LA TROBE University oral health lecturer Ron Knevel was in Nepal in the weeks leading up to the earthquake that has so far claimed more than 4100 lives.
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Mr Knevel runs an oral health program for Nepalese locals with the help of Bendigo students and only returned with the latest cohort six weeks ago.
Ever since news broke of the quake, he's been frantically checking social media for news of his Nepalese colleagues.
"I have heard some of my colleagues are fine (but) unfortunately I haven't heard from a lot of them and I'm on social media 24/7 to be honest, to see if they've checked into Facebook or if anybody's heard anything," he said.
"Three of the teachers I've been working with are still unaccounted for at the moment."
Mr Knevel said many of the orphanages and disability centres the students worked at in Nepal were scattered around the affected region and difficult to contact.
"Some of them are in more remote areas and most of the news at the moment is still about Katmandu, we saw a little bit of the surrounding areas and it just doesn't look promising," he said.
The exchange program has run since 2004 and focuses on empowering communities to take care of their own oral health.
Mr Knevel said the tragedy was predictable but would not stop him from returning.
"We always knew it was going to happen, one of the things I told the students on arrival was that they have to look around them," he said.
"Everybody was more or less mentally prepared, I always instructed the students to have a good look around and prepare a plan so hopefully when we are going with the next group we will continue where we can with the program, you can't just stop because of this."
Mr Knevel said he knew of one school in particular that had suffered damage.
"Even though there are (construction) guidelines they haven't always been adhered to because of financial restraints so the school has suffered damage and we're looking at opportunities to try to find ways of supporting them," he said.
Despite the devastation Mr Knevel said he was determined to continue to assist the people of Nepal.
"People need our help more than ever," he said.
"I know we're only focusing on a little bit of the human body but it's about the care so we'll definitely go back.
"Pain in the mouth affects quality of life and our students are teaching people to take care of their teeth."
