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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Kat Wong

An ocean away from Nepal, Sonia spends her spare time piecing together clues about missing flood victims: ‘I wanted to be useful’

Patil at a window
Sonia Patil volunteers to sift through publicly released images of Nepali flood victims to try and identify them, sparing families the pain of doing so themselves. Photograph: Penny Stephens/The Guardian

A chain of flowers tattooed from knee to foot, a gold nose ring worn on a left nostril, a primary school tie caked in mud: these are the images that linger in Sonia Patil’s mind as she tries to help Nepali flood victims find their loved ones.

More than 1,300 have died and at least 5,500 have been reported missing since a glacial collapse sent a torrent of water, mud, ice and debris through riverside communities along the Nepal-Tibet border on 26 August.

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