KUALA LUMPUR: The distrust of authority is causing a group of Nepalese in Kuala Lumpur to conduct their own humanitarian mission to help their loved ones caught in the deadliest earthquake to hit their country in 80 years.

Fearing that much needed aid will not reach recipients, Indra Limbu, who runs a Nepalese restaurant in the city, said a group of seven to 10 of his countrymen working in Malaysia will return to Kathmandu and other devastated areas soon to personally bring aid and assess the situation for follow-up action.

He and his group of friends, who have spent years working in Malaysia, felt they had to take things into their own hands to ensure that their hard-earned money would reach those in need.

“We have been cheated before,” Limbu said.

“[This] is our own initiative. We will go and see, and give aid to them as we are afraid that third parties will not give the aid,” he told The Malaysian Insider at a meeting with other Nepalese workers at Medan Pasar on Tuesday.

“We work hard to earn money and if our contribution does not reach those in need, what is there to help?” he said.

“In the next two or three days, we will go back to our country to survey the situation because we want to help our own people and families, who are in a very difficult situation right now.

“The plan is for the team to inform our people here in Malaysia on how much money they need and the money will be sent to Nepal, so the team can buy the necessary items or food and distribute to the needy.”

Limbu said they will target the Gorkha, Kathmandu, Sindhupalchok, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur regions, which are all in the central part of the country affected by the 7.8-magnitude quake that struck on Saturday.

Limbu said they would approach the Nepal embassy in Kuala Lumpur to get a letter endorsing their trip back to their country, which will serve as an official sanction for their plans to source for more donations and help from other Nepalese in Malaysia.

Limbu said it was their responsibility to help their families and relatives as they came to Malaysia to work and provide for their families.

The owner of a Nepalese restaurant said in conjunction with Wesak Day on Sunday, they will hold prayers for the victims at the Maha Vihara temple in Brickfields.

Most Nepalese met by The Malaysian Insider said their family members were safe, although they lost their properties.

But Santos Silwal, 25, from the Nuwakot district, was not so fortunate. He lost his parents and grandparents, with the fate of his 13-month-old daughter still unknown.

He was too distraught to speak, and a friend, Dil Kumar Kerung, said he had been enquiring about his family’s situation over the phone when the call was disconnected.

“[Phone communication] is unstable and now he still doesn’t know the status of his daughter,” Kerung said.

“He read that his village has yet to receive any help. He wants to go back but he has to pay levy to his employer first and his employer doesn’t want to help,” Kerung said.

Silwal works in a local supermarket chain earning RM1,187 monthly, and hopes to return to Nepal tomorrow to reunite with his wife and search for his daughter. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 30, 2015.