Pandemic-Era Heroes
- Name: Nirvan Rayamajhi
- Age: 16
- Role: Student, Granada Hills Charter High; humanitarian
- Quote: “There was a kid that was like my age just sitting there begging for food and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”
Latest installment in a series of stories about people who have made a big difference in the community during a time framed by the coronavirus pandemic
Nirvan Rayamajhi in 2016 had a heartbreaking experience that shook him to his core. The result is that today at the tender age of 16, he is one heck of a humanitarian.
Rayamajhi, with the help of his younger brother as well as some 150 peers belonging to a club he founded called Bee The Hope, among other things has generated and donated food to frontline hospitals workers across the San Fernando Valley, food and blankets and hygiene kits to adults and children in homeless shelters across California and toys and blankets and other items to kids separated from their parents at the Mexican border.
There have also been clothing drives for homeless, a Halloween candy drive for kids in homeless shelters and a food drive for Thanksgiving. That’s not to mention writing over 200 letters to elders because, Rayamajhi said, “Right now, they’re having a hard time in isolation.”
A junior at Granada Hills Charter High, Rayamajhi is being honored as one of this newspaper’s Pandemic Heroes. A native of Nepal, a trip there over four years ago with his parents and younger brother started the ball rolling.
“There was this one day we were going to eat at this new hotel because it just opened,” Rayamajhi said. “I was walking down the road and I saw this kid on the side of the road and he was sitting there with his arms around his legs, like a little ball, and he was crying and like begging people for food.
“I just thought that was really disturbing. There was a kid that was like my age just sitting there begging for food and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”
He did what any humanitarian would do — he extended his hand.
“So I had like a few Rupees in my pocket,” Rayamajhi said. “I decided to hand him that and like the spark in his eyes, just the look in his eyes, like I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. It gave me so much joy and so much happiness just seeing how happy he was.”
Nepal eventually received 250 toys as well as food, hygiene products, towels and blankets through Rayamajhi’s efforts.
Rayamajhi and his brother Neil — he’s 12 — did all the work at the outset of the pandemic. Rayamajhi then started Bee The Hope — a humanitarian-themed organization — because he said he knew that he was going to need all the help he could get if his efforts were going to result in maximum relief.
“When I did my projects before, it was like a lot of work on me, so I didn’t make much of an impact,” he said. “But when I started working with organizations and other peers, I noticed that we were able to make so much more change, so I learned that it takes more than one person to create change.”
He said many donations to help his cause came via GoFundMe, from family and friends – he and brother Neil initially used birthday and Christmas money — as well as from some of the hospitals they helped.
Rayamajhi said he and his club members have worked with 34 organizations during this endeavor that in 2020 included 17 projects that affected some 9,500 people.Rayamajhi said he also learned that the meaning of community service is more than doing it so one can stay out of jail, or for college applications.
Thus, this message to his fellow youth:
“I’m inspired to give back because I’m fortunate and I just feel like it’s my responsibility as well as other fortunate people to help anyone who needs the help, right?” Rayamajhi said. “And then I need everyone to look at community service in a different way.
“It isn’t just bout getting into college, or punishment. It actually helps you understand the differences in the world, it helps you get a different perspective and also, I’m just 16, if I can make a difference, so can anyone.”
Rayamajhi, a cross-country runner at school, was asked what he wants to eventually do for a living. He’s not 100% certain. Not surprisingly, it must be along the lines of his credo — help the community.
“I just feel like it’s been implanted in my DNA and I just feel like it’s something I’ll be doing for a really long time, like going and helping and helping and helping and helping,” Rayamajhi said.
His mother, Dikshya Lakhey, is impressed.
“Oh, my God, a lot,” she said, “a lot. Probably, you’ll be quite shocked at what these kids are doing.”
