WATCH: Donations from across Canada, and around the world, are pouring in to help the family of Saanich chef Khushal Rana. April Lawrence has more.
The donations keep pouring into Sizzling Tandoor restaurant’s three locations.
At their Uptown restaurant, they collected nearly $900 on Monday and hundreds more in the first few hours of Tuesday.
“Almost every other person who comes in either wishes their condolences, drops off a donation, a card,” said Sizzling Tandoor Assistant Manager Parissa Nowshadi.
Thirty-one-year-old Khushal Rana was struck by an SUV on Gorge Road last Wednesday.
He was walking to the restaurant’s downtown location where he worked as a chef.
He died a few days later, leaving behind his 28-year-old wife Meena, pregnant with twins, and his four-year-old son Ankhush. The family moved to Canada from India less than a year ago.
It’s a tragedy that has shaken the entire community.
In just five days a GoFundMe page reached nearly $100,000.
The average donation is just $60, and while most come from B.C., there have been donations from Australia, Mexico, and Greece.
“They have a four-year-old, twins on the way which is just tragic, he is the only one working in the family so I think people just sympathize,” said Nowshadi.
Members of the Khalsa Diwan Sikh temple on Topaz Avenue who started collecting donations the day after the crash.
“It’s not the amount of people who give, 20 or whatever, it’s just from their heart, it’s touched them,” said Khalsa Diwan Society President Rick Bains.
The society has raised nearly $10,000 for the Rana family.
“We are all one family together here, the Victorians, and most of the money it’s not even coming from the east Indian community it’s from my whole community here,” said Bains.
Meanwhile Saanich police have spoken with the 25-year-old SUV driver who has been released from hospital, but say it will take months to complete their investigation.
You can find the GoFundMe page here.
April Lawrence
