A New York-based Indian-American has been striving to provide basic facilities to millions of poor people in Nepal by collecting donations in the United States, a report said Wednesday.

Rajiv Goyal, who spent more than two years in Nepal as a Peace Corps volunteer, asked for donations for the cause of poor Nepalese people from the dias of a New York University hall and he got immediate response from the audience, who rose up with cash and cheques, The Kathmandu Post reported.

In less than five minutes, he collected $3,000 and finally he managed to raise over $28,000 within three hours, the report said.

The event organised under the title "Shikshya Ko Asha" (Hope for Education) by the Living Earth Institute and the Rotary Club of Plainsboro (New Jersey), aimed to raise about $40,000 for improvement of school infrastructure and providing scholarships to poor students in various villages of Dhankuta district in eastern Nepal, where Goyal used to work as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Last year, Goyal, a doctorate student of law at NY University, managed to collect $14,000 under a programme called "Paniko Asha" (Hope for Water).

The amount was spent in improving drinking water system in Namje village in the same district. He had also collected $30,000 from Indian doctors for water projects in the areas where he worked from 2001 to 2003.

Goyal said he was saddened to learn that Peace Corps volunteer service was suspended last year in Nepal due to security reasons. He expressed hope that the Peace Corps Nepal can start up again in future.