Exactly two weeks ago from today on Saturday, April 25th, a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal’s capital city, Kathmandu. The earthquake has caused more than 8,000 deaths and left a countless number of people homeless, digging through the rubble.
This earthquake was so powerful that it created an avalanche on Mount Everest and completely destroyed the climbers’ home base, which is supposed to be set up in a place which wouldn’t be impacted even if there were to be an avalanche.
In a response to the deadly impact that the earthquake put on Nepal, Hewitt has decided to have a fundraiser to raise money for those in need. We have just renewed our partnership with AmeriCares, a disaster relief organization for another two years because we feel like it is the best organization that will use our donated money most efficiently. AmeriCares uses nearly all the donations they receive directly towards the people in need, whereas other organizations, such as The American Red Cross may use the money differently for advertisements and employee pay.
Jamie Russo ’15, one of the heads of the Student Service Board, says how she thinks that the awareness about this disaster “has pretty much been raised thanks to the attention of the media on it, but I think that people don’t realize how easy it is to help.”
The media has definitely helped to spread the word of what is going on in the world. The families of those who were climbing Mount Everest at the time of the earthquake were able to know whether their family member was alive based off of a list of names that were posted online.
Starting on Monday April 4th through Wednesday April 6th, Hewitt plans on raising $500 to help the people devastated by this natural disaster. During these days, there will be Board Members in the lobby collecting any donations we can contribute. We encourage everyone to make even the smallest donation so that the Hewitt community can become more active and aware members of the large community outside of Hewitt.
The Hewitt Times will be keeping track of how much money we are raising based off of our $500 goal. Click here to stay up to date on how much we have raised and how much more we hope to raise.