MURFREESBORO — Other
events have captured the headlines since Nepal endured major earthquakes April
26 and May 12, killing 8,676 people, but the crisis is far from over.
The United Nations estimates that 100,000 people in the
country’s northern mountains still have received no help because of extensive
damage to the infrastructure. The U.N.’s World Food Program is recruiting
workers to carry food and supplies on their backs to remote areas that have
been isolated further by the damage.
Hari Garbharran, an MTSU professor of global studies and
cultural geography, is co-founder of Humans in Crisis, a nonprofit organization
that has assisted the Women’s Foundation in Nepal for years, selling silk
scarves hand-woven by women living in domestic violence centers.
He has learned that, while the foundation offices and
shelters in Boudha survived, two children were seriously injured, the
foundation’s organic farm in Bhaktapur was demolished and its livestock
perished.
“Right now, families are lacking food and safe drinking water,
camping under sheets without safe and secure shelter, and at risk of cold,
hunger and disease,” said Garbharran. “Vulnerable women and their children are
amongst the worst affected.”
For MTSU’s Nepali students, the tragedy is even more
personal.
Bam Paneru, a doctoral candidate in molecular biosciences,
says the quake shook up his plans for the future, as well as his native
country.
“The problem right now is that economics are too bad,” Paneru
said. “You can’t get a job there, especially if you have a Ph.D. You’ve become
overqualified. So I don’t know if I should go back or stay over here.”
On a personal level, a student Paneru taught when he was a
biology instructor at a pharmacy school in Nepal died in the quake. Paneru’s
own father was missing for three days in Katmandu, making it impossible for him
to concentrate on his studies.
“I didn’t sleep for two days,” Paneru said. “I didn’t go to
school. One of my cousins is in Malaysia. He was able to call one of our
neighbors immediately after impact, but then the phone was disconnected.”
Eventually, word came through Paneru’s sister that their
father was alive and unhurt.
Vijay Koju, a graduate student majoring in computational
science, has determined that his parents and his wife’s parents are all right,
but his brother told him that some of his relatives have died.
“A lot of neighbors and relatives’ houses have been damaged,
and a lot of them have even collapsed,” said Koju.
Koju is from Bhaktapur, one of the most affected cities in
the Katmandu Valley, about 50 to 60 miles from the quake’s epicenter. He said
he found out about the original April 26 tremor when one of his wife’s cousins
called him at 3:30 a.m. Koju rolled over and went back to sleep because
earthquakes are not unusual in Nepal.
It was only when a friend called a few hours later that he
was made aware of the magnitude of the catastrophe.
“I tried to contact my parents, but it was hard at that time
because the telephone lines were damaged,” Koju said.
Now phone companies and Google Voice are offering free or
low-cost international calls to Nepal, but communication is still sketchy.
Through its support of the Women’s Foundation and its partnership
with Rural Assistance Nepal, Humans in Crisis has contacts on the ground in
Nepal that are equipped to navigate the rough terrain.
If you would like to help, go to www.humansincrisis.org and click on
“Make a Gift.”
To contact Garbharran, send an email to hari.garbharran@mtsu.edu.
No comments:
Post a Comment