2 Minutes With … Tee Karki: Compiling, sharing resources to assist South Asia

2 Minutes With … is a series of short features to introduce us to the passions and interests of Lawrence students on and off campus. Find more 2 Minutes With … features here.

Tee Karki ‘23, a government major from Nepal, has been raising awareness for the ongoing COVID-19 crisis in South Asia. That’s included the compiling of an extensive list of resources for people who want to help.

South Asia has seen a surge in COVID -19 cases, with infection rates spiking and the death toll climbing. The outbreak in Nepal hit home for Karki as she spoke to her parents about the vaccinations here in Appleton.

“I mentioned to them that I got my second vaccine and they mentioned that they still hadn’t gotten theirs and I thought that was really concerning,” Karki said.

That was a light-bulb moment for her as she came to understand more about the disparities between her situation in the U.S. and that of her family in Nepal.

Wanting to help the people from her home and other countries in South Asia, Karki dived in this spring. She started by compiling a resource guide, highlighting organizations that are trying to help with everything from medical supplies like oxygen and ventilators to food and other necessities in Nepal, India, and Bangladesh.

It eventually grew into an extensive resource document that she has been sharing on social media. Click here to access the document.

“I wanted to create a resource document by different organizations and where they’re rooted,” Karki said. “So, you can track them based on where they are locally or not locally. And that’s just kind of how I got started, and then I just kept going.”

Facing challenges

Karki’s efforts were not without struggles. She said it was difficult to talk to people about the severity of the situation in South Asia when people here were just starting to overcome their pandemic anxiety. It was also challenging mentally for Karki. She described how she carried a lot of guilt for being able to walk around vaccinated with her friends and then sitting down to write about the dire situation back home.

It also was hard work. Karki had to read through and winnow a lot of information on the organizations she included on her resources list.

“That was my biggest challenge—more than getting it out there—it was going through the information by myself,” she said.

Karki did have experience working in Lawrence’s Title IX office to lean on.

“Working with Title IX is very sensitive; I have to be able to do a lot of research and then condense and make it easy to follow, and I think it’s exactly what I needed to do with the resource document,” she said.

Goals for the future

Karki plans to grow her network of resources and include more countries that have been heavily impacted. She’s working to add Myanmar and the Philippines.

She doesn’t plan to stop there, however. Karki wants to return home to create a video series to highlight the types of loss that people are facing and how they can better manage and cope with that loss.

After college, Karki aims to continue her advocacy work.

“The end goal would be to be an international lawyer and fight against the refugee crisis and genocides and really just commit to supporting people and countries who need to be represented equally with major superpowers,” she said.