Tuesday,
June 17,
2008
My Return
to Mianyang:
Hope Centers
Becoming
Sponsored,
Those in
Medical Need
to Find
Volunteer
Doctors
Through this
site, I have
brainstormed
my ideas,
but I
haven't
fully shared
their
fruition, so
let me do as
I explain
what I have
seen in the
last few
days.
Earthquake
Hope
Centers:
Counseling
Program -
Dealing with
the
emotional
pain of
young
earthquake
victims.
Within the
seven Hope
Center
tents,
erected in
the area
devastated
by the May
12th
earthquake
in Sichuan
Province,
Children’s
Hope is
bringing
counseling
and a loving hopeful
message to
hurting
children and
their
families. My
goal is to
reach out
through 50
similar
centers in
the
earthquake
zone.
In each tent
there are
books, toys
and
counseling
by trained
staff to
help
children who survived the
earthquake.
The
counseling
helps the
children
deal with
their
emotions and
fears. The
Hope Center
staff and
volunteers
also help
each family
find
additional
resources as
well as
making
follow-up
visits with
food,
medicine and
continued
emotional
support.
One mom at
this center,
who lost her
child in the
earthquake,
has
particularly
touched my
heart. She
cried day
after day;
she had lost
her desire
to live.
After many
visits with
us, she
found peace
to carry on.
We went to
Mianyang,
Yongan Hope
Center with
our friends
from US on
June 16th.
After the
visit, they
decided to
sponsor this
center for
an entire
year! You
can sponsor
a Center,
too, or be a
partner with
other donors
to get one
started.
As of early
June, our
Hope Center
in Mianyang
has been
helping the
victim
children in
Sichuan. Two
new staff
members,
Baosen and
Huangxin,
are
replacing
our
temporary
volunteers
at this
location and
will be
counseling
and teaching
these
children.
Summer
Relief Bags
Our
successful
School Bag
Project
delivered
1,000 school
bags to
victim
children. We
hope for
similar
success in raising
funds for a
Summer
Relief Bag
Program to
help the
children we
encounter in
the
earthquake-affected
areas.
Each bag
will contain
temporary
relief items
and a
6-month
multi-vitamin
supply -
giving 4
months of
relief to
see the children
through the
summer
months and
flood
season. My
goal is to
provide
approximately
1,100
children
with Summer
Relief Bags.
I met
another
volunteer
Haixin in
Mianyang
yesterday.
She had
walked from
Wenchuan all
the way to
Mianyang.
She brought
news the
road from Wenchuan is
now blocked
by
mudslides,
although,
travelers
still
attempt to
walk along
the road.
In the news,
we see many
of the
afflicted
have
returned to
work, but when we are
at the
frontlines,
most of the
victims are
still in
need of the
most basic
supplies. I
wish we
would have
ways to get
more
supplies to
send to
them.
I would love
to get our
Summer
Relief Bag
project
going so we
can bring
summer items
to the
people
living in
tents.
Monday, June 16, 2008
(Beijing
time)
"I found
this child
ZhangChunLing
through our
volunteer
group in
Sichuan.
She was
burned when
she was
little. Her
family lost
their house
to the
earthquake,
she saved
two of her
classmates
life on May
12th. She is
around 13,
we have
three video
clips of her
and her
class, her
parents,
they ask if
we can help
to get her
to
treatment.
We sent the
picture to
the burn
hospital and
doctors we
know and ask
them what
can be
done. "
- Melody in
Sichuan
Sunday, June 15, 2008
(Beijing
time)
Melody went
to Sichuan
again on
June 14th.
Temporary
rooms
A truck
sent
materials to
Mianyang to
build up
temporary
houses for
the disaster
victims
Friday, June 13, 2008
(Beijing
time)
Children are
taking a
class.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
(Beijing
time)
The volunteer Liu Jinan from Beijing, Mei Duo from
Shanghai and
CHI staff
took
children's
books, toys,
stationery
to the
victims'
settle sites
in Anxian
with the
assistance
of
volunteers
in Chengdu.
