International Awareness Club is going on its second year as a part of Coronado. As a club, their main goal is to raise both money and awareness for international causes. Last year, club raised awareness for the Ebola crisis and donated, with the help of many other clubs, $800 for the French humanitarian aid organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), much of which they contributed themselves.

“I’ve seen a lot of countries affected by their lack of wealth. Like in Iran a lot of people don’t have enough money and the overall quality of life is a lot lower. After seeing all of that, when I came back to America I thought, why not have people who have more disposable money donate to people that don’t have enough. Also, I noticed that a lot people don’t know about the things that are going on, like a lot of people didn’t know what Ebola was or how it affected them, so by putting out information and educating people we can educate people about what’s going on around them,” said Cameron Mirhossaini, 12, a co-founder of International Awareness Club.

This school year, International Awareness Club’s chosen organization is the American Refugee Committee, which is working to aid Syrian refugees. So far, the club has hosted two movie night fundraisers and is planning many more. To raise awareness and help educate Coronado students about the crisis, the club has made posters and posted them around campus.

“We don’t hear a lot about it as high schoolers, and it’s a huge issue even though we don’t see it as much in the US because it’s so difficult for refugees to come here. In Europe there’s over population and people are taking advantage of refugees. You see doctors degraded into horrible paying jobs. It’s important to give these people good lives,” said Kelly Mailliard, 12, a member of International Awareness Club.

Meetings take place every Wednesday during second lunch in room 401; they are open to all interested students, so stop by for a meeting if International Awareness Club interests you!