JACKSON HEIGHTS — Friends have set up a fundraiser to support a local Nepali couple who lost 17 family members in last week's devastating earthquake.
Bishnu Man Pradhan, his wife Shruti Amatya and their 3-year-old son Bishlex rushed to Nepal a day after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck their country on April 25, and found their family's home in Kathmandu was decimated.
Four generations of Pradhan's family had been gathered that day at his parent's home for the first day of a Hindu Puja ceremony when the ground below them began to shake, according to Amy Hausmann, a close friend of Pradhan's for 15 years.
A total of 17 family members were killed, and 21 were pulled from the rubble with various injuries, she said.
Reached through a Facebook message, Pradhan — who lives in Jackson Heights, runs a company that promotes travel to Nepal and is active in civic groups — said it all felt "like a bad dream."
He's currently staying in a tiny room at his uncle's house with his father and sister-in-law as they observe the 13-day Hindu mourning period, he said. Their priest will guide them on what to do for the "departed souls" which include his mother, brother, sister, grandparents, sisters-in-law, aunts and two young nieces.
And through the mourning, everyday life in Kathmandu has been stressful, he said.
"We stayed in the street in [a] tent [six] days because of continual earthquake," he said. "Still life is not normal here, everybody is scared and shocked by quake, feeling bad and mentally tortured."
His friends, including Hausmann, set up an online fundraiser to help the Pradhans, who will stay in Kathmandu for the immediate future to take care of surviving family.
The friends have raised $10,000 so far, but hope to collect more for burial costs and travel, Hausmann said.
"We hope to be able to provide some relief and comfort for then, to show them we're thinking of them," she said.
The Pradhans had planned to go to Nepal later this spring to introduce their son to his family, including his grandmother — but instead the couple returned home to begin the heartbreaking process of burying their loved ones.
"Now people don't know what to do and where to go, no house no food and no family, especially in the village," Pradhan said, adding that they hadn't received help yet from other aid groups.
The death toll in Nepal after the earthquake rose to more than 7,000 in the week after the tragedy.
Community groups in Jackson Heights have continued to raise money to support their friends and family back home, and have held vigils at Diversity Plaza. The nonprofit Adhikaar raised more than $46,000 on an IndieGoGo page, with the proceeds going towards immediate relief, according to the page.
Pradhan said he'll use the money raised by his friends to help pay for funeral costs, and to rebuild the family home.
"I need a lot of money to clear the damaged property, and rebuild it or buy a house for my family," said Pradhan, whose first name means "protector" in Sanskrit. "There is no house for my family."
