SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A San Diego-based nonprofit is assembling a medical team to deploy to flood-ravaged Nepal and Tibet, as rescue efforts continue across the region.
Michael Sohmer, a retired clinical pharmacist and founder of Sweeping Change, is coordinating the mission. The organization has led several medical missions to Nepal since its founding IN 2024.
"Heartbreak, just heartbroken," Sohmer said.
Sohmer, who has decades of experience in disaster response, said the scale of the current disaster is unlike anything he has seen.
“It’s very overwhelming to think about,” Sohmer said.
He has previously deployed to Nepal, including during the 2015 earthquake, which killed some 9,000 people. For that mission, he assembled a 14-member team of doctors, nurses, and paramedics. He hopes to put together a similar team and deploy to Nepal within a few weeks.
"Immediate needs would include wound care, trauma care, treatment of infections,” Sohmer said.
Among those helping coordinate the mission is Dipak Giri, a trekking guide based in Kathmandu who serves as the group's volunteer logistics coordinator. Giri has lost 6 friends in the disaster, and has spent recent days helping the families of the missing — going back and forth between four hospitals that are serving as morgues.
"It's like a bad dream, a very bad dream,” Giri said.
Giri described receiving desperate messages from the families of those unaccounted for.
“My friend, his wife, contacted me, ‘Please help me find my husband,’” Giri said.
He said the scenes at the hospital are heartwrenching.
"People are worried, crying … sadness. When you get there you start to feel the situation," Giri said.
The situation for nonprofits will be challenging. There is the threat of rain and more flooding. Dozens of miles of roads have been washed away, along with entire villages.
Giri will help coordinate supplies and transportation on the ground, even as he continues to search for the missing.
"I don't have any words, makes me sad. I feel something empty. Still, I don't believe," Giri said.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help purchase humanitarian and medical supplies.
Sohmer is seeking volunteers with medical experience, including doctors, nurses, physician assistants, and firefighter paramedics. Those interested can email michael@sweepingchange.org.
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