A Union society is aiming to raise £1,000 to help victims of the Nepal earthquake.

Leeds Indian Student Association has launched a Just Giving page and a donation scheme to match £5 donations to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal.

Volunteers will also hold a stall in the Union foyer from 11am – 4pm on Friday.

Profits will go to providing shelter, food and water to the estimated half a million people displaced by the disaster.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal on Saturday, the most powerful quake in over 80 years. More than 5,000 deaths have already been confirmed.

Thousands were killed in powerful aftershocks, while eighteen people have been confirmed dead in avalanches on Mount Everest.

Treasurer of Leeds ISA Nihad Aziz told The Gryphon, ‘With over 5,000 people dead, whole villages decimated, and several more people still hoping to be rescued in near to impossible to reach places, it would be very difficult and painful to not do anything.’

‘A million children are in urgent need of assistance and hundreds of thousands more require basic shelter. I and the ISA Committee felt very strongly about this and decided to initiate the #LeedsWithNepal campaign to hopefully raise at least a £1000 for the cause.’

Rescue efforts have now begun to reach the country’s more remote areas.

The UN estimates that 1.4 million people are in need of food aid. There has been nation protest, including in the capital Kathmandu, at the slow pace of supplies.

You can donate to Leeds ISA’s appeal here.

Faye Lawrence

Image courtesy of TIME