Jordi Roca and Carlos Soria work together for Nepal

The chef Jordi Roca and the mountaineer Carlos Soria have sent messages through the social media expressing their support and solidarity for Nepal with the aim of collecting funds to help all those affected in the wake of earthquake. Through the online BBVA Suma platform, the bank is channeling donations for NGOs working on the ground: Oxfam-Intermon, Unicef, the Red Cross and Acnur.

Jordi Roca recently spent 12 days on Carlos Soria’s BBVA Expedition at the Annapurna base camp. He wanted to express his sympathy and solidarity with the Nepali people. «Just over a month ago, I shared what was an unforgettable experience in my life with Carlos Soria. I lived with Sherpas in the base camp at 4,500 meters of altitude. We made a chocolate drink for lama children in Manaslu. I discovered how children live in Katmandu and learned much of value from this people. Now they need our help and support in the face of the tragedy they are experiencing. We can’t leave them here alone».

Carlos Soria, who currently returns to Spain with the whole BBVA Expedition, has called for aid for a country he has very close links with. «Our biggest concern are the families of our partners the Sherpas. I took part in the first Spanish expeditions here 42 years ago and we would never have imagined anything like this could happen in this country and to these people I love so much and who have given me so much. Thousands of Nepalese need our aid. We are OK, but the situation in Katmandu is absolute chaos and an emergency».

BBVA Suma is a channel for collective donation to social causes. It aims to help organizations or social causes achieve their funding needs. The platform divides its projects into Charity Causes and Humanitarian Response in this campaign BBVA will contribute one euro for each euro donated, up to 25,000 euros. Since 2010 Carlos Soria has promoted an initiative to help the school in Sama, a small village of 500 people located in the Manaslu Valley, at 3,500 meters of altitude. It has also been affected by the earthquake, with damage to the school itself and many temples and houses in the valley completely destroyed. The village school has over 100 students, many of whom live there.

In 2012, BBVA decided that the school should have a scholarship program that operates permanently and on a self-sufficient basis. Scholarships had already been given that guaranteed the board, lodging and education of the students. Whenever he has the chance, Carlos Soria visits the children at the Sama school to see at first hand the progress being made at this center in the heart of the Himalayas.