By Anu Joshi
Who we are is a group of youths, spread out across the globe, bonding through our mutual grief and trying our level best to help in any way possible. We come from all walks of life, with a varying spectrum of skills between us. And as such, we have raised funds, medical supplies, tents; we have held vigils, we have prayed, we have started campaigns of various sorts. And even after all that - we are aware that all our best efforts have fallen short of making a significant contribution to our country.
Most of us (besides our volunteers on ground) haven't physically felt the earthquakes - but it doesn't diminish the terror, anguish, and helplessness we feel. Every single day and night that our friends and families suffer weighs heavy on our conscience, and we are guilt-ridden by the awareness of our own comforts. We lie awake night after night, calling our loved ones, and devouring every scrap of news we come across - obsessively tracking every earthquake and aftershocks. We mutely watch the pictures and videos on the screen from thousands of miles away, as our homes and childhoods crumble into nothingness. And we quietly suffer alongside thousands of other Nepalese living away from home.
Working on this website has been cathartic for most of us - it has helped us connect to old and new friends as we all work towards creating a centralized site for useful information, that we sincerely hope will be useful to the survivors and aid workers on the ground. We pour our grief into words, code our nightmares away, and spend countless hours trying to make up for our absence from our homes where we are needed the most.
However, we are not here to put our grief on display. We are not here to sensationalize the news, and glorify the tragedy. We are not here to make money off of the terrible tragedies back home in Nepal. And we are not going to watch from the sidelines and shirk our responsibilities.
Who we are is a group of youths, spread out across the globe, bonding through our mutual grief and trying our level best to help in any way possible. We come from all walks of life, with a varying spectrum of skills between us. And as such, we have raised funds, medical supplies, tents; we have held vigils, we have prayed, we have started campaigns of various sorts. And even after all that - we are aware that all our best efforts have fallen short of making a significant contribution to our country.
Most of us (besides our volunteers on ground) haven't physically felt the earthquakes - but it doesn't diminish the terror, anguish, and helplessness we feel. Every single day and night that our friends and families suffer weighs heavy on our conscience, and we are guilt-ridden by the awareness of our own comforts. We lie awake night after night, calling our loved ones, and devouring every scrap of news we come across - obsessively tracking every earthquake and aftershocks. We mutely watch the pictures and videos on the screen from thousands of miles away, as our homes and childhoods crumble into nothingness. And we quietly suffer alongside thousands of other Nepalese living away from home.
Working on this website has been cathartic for most of us - it has helped us connect to old and new friends as we all work towards creating a centralized site for useful information, that we sincerely hope will be useful to the survivors and aid workers on the ground. We pour our grief into words, code our nightmares away, and spend countless hours trying to make up for our absence from our homes where we are needed the most.
However, we are not here to put our grief on display. We are not here to sensationalize the news, and glorify the tragedy. We are not here to make money off of the terrible tragedies back home in Nepal. And we are not going to watch from the sidelines and shirk our responsibilities.
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