Nepal students hosting fundraising dinner for quake-stricken nation

Students from Nepal attending Southeast Missouri State University will host Help for NEPAL, a fundraising dinner Thursday to help support their homeland rocked by Saturday's magnitude-7.8 earthquake.

The Nepalese Student Association will serve traditional Nepalese foods to dinner guests while providing a backdrop of information about their country before and after the earthquake, according to a news release from Southeast.

The dinner will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at Centenary Church, 300 N. Ellis St. in Cape Girardeau.

Tickets, which are $10 a person, must be bought before the event; 100 percent of the proceeds will go to benefit earthquake victims in Nepal. Tickets are available at the International Center at Southeast Missouri State University or by contacting a member of the Nepalese Student Association.

All of Nepalese students at Southeast have been affected by the tragedy in some way, Suzanne Omran, assistant director of international programming and adviser to the Nepalese Student Association at Southeast, said in the news release.

About 75 students from Nepal are enrolled at Southeast. They represent the wide diversity of ethnicity and cultures within Nepal through the Nepalese Student Association, she said.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that 8 million people had been affected by the quake, and that 1.4 million needed food assistance.