Beyond the Epicenter
Dr. Jerry Wishner and his family, collectively known as the Wishner5 have been working with their Nepali partner, Himalayan Quests Foundation to rebuild schools, health facilities and communities across Nepal since the devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake destroyed more than 600,000 structures in 2015.
Jerry’s middle daughter Melissa was trekking with Amrit Ale, co-founder of Himalayan Quests Foundation, as part of a study abroad semester group, during the earthquake. They were in a canyon near the Tibet border, just 25km north of the epicenter when the earthquake hit. Through Amrit’s amazing leadership and survival skills the whole group remained safe and was eventually able to work their way back to Kathmandu over the next 10 days. Dodging falling rocks deep in a canyon that was an 8 hour walk from the road and satellite phone reception while the earth continued to move, they were finally able to get a call through to the United States where word spread that they had survived the initial quake and aftershocks. Trekking past villages she had visited just days before that were now reduced to rubble, Melissa decided that she wanted to help give back to Nepal, as she had already given her heart to the country and its people. Although she wanted to stay, Melissa realized that the best thing she could do at that current time was to go home preserving the limited food and shelter for those in the most need. She returned later that year and brought her whole family with her – Mom, Dad and sisters: Allison & Juliet. To read about Melissa’s experience click here.
After traveling with Amrit and his wife Kate to see the destruction first hand and visit with so many of the people who helped Melissa, the Wishner5 decided the best way they could help would be to rebuild some of the 30,000 classrooms destroyed by the earthquake. The Wishner5 initially provided funding on their own, to make sure they could build a sustainable program. By the end of 2017 they were able to completely fund the reconstruction of classrooms for 5 different schools, returning 1,066 of students and 57 of teachers back to school in safe, weather-proof classrooms. With this success came even more requests from additional communities.
The Wishner5 realized they would need assistance to fund the growing list of schools to rebuild so they added a third partner, Community Foundation of New Jersey (CFNJ) to help set up a 501(c)(3) fund to help raise additional support. Please consider making a tax deductible donation to help support this important work, knowing that 95% of all funds donated go directly to the rebuilding projects.