According to
their
requirement,
Liu
Jinan
and Mei Duo
will be
allocated to
Beichuan to
be teachers
there for a
month.
|
|
Wednesday, June 11, 2008 (Beijing time)
Ren Yan and Ren Qiang arrived in Beijing yesterday afternoon.
.jpg)
Zheng Hong is a reporter of CCTV, she went to Wenchuan to take the two children to Beijing.
Picture taken with Melody Zhang and the volunteers in Beijing
|
|
|
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
(Beijing
time)
11:00
Chen Hui received 75 items, including 500 bags and 2
boxes of
toothpaste,
a box of
toliet water
donated by
The Good
Rock
Foundation
in June 9th.
But because
it rains
continuously
and the
roads to the
disaster
area
collapsed
terribly,
these bags
have to be
stored in
Chengdu
until the
road is
available.
|
|
Monday, June 9, 2008
(Beijing time)
13:00
Ren Yan and Ren Qiang said goodbye to the CHI volunteers
in Chengdu this
morning. Accompanied
by the volunteer
Zhenghong, They will
go to Beijing to
start their new
lives. Let's bless
them！
Our volunteer team will take 1000 cartoon handbooks
about children's
psychology health
provided by
China
Technology Academe,
children's clothes,
books, stationery
and medicine to the
social work service
site in
Mianyang. They
will provide aid
about material,
education and
psychology for the
children and their
families.
0:00
Ren Yan and Ren Qiang are sister and brother living in
Weizhou Town,
Wenchuan County.
Their father died
from
accident when Ren
Qiang was one year
and three months.
Unfortunately, their
mother died from the
disaster. They
have to live with
their grandparents.
Their house collapse
in the earthquake.
All the family live
in a tent now. When
a kind person
knew their
condition, he
provide help for
them. But because
the school was
affected by the
earthquake, the two
children can't go
back to study. In
order to help them
regain the
opportunity of
study, he contacted
CHI and hoped we
can take them to
Beijing to study. We
contact schools as
soon as we know it.
The affiliated
middle school
and
elementary school of
Beijing Technology
College accept them
and will provide
education from
elementary school
to high school
for them.
It took the volunteer Zheng Hong seven days to take Ren
Yan and Ren Qiang to
Chengdu. They
arrived in Chengdu
in June 7th. They
will set off to
Beijing this
afternoon. We will
try our best to help
them in the future.
Ren Yan, Ren Qiang, the volunteer Zheng Hong, Chen
Liuyan and our staff
Huang Xin.
Ren Qiang seeing painting albums with our staff
Sunday, June 8, 2008
(Beijing time)
22：00
There ARE some pictures from our volunteer Qiyan, a
reporter
from Jingbao
newspaper
who went to
all the
dangerous
places in
Sichuan
during the
time she was
there.
These are
the pictures
she took on
May 16th in
Beichuan.
We had
three
volunteers
went in
Beichuan
that day. Me
and the
other member
went to
Mianyang
orphanage.
the 6th floor building lay in the middle of the road
with many
people
under.
People calling their family members name outside the
falled
building for
days, won't
give up.
11:00
Yesterday, our staff Shen Jiaying and her team
confirmed 4
or 5 sites
for
psychology
counseling
which will
be
named Social Worker Care Center. They are preparing
for it and
will provide
training for
the local
volunteers.
13:30
The pictures below are the donated materials carried
to Wenchuan
by the army
on June 4th.
They include
500
bags,
and the
other 282
items such
as Eight
ingredient
porridge,
stationery,
medicine and
toys and so
on.
Chen Hui
has been
receiving
the feedback
from where
she sent
donated
materials
to. She took
pictures for
them.
The police working in the airport help us carry the
donated
materials.
The volunteers assisted the car carrying materials to
move on.
The loving mother Bai Xue stayed with the child in the
disaster
area.
The villagers who are waiting for the donated
materials.
