Naples 4 Nepal, an EPS Young Minds activity
On 25 April 2015, at 06:11 UTC, Nepal was shaken by a violent earthquake with a moment magnitude of 7.8 Mw. Its epicentre was located in the north-west of the capital Kathmandu. In a few seconds, entire villages were flattened: nine thousand deaths, nineteen thousand people injured, with hundreds missing, and thousands more homeless.
On televisions and social networks, the first pictures of the disaster were shown: the rubble of the cities, the destruction of the centuries-old buildings at UNESCO World Heritage sites, the faces of survivors, the bodies of those who didn’t survive. Days go by and the media attention gradually fades, but the situation continues to be dramatic: Nepal is one of Asia’s poorest countries and has little ability to fund a reconstruction effort on its own.
On the 7th of May 2015, two weeks after the earthquake, the Naples Young Minds Section organised a charity lunch “Naples 4 Nepal” for Nepalese survivors.
The event was located in the Physics Department of the University “Federico II” in Naples. It drew students and professors from all departments. Each one made their own contribution: cooking, preparing, and eating.
The international soul of the Physics Department gave birth to an international lunch: typical Neapolitan dishes were combined with Bengali Biryani, Italian red wine went well with the curry meatballs, espresso coffee married with kheer (Indian dessert made by rice cream).
At the end of the lunch, 1500 EUR were collected, to be donated to the Association for International Solidarity in Asia (ASIA-ONLUS -on the website, the actions already taken to face the emergency in Nepal).
The charity lunch ended, with good cheer and satisfaction for the unexpected success reached, but in Nepal the earth still trembles.
The resonance of the event definitely spread an echo of solidarity among those who participated, as well as those who would have participated –but couldn’t- but still wish to lend a hand.
“To help people in need we don’t have to be heroes, we just need to be humans”, tweet for #nepal by S. Zannini.
More information ca be found here.
