University of Hyderabad scholar helps out Nepal victims

Hyderabad: A student of the University of Hyderabad who spent 14 months in the Thecho village of Khatmandu valley for his MPhil and PhD related research has decided to give back to the people of the village in their hour of crisis.

Sipoy Sarveswar of the Department of Anthropology has been in touch with his friends in Thetcho ever since he left Nepal three years ago.

After the terrible earthquake in Nepal in which thousands died, Sipoy Sarveswar got a distress call from one of his friends in Thecho village about the terrible situation asking for any help if possible.

Soon, Sarveswar started the University of Hyderabad for Nepal initiative for collecting funds for earthquake relief. Soon the campaign spread out of the university and Sarveswar and his friends started collecting funds in Indra Nagar, Shilparamam, Mehdipatnam and Inorbit mall.

Till now they have collected around Rs 3 lakh for providing relief. The funds collected will not be just sent to some NGO or government organisation but Sarveswar plans to go to Nepal along with his two friends Shyam Bharadwaj and Suresh to ensure that the money reaches the most needy.

Sarveswar says, “There is a 30-year-old volunteer group in Thecho which will be conducting a need based assessment. Once we reach there we will buy the list of things as per people’s needs and give it to them instead of just handing over the money.”

“It is not easy to make people trust their money with university students for a good cause. We have started a Facebook group ‘UoH for Nepal’ where we keep updating our activities and details of funds. We will be collecting funds till May 16 and will leave on May 18 for Nepal, first by train till Gorakhpur and after that by bus.”