Below are
the pictures
taken in
Jiuzhou
gymnasium
when our
staff and
her team
take
psychology
counseling
for
the
children:
The pictures
and
compositions
made by
children.
having the
class
|
|
Wednesday, June 4, 2008 (Beijing time)
From our staff Chen Hui:
The volunteer Zhaoke and I went to Xiaoba Village to
pick Lin Caihong up to Chengdu. She is an orphan who
suffers from congenital heart disease. Accompanied by
the volunteer Yang Peixin, she and the old lady who
adopted her will go to Beijing by train to take the
surgery.
Lin Caihong was abandoned by her parents because of her
disease. Then a kind old lady adopted her and used all
her money for her treatment. The lady’s son whom Lin
Caihong calls uncle is also a kindhearted person. He
tries his best to earn money for her treatment. He is 30
years old, but hasn’t got married because he is poor.
Their house collapsed by the earthquake. All of them
lived in a tent. Their dream is that her disease will be
cured and then she can go to school like normal
children.
When I saw her in the settlement site, I told her my
phone number. From then on, she called me almost
everyday to ask if I could help her take a surgery. She
told me she would go back to the tent-school to study
after taking the surgery.
We picked Lin Caihong up to the village government
to apply for
approval at 2 p.m.
in June 3rd.
Caihong is waiting for me back from the government.
I asked her where she would like to sit. She said she
would like to sit
with me. So we sat
together on the same
seat. The driver
is a volunteer named
Zhao Ke. He works in
an advertisement
company in
Zhengzhou.
I lived with Caihong and her grandma in Chengdu.
Caihong was so glad
because she would
start her way to
Beijing today. Let’s
bless her!
Shen Jiaying will
take some materials
to Chuanzhu Village,
Anchang County
today. She and her
team develops new
villages which need
help everyday. They
went several
villages in Anchang
County these days
and found almost all
of them are affected
terribly by the
earthquake. Their
houses collapsed and
children there have
no place to study.
So they are
selecting a place
which has most
children in to
develop a site for
children's
psychology
counseling.
The house is where the mom of the two boys got
killed by the
landslide.
a car with families wanting to go back home to
Maoxian on May 25th.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
(Beijing time)
Zhao Xiaonian
and her team is
working on
psychology
counseling for
the children in
disaster area.
They are needing
volunteers who
have the
background of
education,
adolescent
growth training,
nurse, doctor,
social worker,
driver, cook or
field survival
expansion.
Our staff Chen
Hui will go to
Xiaoba village
to meet Min
Caihong who is
an orphan
suffering from
congenital heart
disease. Then
Caihong will be
sent to Beijing
to take a
surgery. On the
way there, Chen
Hui will go to
Deyang Orphanage
to give them the
donated
materials what
they need.
The volunteer
Yang Peixin will
classify the
donated
materials with
the other 8
volunteers
today. Our staff
Xiaonian told us
that the
settlement sites
which are
convenient for
traffic have got
enough
materials, so
she suggested we
should
distribute the
donated
materials to the
countryside
which are far
from the center.
Meanwhile, we'd
better store
some materials
in order to help
the children in
the disaster
area for a long
time. Besides,
we know that the
disaster in
Xianyang and
Gansu Province
are also
serious, but
they got little
attention, so
they are lack of
materials. Our
staff will go
there to
investigate the
local situation
this week. Then
we will
distribute the
materials to
them
appropriately.
|
|
|
Monday,
June 2, 2008 (Beijing time)
Our staff
Chenhui in Chengdu received 500 bags from Rock
Fundation, in which here are stationery, underwear,
umbrellas, toys and painting albums. All of them were
prepared attentively. Besides, she also received 250
bags of formula, 1000 feeding bottles and 250 boxes of
sanitary towel from Zhengzhou loving mothers; books
which cost 20,000 RMB from Shanghai fense mothers.
Shen Jiaying and her team is planning to put up an aid
site for children's psychology counselling. She is
preparing the training data today.
