This Saturday, Swerve invites you to our annual Charity Fundraiser Party, to be held at one of the most beautiful clubs in New York City - Hiro. For the past 2 years, Swerve has held a charity fundraiser each year to try and contribute to a small to medium sized non-profit organization focused on dealing with Asian or Asian-American related social issues. This year, we thought it would only be appropriate to try and raise money to donate to a non-profit organization focused on helping provide aid to victims of the deadly tsunami, one of the worst natural disasters in modern history, that hit South Asia in December of 2004.

Aceh Relief was started by a group of students up in Cornell, intially aimed at helping raise some funds for one specific student, Saiful Mahdi, to help him with his airfare and travels as he rushes back to Indonesia to search for his family, who he fears have all been lost in the tsunami. His story is truly a genuine and personal one. You can read about it below.

This Saturday's event will be a regular party. However, Swerve will be donating a portion of door proceeds as well as 100% of proceeds raised through a Charity Raffle with many great prizes that we've donated for this worthy cause - including a Samsung 54" HDTV worth $2,000, a Samsung Digimax digital camera, MP3 player and other prizes. Additionally, we've been able to secure Hiro for this special event, arguably one of the nicest and most exclusive clubs in New York City right now. We hope you come out and show your support!

WHERE: HIRO, 363 West 16th Street, NYC (@ 9th Ave)
WHEN: SATURDAY, March 5th, 2005, Doors open at 10:00PM
WHO: You & your fabulous friends
REGULAR COVER: $25 for gentlemen, $20 for ladies / Ladies FREE before 11:00PM
GUESTLIST: $15 / List closes at 11:30PM
ATTIRE: Dress to Impress

About the Tsunami & Aceh Relief

On the morning of December 26th in South-East Asia, one of the largest earthquakes in history, with a magnitude of 9.0, struck the Indian Ocean. The resulting tsunami would devastate the shores of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, South India, Thailand and other countries with waves over 50 feet high. Based on current calculations, upwards of 350,000 people are thought to have died in one of the worst natural disasters in modern history.

In Ithaca, New York, more than ten thousand miles away from the nearest ruins left in the wake of the tsunami, Saiful Mahdi, a 36-year-old Cornell University graduate student from Aceh, Indonesia, scrambled to find news of his and his wife’s immediate family members. It took days before he could wind up with any information, but what he found was nonetheless heartbreaking: Saiful’s grandmother, two sisters and their families were missing. Mahdi had to return to Banda Aceh to find and rescue his family.

Concerned friends of Saiful then spread the news to personal contacts, pleading for financial help so Mahdi could return to Aceh with the necessary funds and proper relief equipment. The results were more than what they had expected. Overwhelmed by the number of donations pledged and declared through phone calls and e-mails, it soon dawned on Saiful’s friends that they had the means to go beyond just helping Saiful’s family. They initiated the Aceh Relief Fund. Aceh Relief Fund is a direct front in response to the catastrophe in South-East Asia with the aim to fund Saiful and other volunteers in their quest of providing emergency relief to the victims of the tsunami in Aceh.

Realizing that rebuilding community after such catastrophic disaster is a long term endeavor, Aceh Relief Fund volunteers are contemplating a medium-term initiative after the initial emergency relief effort has taken place. The initial idea is to "adopt" a village or sub-district in Aceh and assist it in its reconstruction and rebuilding activities, with special emphasis geared towards the welfare of children. The donations collected by Aceh Relief will directly reach the victims in Aceh.

Saiful has been back in Aceh since mid January. You can READ HIS JOURNAL and see exactly what he's been up to, how he is helping the communities directly, and the journey he has taken to search for his family.