Czech community in Texas raises money for hurricane-stricken areas

The devastating effects of Hurrican Katrina continue to make headlines worldwide as the full scope of the disaster is revealed. The Czech government is sending 25 million crowns (around a million dollars) in humanitarian aid to parts of the United States affected by what is being called one of the country's worst natural disasters of all time.

Photo: CTK

The Czech community in Texas - the largest in the United States - has joined the fundraising activities towards the renewal of New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, just like they did three years ago when they held a collection in order to help Czech towns and cities hit by the 2002 floods.

Effie Rosene, the President of the Czech Cultural Center in Houston, Texas, says it's hard to guess how much money will be collected this time but she adds that members of the Czech community have already donated money through charities.

Three years ago the Czech expatriates put together some 12,000 dollars, which was almost 500,000 crowns then. The proceeds were sent, for example, towards the restoration of the historical bridge in the town of Pisek in South Bohemia. Effie Rosene, whose grandparents came to Texas at the beginning of the last century, says this time the community is going to send the money to specific projects in the hurricane-stricken areas.

The Czech Center in Houston has a lot of experience with public collections. The very building housing the organisation was built thanks to the money the community raised among themselves. The community which brings together the descendants of immigrants from Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia has also donated money to help the tsunami-stricken Asian regions and the survivors of the terrorist attack in the Russian city of Beslan.