on the Harvard campus as well. I think it’s gaining less traction, especially because we’re a very small community,” Tin said.

“This country is struggling so much and we’d all honestly benefit from any awareness,” she added.

—Staff writer Alexander W. Anoma can be reached at alexander.anoma@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @AnomaAlexander.

—Staff writer Chantel A. De Jesus can be reached at chantel.dejesus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @c_a_dejesus.