University of Nebraska-Lincoln students associated with the Nepalese Earthquake Relief group raised $4,875.45 in donations from the community between April 26 and May 2.
Prabhakar Shrestha, the group’s unofficial spokesman, said the donations have been divided equally between a UNL student’s family that lost all its possessions in the quake and a medical team providing immediate relief work in rural Nepal.
The team of medical doctors is led by Sumesh Khanal, the brother of a UNL student, and is entirely funded by donations from the UNL community. Composed of nine doctors, three medical students and three nurses, the team is working in working in the Rasuwa and Sindhupalchok districts in northern Nepal, one of the most affected and remote areas of the country. Government help has not yet arrived in the two districts.
The team is conducting needs assessment and treating people in need of immediate medical assistance. The donations collected at UNL will be used to create temporary housing as the annual raining season, or monsoon, is approaching.
Because most Nepalese families do not have insurance, the student’s family needed immediate help to make sure they were OK, Shrestha said.
The students raised money by selling T-shirts and by soliciting donations at the student unions on East Campus and City Campus, as well as during a candlelight vigil held April 30 and the May 3 Lincoln Marathon.
Shrestha, UNL’s sustainability coordinator, and his wife are natives of Nepal.
