As news reports continue to chronicle the devastation in Nepal after Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake, our hearts go out to the nation and to its people. This disaster hits close to home, as we have a number of students in our Shenandoah community whose families experienced the earthquake and its aftershocks firsthand. As well, Nepal was a Global Citizenship Project destination just last month and also two years ago. Finally, Shenandoah has a close-knit partnership with Little Sisters Fund, which aims to help Nepali girls stay in school.
Many individuals in the Shenandoah University community have reached out to me over the past few days and asked, “What can we do? How can we help?”
Our university community has a long and storied history of reaching out when people need it the most. Whether at home or abroad, I know that each and every one of you make a difference in the lives of others on a daily basis.
It is with that sentiment that I ask you now to support the victims of the Nepal earthquake in any way that you can. It could be with good thoughts and prayers, or, in the form of monetary support. If you are financially able, please consider making a donation. I’ve been told that just one dollar can feed a child for one day in Nepal. So, as you can see, any amount can help.
Shenandoah students and Nepalese citizens Kriti Hada and Sapana Ojha have established a GoFundMe account to raise money to help earthquake victims. Their fundraising page also includes information on organizations collecting donations to help the earthquake victims. Kriti was quoted in a USA Today article over the weekend about her family’s experience during the earthquake, and both students were featured in a television piece by WHAG. We are grateful that their families are safe.
Kriti and Sapana come to us from Little Sisters Fund, which provides long-term scholarships for economically disadvantaged girls in Nepal. Little Sisters Fund staff members are all accounted for and safe, but are in the process of confirming the safety of nearly 1,700 Little Sisters, their families and alumni of the organization.
As each school coordinator tracks down and checks on the girls under her care, they have access to a small amount of funds to use for emergency needs. Consider donating to Little Sisters Fund to replenish funds spent to aid Little Sisters as a result of the earthquake.
And earlier this week, Shameen Shrestha, a pharmacy student who is from Nepal, expressed her feelings in a message to fellow pharmacy school colleagues.
“Being Nepali is something that I take great pride in. We are one of the poorest countries in the world; however, what we lack financially, we make it up with our unique traditions and heritage,” she said. “Seeing pictures of the temples that I visited many times as a child, and seeing the monument that I visited just two summers ago crumbled into pieces on the ground is making me feel helpless. It will take several years, if not decades, to reconstruct what we had.”
Now is the time to support these students and their home country.
Because of our affiliation with the United Methodist Church, the university regularly partners with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), one of the very few organizations that uses 100 percent of donations for aid. That means that every dollar, every penny donated to UMCOR goes to aid people desperate for food, water, shelter and emergency care.
The United Methodist Church already has many partners in Nepal. As in Haiti in 2010, the UMC was there before the disaster, is there now, and will be with the people as they rebuild their homes and communities. A drop-down box on the donation page notes donations will go to the area of greatest need, which right now, is Nepal.
You’ve heard Rhonda VanDyke Colby, our vice president for student life, say the following mantra many times, and I encourage you to keep this close to your heart as you consider the ways in which you can support the people of Nepal right now.
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
President Tracy Fitzsimmons