Zhao Xiaonian and her team put up three tents for the
children. They will be used for library, activity room
and class room.
|
9：00am
From our staff Chen
Hui in Chengdu
Yesterday is Children's Day. My workmate Shen
Jiaying, the volunteer Yang Peixin, Gao Xue from
Baby Tree and I went to present the children in the
disaster area 422 new bags and gifts. All of these
bags are from the"1000 bags for children in disaster
area" activity raised by Baby Tree and CHI. Jing
Newspaper also donated Fu Wa to them. Besides, the
other 500 bags from HongKong Rock Fundation will be
arrived recently.
We knew from the disaster settlement that there had
been a lot of kindhearted people sending bags to the
children. In order not to send the bags to the same
children, we changed our distribution plan after
investigation. The new one was that 60 for the
middle-school students in Anxian xiaoba tent
classroom, 220 for Yuanmen elementary school in
Yongan Town An County, 42 for Wen County, 500 for
Wenchun. All the children were very happy when they
got the bags and stationery. When we were leaving,
they all asked us when we would come again. I felt
that all of them were lack of intercommunion.
Here we want to show our gratitude to Baby Tree,
Rock Fundation, Jing Newspaper, Beijing Benz
Chrysler, kindhearted stuff from Motorola and every
kindhearted people. Bags and contributions are still
coming from all over the country. We will send the
second and third batch of bags to the children in
need as soon as possible.
|
|
|
Sunday, June 1, 2008 (Beijing time)
Please help the orphans in need.
The call for the orphan children in
Sichuan touched many hearts. There are
over 10,000 Chinese families came
forward to register to adopt one earth
quake orphan. However, the local
authority, Sichuan provincial Civil
Affairs tries very hard to tell people
this is not the time for adoption, but a
time for family reunification. As they
have not even had a chance to gather all
the orphan children and their
statistic.
My guess is, there will not be a great
number of earth quake orphans. Most of
the children will be claimed by family
members, only a small number of them
will be entering the child welfare
system and the adoption will happen
later and slowly.
But what about the 10,000 more warm
hearted willling families? How great if
their love will eventialy help
the orphaned children of China? There
are 69,000 orphans currently living in
government run welfare homes. And there
are 573,000 orphans in total recorded by
the Civil Affair system with majority
living with relative or in private
welfare homes that also in need of
help.
Even if the families may not adopt a
child each, but they would help foster,
sponsor a child, many orphan children
will be benefited by these huge wave of
love in our society.
I urge all the families and people
interested in helping orphans do contact
their local authorities and request for
information and procedures of adoption,
foster care and sponsorship programs.
Maybe, we can truly make a difference in
Chinese orphans' life at this time.
|
|
Saturday, May 31,
2008 (Beijing time)
Third
shippment from Guangzhou to Chengdu
These items include medicines, children's
supply and 150 tents.
Materials waiting for shipping at airport
The book bags arrived at ChengDu
he first 422 school bags arrived in Chengdu
to be distributed to the students on
Children's day.
School bags and other items arrived in
Chengdu from Beijing today
Have a check
Put books and pencils in bags
1:50pm
Through a
call this morning, we heard from Wenchuan
everyone receives 0.7 Jin rice per day, so
they don't need to eat instant food any
more. People use simple cookware they found
to cook for themselve. Thus they need rice,
flour, cooking oil,etc, the basic food
supply. Especially water purifiers, since
they still relay on the army to bring clean
water every day.
Officier
Zhang and his group found a 4 month old baby
girl in need of formula. They dont' have
any 0-6 month formula so they gave the
mother 30 eggs and some rice. Officier
Zhang and CHI are both trying to get the
formula to this family as soon we know of
anyone going into Wenchuan.
port
|
|
Friday, May 30, 2008
(Beijing time)
2:26pm
We found
there is a greater need in Shanxi and Gansu
area now for the suppllies such as diapper,
formula, etc. CHI is sending our staff to
those two area orphanages to find out the
details and is gathering goods for those two
areas from now on.
