In the chaos following the earthquake, five-year-old Sterling lived with her father, aunt and siblings in a tent settlement. Eleven days after the quake, Stirling's aunt sent her to buy bread and she got lost. A young man found her and brought her to his mother, who took her in. A month later, UNICEF learned of her situation through Wersner, a local child tracing volunteer. Wersner and UNICEF's Marie de la Soudière began working with the community to find Stirling's family.