Eleven days after catastrophic flooding along the Nepal-China border killed more than 1,300 people and left thousands missing, hundreds of workers are still believed to be trapped in tunnels at hydropower sites buried by mudslides.
Former Haymarket Town Council member Madhu Panthi and the Manassas-based America Nepal Helping Society are asking for support.
“In the world, I’d like to humbly request if there is any equipment that can dig and to open the tunnel … you know more than 5,000 people are missing. And what is the best mechanism to save their life? That’s what we are looking for,” Panthi said.
Panthi moved to Northern Virginia from Nepal in 2001 and helped coordinate donations and disaster response efforts after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed thousands and damaged more than 1 million homes and buildings in Nepal in 2015.
“That earthquake also did lots of damage. But earthquake, you can remove the debris and you can find the people in there. But this one is, you know, wiping out everything, and now the roads are not there. The bridges are not there. House, school and everything, everything is destroyed and wiped away,” Panthi said
The nonprofit has set an initial goal of raising $100,000 to support emergency shelter, food, water, health services and other relief efforts. As of Sunday, it had raised more than $52,000.
Panthi said the group is working with the Embassy of Nepal in D.C. and the Nepalese government, to help determine where the money is needed most.
According to the organization’s website, all donations are “subject to due diligence and final approval” and that the money “may support Government of Nepal disaster-relief funds identified in the Government’s 26 August appeal and/or other qualified humanitarian recipients.”
“They can donate by credit card. They can send by check. And all money goes 100% to the victims of Nepal: their food, their shelter, their medical, you know, their clothes, their livelihood,” Panthi said.
Panthi, who said one of his closest friends remains among the missing, told WTOP that ANHS is not sending rescue teams to the disaster area, unlike after Nepal’s 2015 earthquake when some of the group’s members went to distribute aid alongside Fairfax County Fire and Rescue personnel deployed with USAID’s Disaster Assistance Response Team.
Instead, the group is focused on raising money and working within Nepal’s “one door policy,” which is intended to streamline relief distribution and prevent aid from being unevenly distributed. “We don’t want to, you know, send somebody and then some area-people are not getting [help], and some area-people have too much,” Panthi said.
Panthi said that’s another reason ANHS is so focused on its financial goal to help Nepal: “Our heart, our brain, our everything is there. Our family are there. What can we do?”
Last week, PKP Tender Hearts Foundation, an area group dedicated to preserving Nepalese culture and serving communities in Nepal, held a candlelight vigil in Fairfax County with the George Mason University’s Nepalese Student Association to raise money and awareness for the flood victims.
People interested in donating to the America Nepal Helping Society’s disaster relief fund can do so through the organization’s website.
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