SALEM, VA (WSLS 10 ) - Santosh Niroula says his family used a lifetime of savings to get him to the United States.
He's been in Salem just over a month, working toward his MBA American National University. Santosh was just a few weeks in when a massive earthquake, magnitude-7.8, hit his home country of Nepal April 25.
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"I tried to connect with my family," he recalls after hearing the news. "But I can't do it at that time there is no phone. Calls are not working there. I tried, tried, tried. It took eight hours to reach my family."
When he finally reached his mother, she answered the call in a way any mother would.
"She said, hey how are you to me. I'm okay what about you? We are okay," she answered.
Santosh says his mother hid the fact she was hurt in the quake and suffered severe fractures to her arm and feet.
"Everything is bad. That house is broke down. But the lucky thing is nobody died. That is the lucky thing that I feel now."
The family home his father built himself was toppled. His parents are now living in a tent house in Kathmandu.
Santosh says his heart broke when he watched the devastation on television and saw his neighborhood in ruins.
Along with their family home, Santosh's family's savings is gone. His professors at ANU have started a
GoFundMe
page to raise money so he can stay and earn his MBA. It's not only his dream, but his father's dream for his son.
"His next stream is an MBA graduate from the United States," Santosh said of his father's wish for him. "Whatever the conditions. I'll do better. I can."