A brave volunteer feared he would not leave Nepal alive after getting caught in a large earthquake while delivering aid, days after the first disaster hit the country.
High Wycombe shop owner Javed Iqbal was helping vulnerable and homeless people on behalf of Wycombe Islamic Society (WISE) when the second earthquake of magnitude 7.3 struck and violently shook the building he was sleeping in.
On May 12, while sleeping in a hotel in Kathmandu, Mr Iqbal was awaken by the building trembling and saw people running away in fear.
He said: “The lights had gone out and it felt like the room and the windows were shaking. I looked outside and people were running away but all the lights were out.
“I went to the bathroom came back and prayed for about two hours. I didn’t think I would get out of there alive.
“The next morning I went downstairs and there was no-one in the hotel, the manager came in and couldn’t believe I had stayed inside.
“But to me it looked too dangerous to go outside and run when you couldn’t see where you were going.”
Javed Iqbal in Nepal.
Before going to Nepal, Mr Iqbal had been doing volunteer work in Pakistan and changed his flight details to ensure he could help after the first earthquake destroyed large parts of the country on April 25.
He added: “When I was driving around, there were lots of people sleeping in parks and public areas in tents as they were too scared to sleep in buildings in case it happened again, so one of our jobs was to get waterproof sheets and help make them shelters.
“I was in a built up area and was telling people to come away from buildings because they were so close and everything was really shaking.
“My colleague had gone to distribute aid in a village and they said while they were there, people in their houses came out and while outside two buildings just collapsed to the ground – it was lucky they had arrived when they did otherwise those people would have surely died.”
Mr Iqbal currently lives in Wycombe and owns phone repair store Fonex in Church Street.
He is hopeful of going back to Nepal to continue to help residents recover from the tragedy, and community group WISE is looking to raise £5,000 ahead of any trip.
So far they have raised almost £3,000. To donate, visit www.totalgiving.co.uk/mypage/nepal-earthquake
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