It's great that Qualogy is so involved in our student association!
Published on: Author: Ish Ramautarsing Category: News* This article was written by Ish Ramautarsing, president of the SSA student association
I moved to the Netherlands from Suriname in 2012 to study, where I set up Surinamese Students Abroad (SSA) together with several others. This is the only association for Surinamese students in the Netherlands and currently has roughly 1,400 members. Qualogy has been extremely involved in SSA since its foundation and recently made a significant donation to our crowdfunding campaign. It's a great partnership!
Our association's motto is: ‘Grow, Develop & Network’. In addition to organizing various social activities, we strive to bridge the gap between students and the business community and get highly-educated Surinamese professionals more involved in relevant social issues.
Economic situation
As most people know, the economic climate in Suriname is rather bleak, to say the least. It's extremely painful to see this happen to your home country, especially one with so much potential. Many people are struggling to make ends meet and small business owners and restaurants are going bankrupt. In short: things don’t look good and there's no end in sight.
Accreditation for mechanical engineering
This economic malaise is also affecting Anton de Kom University of Suriname (AdeKUS), the country’s only university. There's just enough money to pay the professors and that's about it. As a result, the accreditation process for the Mechanical Engineering bachelor's program has ground to a halt. The Faculty of Applied Sciences at AdeKUS has been working on this process for some time now. And while the application has since been approved, there's simply not enough money to complete the process. This is extremely disappointing, especially considering that mechanical engineering is an excellent transition to a master's program at one of the technical universities in the Netherlands, such as those offered in Delft, Twente and Eindhoven. But the first step, of course, is getting accredited!
Crowdfunding
The SSA wants to make higher education more accessible to Surinamese students; after all, it's good for them and it’s good for the future of our country. We therefore launched a crowdfunding campaign earlier this month to raise €13,000 to complete the accreditation process for the Mechanical Engineering program. Our target is €10,000, but our ultimate goal is to raise enough money to solve this problem for good!
Qualogy's contribution
We asked Qualogy if they would be willing to make a donation, and their response was more than we could have hoped for! Qualogy Netherlands and Qualogy Suriname each purchased a Platinum Honorary Donor package worth €1,000! Fantastic! Major donations like these not only help us achieve our goal, they also demonstrate Qualogy's commitment to the future of Suriname. The company has a separate branch in Suriname and is helping the country get back on its feet. Qualogy also demonstrated that it has a clear vision and understands the importance of investing in education.
Join in!
We've come a long way with our crowdfunding campaign and have raised €7,000 of the €10,000 we need. But we still need to raise the last €3,000 and every little bit helps. Will you join the movement? You can donate as little as €5 to the project via iDEAL. For larger donations, sponsors will receive an official sponsorship certificate or have their name engraved on a work of art that will be installed on the university campus. Visit the crowdfunding website for more information. If you have any questions, please feel free to send us an e-mail.
