Restarting Lives,
Rebuilding Joy

I join the initiative launched by Alex Gavan because it’s a compassionate project, aimed at tackling human suffering. A tragedy like the one happened in Nepal may occur anywhere, may hurt anyone. Being able to help these people is a good thing. I believe there are many Romanian personalities who should involve in supporting this project. It is a heartfelt initiative. It’s worthy.

I believe it is critical to help a nation with such rich spiritual values as Nepal, especially in these challenging times. This also provides a good opportunity for introspection into our own values, and for being empathic with their suffering. Let us not hold back on either ways, material and spiritual, and help them!

Seated in comfortable armchairs we are powerlessly watching the apocalyptic images from Nepal… And yet someone thought of giving us a chance to help! His name is Alex Gavan. Alex survived the earthquake disaster in Nepal and came back home.

Most of the survivors of this killer earthquake lost everything … their children, parents, relatives, friends, the little they have gained … everything. They are all together the survivors of this hell. There is no nationality when we are talking about death, grief, need, terror. There are no limits and borders to compassion and generosity. Any help matters! I congratulate Alex for this initiative. I am honoured to join in this endeavour.

Whenever he has a chance, the Dalai Lama meets at his Temple in Dharamsala with the Tibetan refugees who reached the Northern India. ‘Do you pity the anguish of your people?’ he is asked. ‘It is hard to feel sorry for a nation, but I hurt for the hardship endured by each person I meet in my life’, he says. ‘I hope all those who find out about this campaign understand precisely this difference: it’s not about Nepal or the Nepalese. It is about the real people of Nepal who suffer.’

We’ve stood by Alex ever since his first expedition and I admit that even after all these years his courage and ambition still take me by surprise.
The tenacity and dedication he invests in pursuing his dream are qualities I appreciate the most in Alex, particularly as I recognize these qualities in myself. Alex is an exceptional man who makes exceptional things happen. His fundraising campaign to support the people of Nepal is a humanitarian endeavor for which I congratulate him and lend my wholehearted support.

Alex Găvan has climbed until now six 8 000m peaks without supplementary oxygen. This year, while he was preparing to climb the seventh, Lhotse, a big earthquake hit Nepal and it caught him in Base Camp. Alex survived and helped the other climbers who were hurt.

But, as he likes to say, he is making his seventh ascent right now, in Bucharest: 8826 is the number you can send a SMS to contribute to the “Joy for Nepal” Campaign, that Alex has initiated to help the people from Nepal who have been severely hit by disaster. I offer Alex with my full trust a white check for his initiative. For donations larger than 2 Euros please visit www.alexgavan.ro/nepal .

And this is not because I have always been from the very beginning an unconditional supporter of him. In the world of high altitude climbers, of thin air, there are sometimes ruthless confrontations, egos, marketing and terrible selfishness. One needs patience to understand the asses of Himalaya. But, peak after peak, Alex has become more mature. He has convinced us through reason and humanity. He has joined a lot of fights to preserve the environment, like the campaign against illegal forest cutting or the one for building the Văcărești Natural Parc.

The chain built by Alex to support Nepal is a very simple and short one: one link is in your hand and the other one in the hand of a NGO led by a French Buddhist monk. Matthieu Ricard has abandoned molecular genetics to dedicate his life to meditation, writing and publishing books and for many years now to humanitarian work throughout the Himalayan region. Not a cent lost on the way, Alex ensures us.

Young and restless is the alpino-carpato-himalayan chain, that our mountains are part of. 38 years ago, when the earthquake hit Romania, the financial support of the nations that have come to offer us aid has been a very strong moral support for us. Now, through the chain of solidarity that links Romania to Nepal we are able to convince the Nepalese people that human compassion can be stronger than the Himalayan curse, and that together we can appease Mother Earth’s wrath.

Nepal is the poorest country I’ve visited so far. Their poverty level is unconceivable to any of us. Yet nowhere else in the world have I met kinder people than there. And their children – the barefoot, snotty Nepalese kids, asking for candies and pens you put in their adult hands, prematurely aged by hard work… their children make you feel so lucky to have been born and raised in Romania. Donate here for Nepal. All I told you Alex Gavan saw firsthand, many more times than I did. And when you are trekking high in the mountains and up on the glaciers, trusting your Nepalese porter, your relationship with him becomes brotherhood. Alex Gavan has many such brothers in Nepal. He belongs to their family. Donate here for Nepal.

Their poverty was deepened by two devastating earthquakes. Donate and warm up your heart a little. Donate – it takes much less than ordering a tea downtown Bucharest. Donate for Nepal and for the Nepalese kids with prematurely aged hands. It’s very little. But it’s not nothing.

In the last 20 years I’ve covered for News Room a lot of countries destroyed by wars, earthquakes or tsunamis. I was a storyteller, I spread the story of people who were struggling for survival. Now, being part of Alex Gavan campaign, I know I can do more than telling the story of the victims. Now I can help directly the Nepalese people hit by the earthquake in April.