During our visit to Nepal, we met Satish Kharel (9N1AA), Nepal's first native licensed amateur radio operator and his daughter Tejaswita (9N1DX), currently Nepal's youngest amateur. We have heard from both of them by email. Satish and his family are safe, and their house is intact. Following natural disasters, amateur radio operators frequently step up to provide the critical communications needed to support rescue operations. Satish has been very active since the quake and was featured in an interview on The Weather Channel. (Stash's interviews starts about 1:45 into the video.)
We have also heard from Father Greg Sharkey, a Culver Military Academy classmate of Jeff's and a Jesuit who has lived in Nepal for more than thirty years. The Jesuits have a well-established rural mobile health program in Nepal, and they are leveraging that program, along with their partner organizations, to deliver relief in remote villages. The Midwest Jesuits have established a fund to support the relief efforts, and all of the funds are used directly to provide goods and services in person-to-person operations run by Jesuits. If you are considering a donation to support the earthquake relief efforts in Nepal, this is a good option. With their many years of experience in Nepal, the Jesuits will use the funds very efficiently and maximize their impact, no matter how large or small the contribution. Donations can be made at this website.
Our blog post from our trip in February can be found here. The video below is from our trip to Nepal in February and contains photos of the beautiful places we saw and the very kind people we met.
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