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IN PHOTO Earthquake victims stand in front of a collapsed house in Sankhu, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, May 2, 2015. Bureaucracy at Kathmandu airport was holding up vital relief supplies for survivors of the April 25 earthquake in Nepal as the death toll from the disaster passed 6,600. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

Facebook has helped the quake victims through safety check apps and are back in the news for raising over $10 million for the victims. The company has pledged an additional $2 million for rescue, relief and local recovery efforts.

Nepal was rocked by a massive earth quake which flattened its cities and razed its rural areas. According to Time, over 6000 people are feared dead and more than 10,000 are injured. The quake, measuring over 7.8 on the Richter scale, has brought widespread destruction and relief and rescue operations are still continuing. In majority of the areas, communication lines have been snapped and relief has not reached the people. According to Firstpost, WhatsApp messenger, a web Messenger service owned by Facebook, has been extensively used by aid and rescue agencies to coordinate relief operations for the affected people. It has helped to reach out to rural areas where telephone lines were affected.

Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, in his Facebook post praised communities for coming together in the hour of crisis to help the quake victims. Facebook activated the “Safety Check” and seven million people in the area are marked safe. Meanwhile, over seven million people have used Facebook to connect to 150 million family and friends. This has helped to track their loved ones and also assisted in coordinating relief efforts.

In his statement, Zuckerberg also stated that Facebook gave users the option to support local relief efforts and more than half a million people reached out with their donations. A donation button has been introduced by Facebook which would help generate contributions for the victims. More than $10 million has been raised to support the relief efforts. The company would donate an additional $2 million for rescue and also rehabilitation of the victims.

The massive quake affected Nepal and parts of Tibet, Bangladesh and India. Social media has been helpful in tracing friends and family and is used by relief agencies to coordinate rescue efforts.

For questions/comments regarding the article, you may email the writer at honeygeorge74.ibtimes@gmail.com.

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