Helping happiness. QuakeNepal

(Updated. So much has happened in the past few days, that I think the little updates are getting confusing. Hence, updating this to compile all that we've been doing).  

Namaste!

My name is Jasmine Tenpa Lama. I am a medical doctor from Nepal and I am  currently situated in Boston, studying Masters in Public Health at Boston University at the moment. 

My friends and I have started a page in facebook  (https://www.facebook.com/helpinghappiness).

Frantic and scared I started this page immediately after the earthquake to just have all information in one place. But then later we got contacted by people who were looking for their families and friends. We then dedicated ourselves to helping connect families. We would take the phone number and name from Nepalis based outside Nepal and then make calls to Nepal and find if families were safe and sound.

We did by asking our friends and families to make the call and calling ourselves through skype. As we managed to get a few calls through we started feeling very happy about it. 

Later we got many families based abroad contact us asking information about missing friends and families and we started sharing the pictures citing Missing People. 

The most satisfaction we got from the page was replying to individual messages and just giving a word of assurance to keep faith. In a way doing that helped us keep faith too. We felt happy that we were helping people, helping happiness in between chaos. 

The funds from this page, I want to use to continue helping spread this happiness, by utilizing it for the people affected by this. And keep updating about our progress on our page.

We have made so many friends and have formed a small community and we want to keep that momentum going to create a long-term difference.

Since we all have some background in health, we have been posting information on disaster management and health and are keen on focusing on preventative health in the long run. 

The money from initial collection will be donated to recovery process in regions outside Kathmandu, around the hardest hit areas. The work in Nepal although progressing, it is still chaotic. Aid is coming in from everywhere and groups are rushing to help as much as they can. We are looking into getting more information about Lamjung and Langtang, identify which area has the most need and where this fund can make a sustainable impact. We will support causes which will help build communities far from the capital, who have lost everything and will need more help and supportas they start rebuilding.

Going back to my public health roots, we will also focus on community awareness and maintaining health and hygiene at such an hour to help reduce infections and keep helping happiness. 

I will personally be going to Nepal soon and am currently working on building a network I can work with, so we can keep updating you about the progress we make. 

Because of the very good response we've had on our page, we want to now look ahead and keep building it to bring stories on the progress and ongoings in Nepal as well as keep updating you about how and where we utilise this fund. This will help maintain transparency and hopefully interest in Nepal, even after the current attention wanes. 

(picture on profile from qz.com)