On April 24, a garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing more than 1,000 people. On Thursday, 17 days after the five-story building fell to the ground, a final survivor was discovered. Reshma Begum, a seamstress at Rana Plaza, was pulled from the rubble, after rescue crews heard her banging on a pipe. “I heard the sound and rushed towards the spot. I knelt down and heard a faint voice. Sir, please help me, she cried,” said Abdur Razzaq, an army sergeant who was involved in the rescue.
Workers furiously worked to remove debris from the area, and 40 minutes after Razza first heard Begum’s voice, she’d been freed. Dehydrated and missing clumps of hair, but otherwise in good health, Begum said she’d survived by scavenging for food in the rucksacks of dead colleagues. What were the conditions like for Begum? On a typical April day in Bangladesh the weather is around 95 degrees, with 80 percent humidity. Keep reading »
