Samaritan’s Purse Canada Asia Projects Director Bruce Piercey Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) member administering medical care to an earthquake survivor.

Last week the Country of Nepal experienced one of the worst earthquakes to hit the country in the past eighty years. Residents are trying to survive and get life back to normal after the 7.8 earthquake hit April 25th.

"It's definitely a challenging situation, because we want to get our people on the ground, get supplies in there, emergency food, water, shelters, blankets, and that kind of hygiene materials," said Samaritan's Purse Spokesperson Frank King. "There's issues with getting across borders, issues with roads, there's even issues with the airport in Katmandu, because we are having troubles getting our flights in there. It's being dominated by military and rescue planes right now."

King outlined how having previous experience in Nepal will help with their relief efforts.

"That's my understanding that this is the worst one to hit Nepal, and it's in an earthquake area too," said King. "Some of the construction projects that we did there, we did in buildings that were designed to withstand a 7.9 magnitude quake, and this quake came in at 7.8. The construction projects that we did, thanks to our Canadian donors, they are still standing."

It has been reported that around 6,200 people have perished due to the tragedy, and residents are sleeping on the streets incase aftershocks occur, which may cause buildings to fall.

"The next step is to get what we call a Disaster Assistance Response Team, a D.A.R.T team, in there to start bringing in the materials and emergency water," noted King. "Also bringing in large community sized water filters, because some of the water that is available there will be quite contaminated by everything that has happened. That's our priority now. We have daily meetings happening with our staff here, and working with our staff at our international headquarters in the U.S. to coordinate our efforts to make sure we are getting the absolute maximum effectives. Especially given that we are charities and we depend on Canadians to make this happen."

According to King they are already planning on getting multiple planes into Nepal with approximately fifty tonnes of materials. King added your prayers are needed.

He stated donations are always welcome, and donations are eligible to be matched by the Canadian government until May 25th.

Bruce (sunglasses on his head) is seen talking with Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) members, and Nepal residents, in Kathmandu