Ventura Nepalese Community Raises Money for Nepal Earthquake Victims

The local Nepalese community is doing what it can to raise money for those impacted by the earthquake.

The effort is anchored at Himalaya restaurant in downtown Ventura. The majority of the men and women who work at this restaurant are from Nepal. When they first heard about the earthquake in their home country they decided to come up with a plan to help those devastated most by this weekend’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake.

For the small Nepalese community of about 35 people based out of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, watching the devastating images on TV of the destruction left by the earthquake is devastating.

“It is really sad to see all of the historical places that we used to play at are no more. Everything is down to the flat so it is very sad for us,” said Anup Rimal who was born and raised in Katmande, Nepal.

Rimal is the owner of Himalaya, a downtown Ventura restaurant that serves food from Nepal, India and Tibet. Most of Rimal’s family lives in Katmandu. Since the earthquake he has been able to check in with his parent’s who described to him what the situation is like in Katmandu.

“The earthquake did a lot of damage but the aftershocks are really terrorizing. They got more than 25-30 aftershocks in the last 72 hours, and they were not small aftershocks they were five to six Richter scale aftershocks, and they were out on the street tenting for two days now,” said Rimal.

The news of the earthquake in Nepal immediately brought the local Nepalese community together to come up with a plan to help those impacted by the earthquake.

“Our goal is to raise $25,000 this week and us at Himalaya restaurant have decided to give 20 percent of the sales for the entire week,” said Rimal.

Besides the donation Himalaya restaurant is making. The community has also created donation boxes that they have brought to their work places across Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

For every dollar put in the box, five meals can be purchased to help those in Nepal.

“A dollar goes a long way, even if we can collect $5 or $10 it goes a long way,” said Rimal.

The money raised will be wired to the Katmandu-based Lions Club as well as Rotary Club and be used to purchase food.

Himalaya restaurant is located at 35 West Main st. in Ventura.