Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

Sport Min­is­ter Anil Roberts says fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance for for­mer na­tion­al vol­ley­ball play­er Taila de Souza is look­ing favourable. Roberts promised to as­sist af­ter she asked for help to pay the fees for her fi­nal se­mes­ter at the Amer­i­can In­ter­na­tion­al Col­lege, Spring­field, Mass­a­chu­setts.

The 24-year-old is pur­su­ing a doc­tor­ate in phys­i­cal ther­a­py and needs to pay ap­prox­i­mate­ly $130,000 by Feb­ru­ary 14. The Sun­day Guardian ran De Souza's sto­ry last Sun­day and on Fri­day she said the re­sponse had been "over­whelm­ing­ly hum­bling" and "touch­ing." She had ex­pressed hope that at least 20,000 read­ers of the Guardian would do­nate the min­i­mum amount of US$1 to help her reach her goal of US$20,410.

She said in the past week she re­ceived about US$600 from read­ers, while many oth­ers called and e-mailed her mak­ing do­na­tion pledges. De Souza played for the coun­try's na­tion­al vol­ley­ball team from 2002 un­til 2008. If the funds col­lect­ed ex­ceed what she needs, the sur­plus will be used to start a schol­ar­ship for fu­ture stu­dents like her­self who are hard work­ers and want to make a pos­i­tive change in the world.

Mean­while, Roberts said as soon as the let­ters of ap­point­ment were giv­en to the board of the Sport and Cul­ture Fund, De Souza's case will be the first to be ad­dressed.

�2 For more in­fo: taila.des­ouza@aic.edu or 908-456-6482

�2 Do­nate: First Cit­i­zens–Ac­ct no. 1641927, Sco­tia­bank–Ac­ct no.170936

�2 http://goget­fund­ing.com/project/taila-s-last-se­mes­ter-of-col­lege