HOPE for NEPAL: Thiensville woman starts fundraiser to help earthquake survivors



THIENSVILLE (WITI) -- A local woman spent Saturday morning desperately trying to reach her family members -- many of whom live in the area hardest hit by the Nepal earthquake.

The owner of The Cheel restaurant in Thiensville says her immediate family members did survive the earthquake, but now she says they're sleeping outside in the cold, with limited food supplies. She plans to do all she can to help.

A massive earthquake devastates Nepal on Saturday, April 25th, killing more than 1,800 people and causing buildings to collapse and crumble.

On the other side of the world, at 4 a.m., Barkha Daily is woken up by a friend bearing the bad news.

"She was like you need to call home, you need to call home because there's a huge earthquake," said Daily.

Daily tried reaching her mom, sister, aunts and other relatives -- but it was hours before she could get in touch with any of them.

"So many family members. Every hour I'm finding out somebody else is fine and somebody else is doing better and they have survived," said Daily.

But continued aftershocks are forcing them to stay outside. She says the family hauled out mattresses and blankets and planned to camp out in a nearby lot.

"My sister and my family, about ten of them there from my family members on my mom's side, they are in the lot just under the open sky and the weather is around like 50-55° so it's pretty cold and they were just sitting there," said Daily.

Daily says electricity and food supplies are also going to be a challenge in the days ahead.

"The food, the lifestyle in Nepal is a little different than America where they don't buy a lot of things at once or weekly basis or things like that -- it's more day-to-day every morning. We do have a garden for my family but not everybody is so lucky," said Daily.

Daily owns The Cheel restaurant in Thiensville and is already spearheading fundraising efforts to try and get needed supplies to the area -- and she's asking anyone who can, to pitch in.

"Donate as little as you can and as much as you can because you know a dollar goes a long way," Daily said.

If you'd like to contribute to Daily's fundraising effort called HOPE for NEPAL, CLICK HERE.