We have
three staff in Sichuan still, Chen Hui in
Chengdu in charge of receiving and sending
suppllies,and XiaoNian, Jia Ying in Mian
Yang doing counseling for children.
Xiaonian works in Jiu Zhou statium, the
largest gathering place for Beichuan
vicitims, and Jiaying in AnXian, where the
new Beichuan settlement center.
They both need more volunteers to help to
continue and develop our work. Xiaonian
needs volunteers who have education
experience.
port
|
Thursday, May 29, 2008 (Beijing time)
I got back to home last
night, at 10:00am. Kevin and the girls went to the
airport to meet me and Xiaowei. It feels like another
world to me being back to the sandy Beijing. I am back
in my office and meet up with all of our staff. Our
meeting room is now the storage for the supplies. I
found this stack of cards on my desk to be sent to
Sichuan children this morning. The sweet words speak so
much. We will send them with the first batch of school
bags to Sicuan before June 1st Children's day.
port From Earthquake Area
|
Report From
Earthquake Area ( I )
Melody Zhang
Associate director of Children's Hope
International
|
Wednesday, May 28,
2008 (Beijing time)
we will have 3 major works to support disaster victims:
1) Continue
sending materials
2) Set up psychological support team
3) Help the families with children to return to normal
lives
I had the idea of “Help disaster victim families with
children to return to normal lives ” when I was in
Wenchuan. Many families lost family members, lost houses
and almost anything; they are in extremely difficulty
situation. For example, the day before yesterday I said
that a family, grandmother and mother all died in the
quake. If we could help the father of this family find a
job, the whole situation of this family will be changed.
Therefore, we help this family in the same time we also
help the children of this family. We are still thinking
about the way how to “help disaster victim families with
children to return to normal lives”
The work of Psychological support team will be a
long-term work. In fact it may take 6 to 12 months for
doctor to
diagnose some children's
psychological stress problems. Therefore, psychological
support must uphold for a long time. This work also
requires a lot of experienced volunteers.
Material management is very complicated and arduous
work. We must send out the material on time to the
places where the disaster victims need.
Now we still need volunteers:
Among them, “material management” needs 2-3 volunteers,
“help disaster victim families with children” needs of
children 3-5 volunteers, psychological support team
needs 10-15 volunteers.
We hope that these areas of interest in the work of the
volunteers to contact us.
To be psychological support team volunteer, the
candidate must have psychological counseling, or kindergarten or
school teaching experiences. We will be able to train
volunteers to provide psychological counseling.
For some of the requirements of the volunteers:
1) Can bear hardships.
2) Can continue working for at
least one week;
3) Can follow the volunteers rules.
4) The fee of travel, hotel, and food must be covered by
volunteers themselves;
After 14 days in earthquake zone, Melody will return to
Beijing today.
”Good bye!” in the airport.
Zhao,
vice president of the Association of social workers
yesterday arrived in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. This
morning he talked with the director of Civic department
of Sichuan about the projects of support disaster
victims.
People
request the information of adopting orphans
Xiao Wei is our volunteer mom from US. Her husband
works for Harvard Medical school. They have a two
year old boy who is in Beijing waiting for mommy to
get home. We took the same flight on 28th to get
back to Beijing.
Tuesday,
May 27, 2008 (Beijing
time)
Now that I am back to
Chengdu being able to
use my own computer, I
can send the pictures of
the children one by one
in the next several
emails.
The director of
Wenchuan orphanage( also
known as Aba Orphanage,
they are the only
welfare home with
children in the entire
Wenchuan area), Mr. Lang
called me this afternoon
telling me they finally
had light at night on
the 25th, using the
generator we took to
them. The children were
all delighted!
Director Lang and his
children in Wenchuan
orphanage, he is called
Daddy Lang by every
child.
children of Wencuan
orphanage
This 18 year old , Min
Chuan has brittle-bone
disease. She was sent
to the orphange when she
was one. I want to
ask a friend in Beijing
who has twins with
brittle-bone and has
lots of knowlege of it,
if there is anything we
can do to help her.
