Nepalese Student Starts Fundraising

Junior Sujata Sapkota woke early Saturday morning to chilling news: Nepal, the nation where she was born and had lived for eight years, had been hit by 7.8 magnitude earthquake. According to the Guardian, it was the worst quake to hit the country in over 80 years.

Sapkota’s phone was lit with Twitter notifications and text messages at 6:30 a.m. One friend had texted her two hours earlier, unable to reach her father, also Sujata’s uncle. He had gone back to visit his mother, who was sick and living in Nepal.

“I had a really bad nightmare, so I [got up] and after I…checked my phone, I saw all these [messages] and I found out that there was an earthquake in Nepal,” Sapkota said. “At the time, [about] 600 were killed…I thought, ‘Crap, what happened to my family?’…I’m thinking about my friends, who all go to…Kathmandu to study. I was thinking, like, ‘I’ve got to call them right now.’ And when I tried to call them, they wouldn’t pick up.”

Sapkota and her sisters started a fundraising effort to raise money for UNICEF, one of the major organizations providing aid to Nepal. They encourage people here in Omaha to donate to the fund; any amount will help and is welcomed. The fundraiser can be reached at GoFundMe.

“There’s no shelters, no food, no nothing,” Sapkota said. “I watched a couple of videos and I was like, you know what, I can’t do anything about this, but I can help them, with fundraising.”

So far, the Sapkota sisters have raised over $600. Their goal is to reach $1000. All funds will be donated to UNICEF, who is providing critical rescue aid to children and families affected by the catastrophe.

“My friend started sending me all these horrible, horrible pictures,” Sapkota said. “I couldn’t even look at them. I watched this one video and that’s when it really hit me badly. My parents had just left for work. They didn’t even know about it. I was the first to know about it. After that, I called my mom and said ‘Did you hear what happened?’…and I told her the story about how 600 people are dead so far and still counting. She was basically in shock, she couldn’t believe it.”

The earthquake was centered just miles from Kathmandu, exposing nearly 4.6 million in the city and surrounding areas to tremors. The quake caused avalanches on Mount Everest, devastating the base camp and killing climbers there. CNN Indian Broadcasting Network reports that several centuries old temples have been destroyed without hope of repair to their original states. Among those destroyed was Kasthamandap, built in the 16th century and the temple that gave Kathmandu its name.

Phones lines are down in a vast majority of Nepal, so communication with family and friends was difficult. It was hours before Sapkota got into touch with her uncle and his family, who were still living in Nepal.

“My aunt told me what happened to my uncle, how he was eating and everything flew around, and everyone ran outside [during the earthquake],” Sapkota said. “There was basically nothing he could do. He was thinking, ‘If I die tonight, take care of my kids, God.’”

All of Sapkota’s family in Nepal is safe, but as aftershocks continue to rock the country and rescue missions are able to reach farther into the rubble, bodies are still being uncovered. All shelter is destroyed, so people are sleeping on the streets. Over 4000 have been injured. Sapkota worries for the people in Nepal who have lost someone.

“I just want to tell everyone to help out, and [to] love your family members,” Sapkota said. “I didn’t lose anyone, but I feel like I lost someone. In Nepal, all your elders, you call them your aunt or your sister or your cousin. I feel like I lost someone. It’s so depressing and sad. Nothing is there now. No historical places exist. About 2000 have died now. It’s just so sad.”

Sapkota has started a fundraising effort to raise funds for UNICEF, who is one of the major organizations providing aid to Nepal. It can be found at GoFundMe.