A 5-Year-Old Girl Describes What Life Is Like In Nepal After The Earthquake

    "I was shaking and I was scared."

    A 5-year-old girl from Sanepa, Lalitpur, a district in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal described to BuzzFeed News what life was like after surviving the earthquake there.

    Her favourite things to do are "singing, dancing, playing, and reading", she said, especially singing "Let It Go" while dressed as a princess. She likes to take duckface selfies.

    Last weekend, an earthquake hit her home. She and her family were having lunch at the time. She wasn't aware of what was happening, but told us: "I was shaking and I was scared."

    They took shelter in her uncle's basement for the first few hours. At night, when the tremors calmed down, she and her family took refuge on their neighbour's front lawn, where they slept on the ground with a few bedsheets and blankets.

    She and her family were too afraid to sleep in their house in case it collapsed on them. Many people have taken refuge in makeshift shelters or are sleeping outside on open grounds.

    We spoke to the girl on Skype through her cousin, an 18-year-old student from London who moved to the UK five years ago. The cousins stay in touch, along with hundreds of other friends and family members from England by using Skype and Viber.

    "I check Facebook every few minutes to see the photos and videos my friends and family there have shared," the cousin told BuzzFeed News. "They keep me updated on how they are dealing with the situation and what is going on.

    "Phone lines have not been working properly so everybody has been using Facebook as the key tool for communication."

    The cousins saw each other last summer when he was in holiday in Nepal for a month. "The area she lives in has been greatly affected by the earthquake," he said.

    The 5-year-old and the other kids seem to be handling it "better than the adults", the cousin said, adding that although she and her family are still in shock and trauma, they are surviving.

    One of his biggest concerns is those living in the rural areas.

    The young girl "is fortunately privileged enough to get the help and safety the large majority of Nepalese have not been able to receive," but the less fortunate in rural towns and villages have received very little help or support, he said.

    "We Nepalese, both in Nepal and abroad, are filled with gratitude with amount of love and support that we have received in such desperate times of need. However, the aid our country has received has not been properly mobilised."

    Despite this, he trusts charities to deliver the help and support to those less fortunate in the rural areas.

    "I have spent most half of my life in this dear country," he said. "It breaks my heart to see it falling apart."