A NEPALESE restaurant worker is cooking up a curry in a bid to help villagers in his Earthquake-shattered homeland.

Ongdi Sherpa from Galashiels, who was born in the tiny hamlet of Dimbul close to Mount Everest, is hosting the fundraising evening in the Focus Centre later this month.

The 35-year-old father-of-one was in his native Nepal when the 7.9 earthquake struck on April 25.

More than 8,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless by the tremors.

Further earthquakes and aftershocks in the following weeks have caused even more damage.

Over the past few weeks, since returning to his Gala Park home, Ongdi has described the devastation to local Rotary clubs and church congregations.

And he has helped raise funds for the most remote villages, like Dimbul where his parents still live, which have not received any direct aid from international charities.

Ongdi told us: “We want to buy roofing and other materials to help rebuild the houses.

“I will go back to Nepal myself to make sure the materials get through but we don’t have much time. The monsoons are coming and it will rain all the time - we need to get them help before the rains come.” On Saturday, June 20, Ongdi and his wife, Alison, and six-year-old daughter, Tamzin, will host the curry and quiz night in the Focus Centre.

The three-course dinner is being donated and cooked by Ongdi’s colleagues at Tase of Spice in Selkirk.

Tickets for the evening, which runs from 5pm to 10pm, are available from the Subway outlets in Galashiels and Hawick, and Taste of Spice in Selkirk.

They are priced at £10 for adults and the evening is free for children under 10,