Nepalese students need help to stay at ASU

April 29--SAN ANGELO, Texas -- A frantic text message dispatched from 8,000 miles away rocked Sazza Dahal.

The Kathmandu, Nepal, native was in her Angelo State University dorm when word came through: A massive earthquake was shaking the capital city, and her mother and family were going to perish. Dahal reached out to them but couldn't get through.

Hours later, Dahal's mother was able make contact, confirming the family survived the onslaught of quakes that jolted the Himalayan nation. By then, a shaken Dahal knew full well of her hometown's destruction.

"I'd already checked the news," said Dahal, a freshman double majoring in international business and math. "I had seen that the places we grew up were destroyed, they were smashed down to the ground."

For Dahal and Aayush Bajracharya, a freshman finance major also hailing from Kathmandu, a second semester studying abroad took an abrupt turn Saturday.

More than 4,600 are dead and 9,000 injured as 8 million people across Nepal struggle to recover from the deadliest natural disaster to plague the region in more than 80 years.

Both students' families survived the earthquake and countless aftershocks, but the rebuilding process and financial turbulence in the South Asian country nonetheless will strain the students so far from home.

To stay in San Angelo and in school, Dahal and Bajracharya will need financial assistance. On top of that burden, they are swimming with uncertainty and grief watching their homeland from afar.

Bajracharya's neighborhood was devastated by the earthquake.

His home suffered significant damage, forcing his father, a retired math professor, to sleep in the street. Bajracharya wasn't able to speak to anyone back home for two days after the disaster.

"I saw all the houses got destroyed where I used to play when I was a child," Bajracharya said. "I was starting to get shivers I was so scared."

Insurance isn't really a factor in Nepal, Dahal said. If banks are destroyed, the money is essentially gone, she said.

The factory owned by Dahal's family, where they exported handmade clothes to Europe, collapsed from the tremors. As an international business major, she wanted to grow the family business and reach over to the U.S. Now, she's unsure where to even start.

Dehal and Bajracharya stay glued to the news.

One of the many pictures flashed before their eyes in the past four days was of the street in front of their school filled with dead bodies. The Nepalese government has provided residents with firewood to burn the masses of bodies, she said.

"I'm pretty sure that we know those people," Dahal said. "I still don't have the courage to go ahead and look up the names of the people whose bodies were out there."

The pair of international students have been at ASU for nine months thanks to partial scholarships and support from their parents in Nepal. As foreigners in the U.S. on visas, they can't get jobs without sacrificing student status. They are allowed to work on campus, which Dahal does as a cashier in the cafeteria, but they can't accrue more than 20 hours a week.

The quakes have choked their finances, and both students must raise about $3,600 to remain at ASU and enroll in summer courses.

Richard and Marsha Best, who met Dehal and Bajracharya walking their therapy dogs on campus, established a scholarship fund to benefit the students.

"This is an immense problem," Best said of Nepalese relief efforts. "What we're trying to do is at least help two people and start somewhere."

Donations should be sent to the Nepalese Student Scholarship Fund at Wells Fargo Bank, 3806 W. Loop 306.

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