{"id":5403,"date":"2026-09-03T15:20:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/?p=5403"},"modified":"2026-09-03T15:20:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:20:40","slug":"compassion-in-action-in-nepal-and-tibet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/2026\/09\/03\/compassion-in-action-in-nepal-and-tibet\/","title":{"rendered":"Compassion in Action in Nepal and Tibet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Last week, we witnessed another\u00a0stark reminder of\u00a0how fragile human life can be. On August 26, 2026, a\u00a0sudden collapse of\u00a0glacial ice and\u00a0rock in the Himalayas triggered a flash flood\u00a0along the Nepal\u2013Tibet border. Torrents\u00a0of water, mud, and rock swept through pristine valleys, engulfing homes, roads, bridges, businesses, and\u00a0entire towns. As of this date, 1000 people are confirmed dead and 4000 are missing, as rescue workers continue\u00a0to search through\u00a0lakes of\u00a0debris for survivors.<\/p>\n

Statistics, however\u00a0shocking, cannot fully\u00a0express what such\u00a0a catastrophe means\u00a0for ordinary Nepalese and Tibetan Chinese. For generations their remote mountain\u00a0communities have faced difficult\u00a0access to education, healthcare, roads, and\u00a0economic opportunity. Now both their poverty and vulnerability are greatly amplified, while accompanied with the death of their precious neighbors and family member members.<\/p>\n

Hurricane Katrina had a similar impact on America. When\u00a0it struck the New Orleans in\u00a02005, poor and marginalized\u00a0people suffered most. In fact, when the hurricane hit the city 60,000 people were still present. Who were those 60,000? The city\u2019s most vulnerable: those elderly, disabled, unemployed, hospitalized, and people with no financial means to escape. 1600 people also died in New Orleans. Who were those 1600? The city\u2019s most vulnerable.<\/p>\n

A heartening element of Hurricane Katrina was the response of compassionate people. At least 13 million Americans made financial donations to hurricane Katrina relief. 1.5 million Americans, including many of us, personally volunteered in immediate rescue, prolonged cleanup, and painstaking reconstruction.<\/p>\n

What about in Nepal? Sundar Dhoka Saathi\u00a0Sewa<\/a> (\u201cBeautiful Gate\u00a0Friends Service\u201d), is a Nepal-based, Christ-centered organization who has long served disenfranchised and disabled Nepalese people. In today\u2019s crisis, Beautiful Gate is also on the front lines providing urgent assistance. Among them is Nepali-speaking Dr. Joe LeMaster, an INMED faculty physician who recently relocated to Nepal in long-term commitment.<\/p>\n

How will you and I prepare for the next natural disaster? Few of us are at risk from a glacier collapse, but most of us are susceptible to a tornado, earthquake, forest fire, storm, or flood. Hazard mitigation should be a priority for every community and family unit to reduce such risks. Disaster response planning must be an additional priority for each municipality and individual.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, such actions assert the truth that human life, though fragile, is also precious and worthy of compassion in action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, we witnessed another\u00a0stark reminder of\u00a0how fragile human life can be. On August 26, 2026, a\u00a0sudden collapse of\u00a0glacial ice and\u00a0rock in the Himalayas triggered a flash flood\u00a0along the Nepal\u2013Tibet border. Torrents\u00a0of water, mud, and rock swept through pristine valleys, engulfing homes, roads, bridges, businesses, and\u00a0entire towns. As of this date, 1000 people are confirmed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global-health-news-and-inspiration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5405,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5403\/revisions\/5405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmedblogs.us\/nicholascomninellis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}