A 2011 Ball State alumna who lived in Nepal for 10 years when she was younger is working to raise money to send back to her Nepali friends after the earthquake earlier this year.
Even now, five months later, Nepali people are still feeling aftershocks from it.
Jodi Winger is hosting a fundraiser at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at First Presbyterian Church, 1400 W. Riverside Ave. She'll be sending proceeds to families trying to rebuild their homes after the earthquake.
At the time of the earthquake, Winger's parents and sister were in Nepal. She heard the news just a week after she gave birth to her daughter, Nadia.
"[My family was] kind of our way of understanding what was really going on,” Winger said. “I wasn’t surprised to hear that it happened — I was actually surprised it wasn’t worse than it was, considering all the factors involved.”
Winger's father was studying for his master's degree and Ph.D.; he was also a professor architecture in India at the time Winger was born. The family moved to Nepal and lived there for 10 years. She returned to the U.S. when she was 16 and completed her undergraduate degree at Ball State. After graduation, she returned to Nepal for a year before coming back to Ball State to complete her graduate degree.
After the earthquake, Winger said it was traumatic knowing her loved ones were going through a difficult time experiencing the aftermath of the quake. However, she said she’s more concerned now than she was before because they're still feeling the aftershocks.
Winger said a corrupt political system in Nepal only continues to delay rebuilding efforts.
“There’s kind of a feeling of urgency – we really need to step up our response as a global community,” she said. “I think we all take turns being the ones who are in need. It’s a time when it’s sort of an option for us to let it be our turn to help others.”
Winger, with the help of her Nepali friends Rameshwor and Sangeeta Karki of the Sitara Indian Cuisine in Muncie, will be putting together a meal that honors the traditional Nepali cuisine: dal (lentils), bhat (rice) and tarkari (curried vegetables). Winger is asking for donations of any amount for the meal.
Simple to do on a large scale, Winger said the traditional Nepali meal would be fairly easy to manage.
“It’s a little bit of that extending the hospitality with the resources that we have here to recreate that hospitality and that atmosphere,” she said. “Food brings people together.”
To donate to the fundraiser, contact Winger at jodiwinger@gmail.com or donate using her GoFundMe.
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