Riverview seniors help student from Bénin after fire
Residents at the Royal Court Parkland Estates retirement home in Riverview are helping an international student they've never met after fire destroyed his Dieppe apartment and all of his belongings.
Alice Jones learned about Farid Danko in a local media report.
"I feel deeply for this young man, it must be very traumatic to lose everything," she said.
Late on Aug. 31, a four-storey apartment building at 487 Champlain St., was destroyed in a dramatic fire in which many people on the upper floors had to be rescued from their balconies.
Danko, who is from Bénin in West Africa and is attending the University of Moncton, has been staying with a local couple until he gets back on his feet.
Jones says when she heard about the young man and how he needed a laptop for school, she wanted to find some way to help and approached the manager at Royal Court Parkland Estates, Carole Morey.
"This resident said to me, 'Carole, why can't we do something for him? We are a lot of seniors here and we can help him,'" Morey recalled.
Donations still coming in
Once word got around the retirement home, it didn't take long for donations of $5 and $10 to start rolling in.
Resident Edna Fraser says they expect to raise the $400 needed to buy a new laptop for Danko.
"It will be good for him to feel like he has a community here, a small family, if you want," Fraser said. "He's only beginning his life and to have everything taken away from him at one spot, surely if we came together, as a group we could help."
The seniors are planning a social on Friday where they will present Danko with the new computer.
Jones says if it were her son, she would want someone to step in and help.
"That is what we are here on earth for, to help each other," she said.
"We are retired and in many ways we are away from society, but this in some ways gives us the feeling that we are part of the community … We don't have a house to give him, but together we can give him a computer. It's the same gesture, even if it's only in small amounts."
Jones says she believes the seniors will get more out of being able to help Danko than he will.
If there is any money left over, the seniors say they will find some other way to help Danko in the future.
A spokesperson for the University of Moncton says the school is working on finding student accommodations for Danko on campus. The university is also organizing a bursary.
