(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Stories of survival are providing much needed hope after the devastation caused by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal last week.
A teenage boy and a woman in her twenties are just two of the survivors pulled from rubble five days after the disaster struck one of Asia's poorest countries.
Peggy Giakoumelos reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
On Thursday rescuers pulled free a woman who had been trapped under a collapsed building for five days following the earthquake in the Himalayan nation of Nepal.
The woman in her late twenties, Krishna Devi Kadkha, was working as a maid in a Kathmandu hostel when the quake struck, spending five days trapped under the rubble with three bodies.
The woman, who is in a serious condition, was found after rescuers used a specialised scanning machine to detect signs of life.
Yotam Politzer from the Israeli rescue team Israid described how the woman survived the ordeal.
"There was another body above her that kind of blocked the walls and rocks from collapsing and also created some kind of air pocket that enabled her to breath and to survive for, for more than 130 hours without drinks, without food."
Rescuers have pulled a 15-year-old boy from the rubble, who managed to stay alive by eating from two containers of butter that were nearby.
He had also found a wet cloth that he squeezed water from to drink.
But officials say the chances of finding more survivors are fading as the death and injury toll continue to climb.
The United Nations World Food Program has been trying to reach isolated areas.
WFP spokeswoman Zoie Jones explains.
"The World Food Program is working really hard to reach people that need food after this earthquake. Now that means the areas that are worst hit, it also means the areas that are the hardest to reach, so we're using trucks where we can. Where we can't, we're using helicopters. That means landing in villages where, often, they're on the side of mountains, high up, it's difficult to land. We've found safe areas to land and we're bringing in food for those villages, mostly rice at this stage, and we're trying to do as many rotations as we can because we've got so many people to reach."
The United Nations says an urgent appeal has been launched by people affected by the earthquake.
It says so far eight million people have been affected, with at least two million in need of tents, water, food and medicines over the next three months.
The agency estimates that more than $415 million (US) will be needed for emergency supplies, especially as the imminent monsoon season looks set to see conditions deteriorate further.
Spokesman Jens Laerke says aid workers are making gradual progress out of the capital Kathmandu, but the logistical challenges remain enormous.
"We are little by little reaching deeper into the hinterland of Nepal, closer to the epicentre of the earthquake, and the messages that we are getting out from there is that the situation is really bad."
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says almost every Australian believed to be in Nepal at the time of a massive earthquake over the weekend has been accounted for.
The Department of Foreign Affairs says Australia has delivered nearly 15 tonnes of Australian Aid to Kathmandu.
It was delivered by two air force Globemaster aircraft, which then evacuated 106 Australian and other foreign nationals to Bangkok.
One of those is Michael Haden a Sydney man who found himself in the capital Kathmandu at the time of the quake.
He's has been evacuated to the Australian embassy in Bangkok, after spending several days in the open in Nepal waiting for the after-shocks to subside.
But he says he will return to Nepal as soon as he can to assist in the rebuilding effort.
"I myself I am going to go back and get some tools and get some vaccinations, and I am coming back to rebuild. I'm an electrician and I can build. I just feel a need to. I feel that this is my calling. I am going to do that in the safest way possible and watch the news and events, but yeah I guess I just feel like it's my duty."
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