Bay Area tech company helping with disaster relief efforts in Nepal

By Andrea Nakano

One week after historic, deadly flooding swept through Nepal, the Bay Area tech industry is stepping up to help with the relief efforts.

Security Pal AI is one of the companies spearheading the effort to help the country after one of the most significant natural disasters in its history.

Pukar Chandra Hamal was absolutely devastated when he heard about the flash floods in Nepal. While his immediate family is in the U.S., he was on the phone with distant relatives making sure everyone was OK.

“When I saw the footage and I started looking into it, it was very clear this was not your run-of-the-mill flash flood,” Hamal said. “This was an extinction-level event.”

Hamal’s Security Pal AI company is based in Silicon Valley, but he also has an office in Kathmandu. As a Nepalese American, he couldn’t just watch his country suffer.

“I’m really fortunate that I’m one of the prominent Nepalese American entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley,” he said. “I have a little bit of a community and network that I’ve built up. I really felt responsible to leverage that to help the people.”

Hamal says the country is in need of just about everything. That includes equipment used in recovery efforts and other items.

“Basic things that you wouldn’t think of, like body bags,” he said. “It’s so sad, but people are being discovered; they’re being handed to their family members. You have to make sure it’s done in a dignified way.”

Security Pal AI is matching donations dollar for dollar up to $20,000, with 100% of the donations going to the government of Nepal. Hamal says while the need is great, people can make a difference by working together.

“We just started to go across our network and reach out to people,” Gamal said. “Whatever you can give, it doesn’t matter. We’ve had people give a dollar and that’s OK. It means more to us than anything because they actually took the time to pay attention to what was happening.”