The Nepal tragedy is weighing heavily on the hearts and minds of Georgia Perimeter College students concerned about family and friends in their native country.

Last month’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal killed more than 7,000 people, including Matina Manandhar’s grandfather and uncle. Manandhar attends Georgia Perimeter’s Clarkston Campus. She is one of 45 GPC students from Nepal.

“I couldn’t think anything; it was just so horrible,” Manandhar said about hearing news of the April 25 quake.

She also said that, at last check, her family members continue living in the streets without water or food in Nepal’s capitol city of Kathmandu.

It’s a tough time too for student Deepa Singh Thakuri who’s doing her best to balance studying for exams with keeping abreast of developments in Nepal.

“I have heartache and headache since I heard that news,” Thakuri said, noting that the tragedy has made her physically ill. “It is much better to tolerate [your] own pain rather than seeing others in pain and sorrow.” ‘

Thakuri also has family members living in Kathmandu and, according to her, they are homeless and subsisting with little food and water. As of last week, she says there hadn’t been any information about relatives living in Nepal’s countryside.

Thakuri has the added concern of caring for her husband and two-year-old daughter who were in a car accident the day before the earthquake. And, she now wonders how she’ll be able to stay in school, since her parents in Nepal were funding her studies as an international student.

“I feel like not only people in Nepal are helpless, hopeless and homeless, but I am also in the same situation,” the biomedical engineering major said.

Georgia Perimeter graduate Gangadhar Timilsina, like others, has had difficulty sleeping and connecting with family in Nepal due to electricity and Internet outages. For the most part, he says his relatives are okay.

Meantime, between studying for his master’s in computer science from Georgia Tech and working as a software engineer, Timilsina is leading fundraising efforts to re-build schools and an orphanage in Nepal. The campaign is operating through Vedic Temple, a place of worship for Hindus in Atlanta. Timilsina is the temple’s secretary.

“Since I have a platform to help, I’m using that,” he said.

Individuals or organizations can make a tax-deductible donation to the Vedic Temple campaign to assist Nepal.

“Temple’s members have strong connections in Nepal and can guarantee that every penny will directly reach those in need,” Timilsina says.

Those preferring to donate offline can mail checks or money orders to Greater Atlanta Vedic Temple, 492 Harmony Grove Rd, Lilburn, GA, 30047, with a notation to apply the donation to the Help for Nepalese fund.

So far, the Vedic Temple campaign has raised just under $15,000 of a $100,000 goal. Updates will be posted at the GoFundMe site and on Facebook.

Timilsina also shared information he discovered at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website about changes in the status of international students like Thakuri and their ability to work here in the states due to the Nepal earthquake.