On April 25, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 struck Nepal killing more than 8,000 and injuring more than 17,000. As a response to help the volunteer efforts of organizations such as the Red Cross, UNICEF, Oxfam and the International Medical Corps, The Nepalese Students’ Association at NC State set up a stand for two days, on Wednesday, April 29 and Friday, May 1, to raise awareness about the incident and encourage support.
Wednesday’s fundraiser was held in front of D.H. Hill library and Hunt library. The association did not collect cash money that day but offered students the opportunity to donate to organizations online.
“We had our laptops and iPads out with the links to the donation sites so that people could login and donate money to one of the organizations,” said Birendra K.C., president of the Nepalese Students’ Association and a graduate student studying parks, recreation and tourism management. “We wanted to have the fundraiser transparent because if it were cash money, we would have to give it to the organization, so we just had them look at all the links to support the effort.”
The next day’s fundraiser was in the gateway in front of Engineering Building II. In addition to providing computers to donate through links, the association also collected cash that day.
“Due to the weather, most of the people didn’t want to donate their money through the links,” said K.C. “They much rather wanted to give cash, so we decided to take cash on Friday. We collected $319.25 after about three to four hours.”
K.C. said the student body was very helpful as a community.
“It was exam time, so most of the students who came to Engineering Building II were taking exams; however, they stopped by and generously supported us—we are very thankful for their support,” said K.C.
The Nepalese Students’ Association has not decided on a specific organization to which the cash donations collected will go.
In addition to having students donate online and taking cash donations, the association distributed leaflets with all the links for people to donate.
“For the people who did not have time we gave them leaflets so that they can donate whenever is possible for them at home or library or anywhere they feel comfortable,” K.C. said.
The Office of International Services (OIS) at NC State created and edited the leaflets, helped with the distribution and set up tables. Alexis McCloskey, programs coordinator for OIS, and OIS assisted the Nepalese Students’ Association throughout the entire process.
“Given that the timing of the earthquake was right before exams and the Nepalese Students’ Association is a rather small student group, The Office of International Services helped the students set up support stations on the Brickyard and on Centennial Campus to raise awareness and support for the earthquake victims,” McCloskey said. “We also assisted the students by sharing information about the crisis with our campus partners to raise awareness and encourage support across campus.”
As for future plans, the Nepalese Students’ Association wants to continue supporting those in Nepal.
“We will be having some kind of meeting with the Nepalese Student Associations possibly within the next week to decide where the money will go and if there is any other project we can help to boost assistance in addition to donating any amount of money,” K.C. said.
Once the decision is made about where to donate the money, the OIS will be posting the results on its Facebook page.
Overall, K.C. says the NC State student body has been very supportive.
“It is really great when you have such a helping and supporting community around you,” K.C. said. “They wanted to help, and I think many of them did donate money through one of those organizations I mentioned. They said ‘I was thinking about you and your family and all the people who are suffering from this devastating incident,’ which meant a lot to us, particularly in that situation.”
The Nepalese Student Association consists of Nepalese students at NC State and represents Nepal in campus activities, while at the same time promoting the unique socio-cultural aspects of Nepal to NC State’s community.
“In the past, the Nepalese Students’ Association organized “Nepalese Cultural Night” and participated in the “International tea and coffee event” during the International Education week,” said Palpasa Mandandhar, vice president of the Nepalese Students’ Association. “NSA also helps newly enrolled Nepalese students at NC State adjust to the life here. In addition, we try our best to provide support to Nepal in times of need.”