They are three
biological sisters, the
oldest sister is Zhuoma
but she is not here
today. The youngest is
13 year old.
This little girl is so
sweet, she tried to feed
cherry to Officer Zhang,
who came with us in his
own SUV.
Officer Zhang later
decided to sponsor her
himself and gave me the
money before I left Wen
Chuan.
We soon will add names
to each picture I took
of the children and then
offer the opportunity
for sponsorship to
everyone who wants to
help them. I have
visited Deyang and
WenChuan orphanges and
took picture of each
child I saw that is
available for
soponsorship through
CHI.
twins
Wangli is a sweet 6 year
old. She missed the
little toy bus I gave
out and went back to her
room to cry.
My friend Lirui than
gave her all the food in
her bag and made Wangli
smile again.
This is the tents for
girls.
They went back to the
orphange to get beds and
other items inspect of
the danger and rush
back.
supplies we brought
Boys ready to be
sponsored.
I realized after
visiting the orphanage
in person that they
don't have 20 children
under 2 years old.
It must be the dialect
director Lang speaks
that confused me.
However, I am still very
glad we made the trip to
bring the supply to
them. Especially after
seeing the condition
they live in.
The children gave us
cherries to say thank
you.
*****
It took us
one whole day on the
bus, from 7:00am
26th,yesterday from
Wenchuan to get to
Chengdu this morning
27th around 7:30am.
We sit in this position
for 24 hours. We also
had to change buses in 4
places during the trip.
Like Olympic torches,
the drivers each drove
one part of the trip so
we passengers traveled
non stop.
We arrived
in Chengdu finally
People come to families
to look for a new life
I was so happy to sit by
my computer in my Chendu
hotel room.
Ms. Liao & Li Rui
Ms.Liao the hotel owner
was one of the
volunteers went to
Wenchuan with us. We
are so happy to see her
again.
I wrote on
the road, in the morning
of 26th as we left
Wenchuan:
"Goodbye
Wenchuan, the city got
to be known by the world
on the day of May 12th,
2008. I will remember
you forever after being
with you for the last 4
days. I will remember
the ruins, the tears,
the loved ones who left
this world and the love
you showed to each other
and to everyone. I will
be back, I promise, as
long as you will remain
exist. Director Lang,
Captain Zhang, the
brother who lost the mom
and the wife, the
children in the
orphanage. I will get
started to help you as
soon as I get back to
Chengdu and Beijing. Be
safe!"
|
|
Monday, May
26, 2008 (Beijing time)
Leaving from Wenchuan to Chengdu, I would like to
quickly join Chengdu, Mianyang and Beijing's relief
work.
MaErKang is the capital of Aba
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The escort team leader is
a Tibetan young man. His beautiful Tibetan folk songs
take us back to the normal people pragmatic attitude."
Leaving from Wenchuan, I would like to quickly join
Chengdu, Mianyang and Beijing's relief work.
Tibetan living areas on the side of road in MaErKang
 There are a lot of volunteers
in MaErkang. People even can have warm food here.
 Here is the place
where we spent night 4 days ago. Then we had 9 people
but we had no idea about the road situation.Today, we
will change the bus to Chengdu here.
 People here are calm although
there are aftershocks every day
 I worried about power failure, no water here
 Somebody took this
picture for us - we fell in sleep in the bus
"In the past few days, every morning, more than 100
buses leave Wenchuan. The buses sent the victims out of
here. The first groups were students. But more people or
fewer vehicles. Linked to our hard-won only four seats ,
The ride back to Chengdu, which is to send their
children to evacuate the scene Wenchuan. I do not know
when such a separation can be reunited. "
Goodbye, Wenchuan!
