WHERE do you begin when your entire world is torn apart?

When whole families have lost their lives? When your friends have been killed or lost their homes, their livelihood and all of their possessions? When nothing looks or feels the same?

It is hard to describe how utterly devastating it is to see the images of the streets and the community I grew up within in Nepal completely destroyed and irrevocably altered.

The surviving community is surrounded by collapsed buildings, rubble and broken roads - making it difficult for the emergency services to reach those in need. The hospitals are unable to cope with the sheer number of casualties. It is very hard to put into words the utter devastation that the Nepalese are currently facing.

There is an urgent need for basic essentials in Nepal: food, water, shelter, medicine, sanitation and medical treatment. The hospitals are overflowing and there are many in desperate need of assistance. Much of the country's sewage system has been compromised, contaminating people's drinking water. Children have been orphaned with no surviving relatives and no one to support them. Vulnerable group are being left to fend for themselves and have nowhere to go.

Time is of the essence for the search and rescue teams in Nepal because they are not equipped to deal with a catastrophe on this scale and we cannot underestimate the challenges they face.

There are still many more Nepalese families trapped in the surrounding villages that are still currently inaccessible to the emergency services and, without the immediate support of the international agencies, the death toll will go far beyond the Prime Minister Sushil Koirala's recent prediction of 10,000.

The full scale of the devastation will only become fully apparent as aid workers gain access to areas that have been completely cut off. Whole villages have been flattened. Survivors in remote areas are facing poor sanitation and no access to shelter, food or water.

My thoughts and prayers are also with the people all over the world whose loved ones were caught in the avalanche on Everest. One can only imagine the pain and suffering of their families awaiting news of their relatives.

Although the Nepalese people are resilient, determined and hardworking, it will take years for them to recover from this tragedy. But together, with our help, we can minimize both the loss of life and the time it takes for the country to commence their long road to recovery.

That is why I, like all Nepalese in Scotland, am so grateful to the people of Scotland for the incredibly generous response they have shown in the first few days of the DEC Nepal Earthquake Appeal. The fact that £2.2 million was donated by members of the public in Scotland in just 48 hours, as well as a £250,000 donation from the Scottish Government, is evidence of how this tragedy has moved so many people.

Together we can save lives and provide the basic essentials that so many of us take for granted.

Donations can be made at www.dec.org.uk or by calling 0370 60 60 900.

Mrs Sunita Poddar,

Honorary Consul of Nepal,

40 Lambhill Street, Glasgow.