Hong Kong looks to lend a hand in Nepal quake relief efforts as fundraising events held across the city
Fundraisers across the city rally residents to donate money and materials for those in need
Nepalis in the city and other Hongkongers yesterday continued efforts to raise money for victims of the catastrophic earthquake in Nepal with a candlelit vigil and a restaurant fundraiser serving Nepalese dumplings.
Donors flooded into Brickhouse, a Mexican restaurant and bar in Lan Kwai Fong in Central, to enjoy house-made momo, or Nepalese dumplings, in return for donating HK$350 or more each to relief efforts for the disaster, which has killed at least 7,000 people.
Denjung Lama, general manager of Universal Exports, co-organiser of the event, said he wanted to send a message that people the world over were ready to help those suffering in Nepal.
Lama, who is from Darjeeling, a mountain town in India close to Nepal's eastern border, said his family back in the town could feel the earthquake. His father told him he had never experienced anything like it. "Although our house was not affected, many homes in Nepal were flattened," said Lama, who was grilling meat at the event. "We want to raise as much as possible to help."
Lokendra Gurung, manager of the restaurant, said the donations would go to the Red Cross in Nepal's Kaski district to assist those affected in the nearby Lamjung and Gorkha districts, near the epicentre of the quake.
Lokendra, from Nepal, said one of the restaurant's staff members had left for the quake zone to join relief work.
Civic Party legislator Claudia Mo Man-ching attended the event. She urged people to donate and said the government should send at least double the HK$50 million it had given so far.