"May 26 at 7:20am, we left Wenchuan. Goodbye! Since four
days ago I came to Wenchuan, people’s tears, the broken
buildings, the love of alive people and the
Spirit of dead people, all of those will blend into my
life forever. I must come back. Mr. Lang, (Note:
director of Aba orphanage), children, Mr. Zhang (Note:
Meishan in Sichuan Armed Police Corps Detachment), and
Xiao-Wei Di (note: who lost mother and wife), I will
soon contact you to help you all! "
Sunday, May 25, 2008 (Beijing time)
At 8:00pm, we
received Melody's call:
Today is a very smooth,
very good day. The volunteers who visited Wenchuan
orphanage now became the best friends each other. The
four persons are Li Rui, the female reporter of Jing
Newspaper, Zhao Qian and Huang Jian-feng, reporters of
Chongqing Television Station, and me.
According to our experience of driving in the earthquake
area, it will be OK to drive in the morning, but the
road is dangerous in the afternoon due to falling stones
caused by strong wind. So this morning we got off at
6:00am.
It is about 40 kilometers from Wenchuan to Maoxian. It
would take not more than one hour normally. However,
because of poor road conditions, landslides, we tried
twice but failed to go through. 5 team members gave up.
Today, 4 of us tried again. We have to stop driving to
wait for road repairing. It is very dangerous to park on
the road in the mountain. You don’t know where the rocks
would be falling down - the rocks above our heads as if
the sword of Damocles.
To be honest, my experience in the disaster area, what I
saw, the difficulties I met, are over load. I almost
can’t stand. Yesterday, I had great emotions. Sorry
about that. But one thing has been supporting me, I have
been very grateful to have such an opportunity here to
help the people of Sichuan, to have such a chance to
share my love.
Today, I am particularly happy on the road and I have a
feeling that we would be successful to send the material
to Wenchuan orphanage. We felt so comfortable that Isome
of us even fell into sleep in the car!
When we took two vehicles (a military truck, a Jeep)
loaded with supplies to Wenchuan orphanage, the director
of the orphanage Mr.Lang was too excited to say
anything. The orphanage has 31 children and six elderly
people. I took pictures for each child. I will send
those pictures to our office when I find out Internet
service. The supplies we took here piled up like a small
hill: include a generator, children's products, daily
necessities and even the toilet paper.
Tomorrow, I will return to Chengdu. I will discuss with
Mianyang and Chengdu’s colleagues about the next plan. I
have some preliminary planning and thinking, the basic
point is that as a private charitable organization, we
really need help local people during their most
difficult stage; when everyone's attention gradually
shifted to the normal lives we really need set up a
long-term program to help the children affected by the
earthquake.
Now the most important work should be resettle the
people in the disaster areas. A lot of people mainly
rely on self-help, but for them, it is very difficult.
The private charitable organization and agencies can do
something in the resettlement for the people of disaster
areas.
Yesterday, I mentioned a family; the first name of this
family is Tang. Their mother and grandmother were dead.
Only father and two children are alive. It is a typical
victim’s family after the earthquake. The sister-in-law
of this family is pregnant for 6 months. She doesn’t
have enough food and have no clear water to take bath.
The father of this family can drive, I think if I took
him to Beijing he may find out a job. Anybody who saw
the sad situation in the disaster area, really want to
do something to help those victims of disasters.
*****
This morning at 6:30am, Melody and the team started to
drive to Mao County. They finally arrived at the
orphanage at noon.
Bad road situation
Melody with the children of orphanage***
photos from Melody last night：
the situation of road May 24th morning
people going home on foot
Saturday, May 24, 2008 (Beijing time)
At 10:16 pm, we received calls from Melody.
Following is part of the contents:
I am calling to you from the Information Centre (voice
not clear).
Yesterday our team stayed in the army camps. Today We
visited some of earthquake victims with the soldiers.
One of the families, mother and grandmother were killed
in the earthquake, The father and two young children
have nothing left beside clothes on their bodies.
Tomorrow, we decided to go to Maoxian, to send food and
the other things to Wenchuan orphanage - I promised to
the director of Wenchuan orphanage that I would visit
the orphanage. Wenchuan orphanage is located in Maoxian.
From the first day of the earthquake, the orphanage has
no water and power, we cannot imagine how bad situation
it is now.
