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Thousands Raised in Local Fundraisers for Nepal Earthquake Victims

By Katie Honan | April 27, 2015 4:15pm
 Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights has become the meeting place for the Nepali community. 
Thousands Raised in Local Fundraisers for Victims of Earthquake in Nepal
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JACKSON HEIGHTS — More than $24,000 was collected during a vigil in Diversity Plaza Sunday to help relief efforts in Nepal after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country on Saturday, as many other groups continue to raise funds to send back home.

Dozens of candles have remained lit in the middle of the plaza since Saturday, as Nepalese immigrants gather there to share information and pray for their family and friends.

More than 4,000 are confirmed dead, and 8,000 injured, after the earthquake hit Nepal on Saturday, reports say. 

It has left members of the city's Nepali community — mostly in Jackson Heights, Elmhurst and Woodside — scrambling to connect with those back home and to find ways to help. 

Pralay Rajbhandari, who volunteers with the New York Nepalese Football Club, helped organize the vigil Sunday where they raised nearly $24,000. 

They plan to wire it to the club's president, who was visiting the capital city of Kathmandu when the earthquake hit and is now on the ground working to find reliable, trustworthy donation sites for the money, he said. 

Rajbhandari said there is not much news from outside of Kathmandu and many fear the complete destruction of smaller villages. 

"It's heartbreaking," he said. 

On Monday, groups brought food and tea to the plaza's center and re-lit candles, discussing what they had found out from friends and family back home. 

Tashi Lama, 40, said he had just heard from his parents and sister earlier that morning.

"They are ok, but they're living in the streets" of Kathmandu, he said. "They're scared to go back inside, afraid of aftershocks."

Many groups have set up online fundraising pages to send relief as quickly as possible. 

Adhikaar, a nonprofit in the Nepali community focused on human rights, created an IndieGoGo page to raise money to send to Nepal. 

The group has raised more than $7,000 and it will be used to coordinate immediate relief with volunteers from Nepal and India. 

Another online site created by The American Nepal Medical Foundation has collected more than $170,000 so far.

The money will be used to create an online registry to understand what supplies are needed and to send physicians and a trauma team to Nepal, they wrote.