A human-rights activist will tell UF students today about her work helping survivors of the Nepal earthquakes that occurred last year.
Radha Paudel, the founder of Action Works Nepal, began the organization to help poor and vulnerable people in the country, and she will speak at Pugh Hall at 6 p.m. She will answer questions about humanitarian relief and human rights following the deadly April 2015 earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people and injured 22,000.
About 150 students and Gainesville residents are expected to attend the event, which is free and open to the public, said Edmund Kellerman, a master lecturer at the Dial Center for Written and Oral Communication and the event organizer. He contacted Paudel to speak because he wanted to let others know about the relief work going on in the country.
Kellerman’s relief organization, Project Nepal, and UF Heal the World, a volunteer service organization, raised about $5,000 a year for three schools in Nepal, Kellerman said. Following the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, the organizations were able to raise more money for disaster relief.
“It was just devastating,” Kellerman said. “Whole villages were just flattened.”
Nick Callaway, a UF marketing junior who is helping organize the event, said the talk will give students an idea of how hard living in Nepal is and has been since the earthquakes.
“After listening to Radha speak, students will understand the struggle that Nepali citizens go through,” the 20-year-old said.
