COM Outlook - Winter 2016

10 Nova Southeastern University By Scott Colton, B.A., APR COM/HPD Director of Medical Communications and Public Relations Nepal Vacation Plans Turn to Earthquake Relief INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH W hen Master of Public Health student Mayur Sharma Banjara made plans to visit his family in Nepal during the spring of 2015, what should have been a joyous occasion turned into a humani- tarian outreach effort of the highest order after a mammoth 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated regions of the country, including Banjara’s hometown, on April 25. Banjara, who was scheduled to visit his family and partici- pate in a four-week Community Health Project elective in Nepal as part of his M.P.H. coursework, had to radically alter his plans as news of the earthquake and its destructive aftershocks reached him. Banjara was relieved to hear that his family had survived the earthquake’s devastation, but dis- tressed to learn that more than 8,880 people had been killed and that upwards of 22,000 had been injured. Armed with $2,300 in donations he had collected from various friends and International Health Initiatives, Banjara arrived in Nepal on May 27, ready to help, but unsure of the overall scope of suffering he would encounter as he made his way through the scarred districts of his home country. Because a month had passed since the initial earthquake, Banjara was keenly aware of the many sobering facts that extended far beyond the death and injury toll. Mayur Sharma Banjara (pink shirt) helps to distribute the corrugated metal sheets he purchased to assist in the relief effort.