They are thousands of miles from home, separated from family and friends caught in desperate situations in the wake of Nepal’s deadly earthquake.
Members of Britain’s Nepalese community gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square Tuesday to offer prayers for the dead, and share ideas on how to help those left struggling to cope in the wake of the disaster.
Anano Sunwar, digital designer, originally from Kathmandu, Nepal
Anano Sunwar is grieving for his young nephew, killed in the earthquake because he was caught in the “wrong place at the wrong time.”
Saneem Amatya was at the famous Dharahara Tower in Kathmandu, when the 7.8 earthquake hit and the building collapsed. “He was just 14,” says Anano.
“I’m here to pay my respects to him but also to the entire Nepali community” he told CNN at the vigil.
Anano, originally from Kathmandu, works as a digital designer in London; his parents and other relatives still live in the Nepalese capital.
He says he “panicked” when he first heard the news and was unable to reach his parents. He tried to call them and to get in touch via social media but for the first few hours there was no response. “I didn’t know what to do, I was really worried, I tried to contact all the people I knew.”
He says his parents “are pretty much living life in the unknown” and that they “don’t know when the water is going to go out,” adding that the country already had issues with water and electricity but now, he says, “it has gone to an extreme.”
He adds that if things are difficult in the capital, they are much worse outside of the Kathmandu valley. He says that in more remote villages “the houses have been totally totaled,” adding “those are the people that are really suffering.” They “don’t have water, don’t have food, don’t have clothes, don’t have tents or anything.”
“People are just sleeping and camping outside where there are open spaces.”
After the first scare he is now focused on helping his family and his country. “I would go back but I think my voice is bigger here,” he insists. “If you go back and you don’t know really what you’re doing you are just standing in the way.”
Anano says the money he would spend on a flight home can be put to a better use: “If it costs me £600 ($929) to get there and back, I would rather send that money there… It’s a very poor country… the basic necessities aren’t there to support people and we need all the aid we can get.”
Kisan Rai, soldier, originally from Bhojpur, Nepal
Kisan Rai (in center of photo above), a soldier with the British Army’s Gurkha Brigades, was in the middle of a military exercise when he first heard news of the Nepal quake, “I was shocked,” he tells CNN.
His immediate concern was to reach out to his family in Bhojpur, eastern Nepal, and make sure they were all safe and well.
“I tried to ring but the call was not going through”.
His home town is 181km from Kathmandu, in one of the more isolated parts of the country, and communications were down for several hours after the earthquake. Some 12 hours passed before he was able to speak to his closest relatives.
“They are okay physically but with what has happened, mentally they are not okay,” he says. “We are not okay.”
Although he managed to speak to his mother and father, he and some colleagues still have not been able to get in touch with relatives in other parts of Nepal.
Some of his friends have already flown back to Nepal to help with the search and rescue effort and others are due to depart soon. At the moment he has not been deployed to the mountainous country but he firmly adds: “I am willing to go help”.
For now, while he remains in the UK, he and his co-workers are collecting medical supplies and raising money to help the victims of the earthquake.
Anand Acharya, travel agent, originally from Kathmandu, Nepal
Anand was born in Kathmandu and now manages a travel agency in West London. He says — with relief — that his parents, brother and sister were not harmed in the earthquake that hit Nepal but adds “still, they are there”.
He says that while they escaped unhurt, his relatives are still struggling. They have spent the last few days “sleeping on the paddy field, in a homemade tent,” he explains.
“They have no electricity, no internet, no connection to the outside world,” and at the same time they have had to deal with the pouring rain that hit Nepal in the days following the earthquake.
He says it has been hard to be so far away from his native country at a time of crisis, forced to follow events as they unfold through the media, “the photos and the videos are very much affecting our daily lives.”
Despite that, he says he does not want to go to back to his country at present. “There is a strain on the transport network, the housing network,” he says, adding that those he has spoken to in Nepal tell him that “if you can do something, do it from there. Only travel if it is absolutely necessary because only doctors and medics are required at the moment.”
Anand says he has been doing exactly that: as a travel agent he has a privileged relationship with airlines and has been facilitating travel for those who want to go to Nepal to help.
After a call from a member of the local Gurkha community, asking him if he could help a group of 10 doctors reach Kathmandu, he managed to get them on a flight the following day. He says others will follow in the coming days.
He is also involved with several charities and fundraising initiatives, trying to make sure that the “doctors and engineers can go” to Nepal to help the “very poor” country and its people recover and rebuild.
But he also makes a dire prediction: “we expect the death toll to rise” saying that rescue efforts will take some time to reach the more remote villages.
Sarun Gurung, soldier, originally from Kathmandu, Nepal
Sarun (on the right in the photo above) came to the United Kingdom to serve with the British Army’s Gurkha Brigades 15 years ago, but still has family in his home country: “my parents, my brother are still in Nepal, in Kathmandu, I go there very often.”
When he heard the news, he immediately tried to reach them over the phone, but faced an agonizing delay.
“I couldn’t [reach them] in the first day, I tried so many times … After a day, eventually, I spoke to them and they are fine,” he said.
Although they escaped unharmed, Sarun says his family’s plight is far from over. Like many others, “they are frightened and they are still living outside the house,” fearing another aftershock will cause the building to collapse on top of them, “they have not entered the house at all” since the earthquake.
Sarun says his heart is still in Nepal, even if it is very unlikely that he will travel to his home country anytime soon.
“I would love to [go] but I don’t think that is going to happen,” he says, explaining “some of my friends are flying with some doctors, and they are going to Nepal to help,” but he is not among those chosen for the mission.
Stuck in the United Kingdom, he says he will do whatever he can to help his country, raising funds to send “money and things like equipment, blankets and clothes” to Nepal.
He says he hopes to go back one day and he is sure he will be able to help.
But he predicts a tough road ahead for his homeland: “what happened in Nepal will take at least a good few years” to recover from.