Diablo Valley College students literally “stood up for Nepal” for an hour in the Commons Area to raise money for recent earthquake victims on April 26. 

Sasmit Pokharel, 19, who organized the event, said “As we all know, there was a major 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Nepal last Saturday, Over 4,000 people died and there are thousands of injuries.”

Pokharel had so far raised $925 for the cause. The goal on their website is set at $5000.

“The fund I collected will be directly sent to a renowned organization in Nepal,” Pokharel said. “They will spend the money in buying blankets, food and medicine.”

Pokharel is from Nepal, but has studied in the United States for the last four years. He went back to visit his family last summer and was planing to attend DVC in the summer; however, since the earthquake happened, he’s planing on going back home after this semester to be with his family.

“It’s good that his family is ok,” friend Lucas Wanlass, 19, said. “But he is pretty broken up about what happened. He has been calling his family every hour to find out what’s going on. His sister is also very devastated about what’s going on.”

Pokharel is not the only one putting time and effort into raising money. His friend Hussaini Zee, a 20-year-old computer science major, also stood along side him.

“On Saturday, we found out about this tragic event that turned the beautiful city Nepal into Death Valley,” Zee said. “It had me devastated. We decided to do this fund raising thing for all the earthquake-affected people. That’s the least we could do for humans as human beings.”

Pokharel and his friends will continue their fund raising for the rest of the week in the Commons Area.

You can help the people of Nepal by donating money to this website.