Out team only left 4 persons (the other 5 gave up), and
we don't have enough vehicles to send goods to the
orphanage. Mr. Zhang, an army officer find a car for us,
and will escort us to Maoxian.
Our plan is, After visiting Maoxian, we will not back to
Wenchuan, but directly go to Lixian. (Note: This two
areas are the heaviest disaster areas. Because of bad
road condition, relief supplies cannot to enter in large
quantities)
This is the dangerous road - I am afraid I may not be
able to call you in the next couple days.
***
We received SMS from Melody:
"May 21, and the day before yesterday, we drove
overnight for 14 hours, yesterday morning (May 22)
arrived at MaoEKang, arrived at Wenchuan in the evening.
We decided to spend night there because of car problems
and landslides. This morning (May 23), we tried to drive
toward but we met too many landslides and waited for
half day on the road without any moving. Finally, we
decided to change our plan to drive on the road to
Maoxian and went back."
At 2:00pm on May
23, we decided to change our plan because of landslides
"Now in the earthquake area, people need medicine for skin
problems, such as: Anti-itch cream and miconazole
nitrate cream.They also need other urgent items: quilts,
covers, pillows, pollow cases, shampoo, soap,
toothpaste, toothbrush and so on."
Friday, May 23, 2008 (Beijing time)
Frightening
Memories of the Treacherous Road to
Wenchuan
Despite our previous plan, we decided to pursue the quicker route into Wenchuan
instead of the longer/safer way, saving us 200km in
driving time. Everything was
fine
until 10:00pm last night, when a dense fog set in and visibility
dropped to 3-4 meters. We were driving down a mountainside with a
deep ravine on one side. This made us all very nervous.
Our
route took us over Mengbi Mountain, which is over
4314m
tall; we were taking the same route
the Red Amy took
during
the Long March 70 years ago. Our driver became worn out and so requested that we
rest at about 2:00 am . We slept in a little inn at A Bazhou
overnight, and continued our trip
at daybreak. Despite our
previous plan, we decided to pursue the quicker
route into Wenchuan
instead
of the longer/safer way, saving us 200km in
driving
time. According to the Wenchuan
Orphanage director we will be the first batch of people
to
help the
orphanage specifically. We were
eager to arrive.
last
night Melody sleep in a army
camp |
Children in wenchuan |
Near midnight, in a little county named Xiao Jin, a scene moved us.
There were several Tibetans
along the road, offering
volunteers and victims
donated food.
They live in the mountains, and come down every morning to the
roadside, making some simple
meals for the people passing by, and
do
not return home until midnight. They gave
us some food before we left, telling
us to eat on the way and share with
the victims if we see any.
Brainstorming on the Road...
In the
beginning, our rescue
and
material aid
operation
was
centered
around Mianyang
and the
most damaged city
of
Beichuan.
Volunteer
Mao Yuan from Beijing Medical
University 3rd Hospital
was
with us
dispersing
material aid.
Our nurse
Zhao Xiao Nian
was
and is with a psychology team at Mianyang,
counseling the
children. Children's Hope staff member, Shen Jia Yng , arrived on the
20th
to join the
counseling work in Mianyang. While Chen Hui , also with Children's Hope, is
in
charge of
receiving and dispersing material aid.
Now we are expanding our rescue area with the help of many
volunteers, in many
different
ways.
As
of May 21, we
began
sending
volunteers
and
donations
to Qingchuan, Guangyuan,
and
Shifang to
reach the victims
there.
My main
task is helping the orphans in the orphanages and
the
children who have become orphaned
from the quake.
It is hard to calculate how many
children have been orphaned;
they are under government protection and we
can
not become too involved at this
point.
What we can do is help
the original orphans and build relationships with the
orphanages, so when we can
help
the new orphans
we
will be able to do so
as soon as possible.
Our
quake rescue team expands, as we are
asking psychologists
in
our network to
research
the best way
of
aiding the children
(and
to
create training lessons for
the
volunteers) and relying on contacts in Hong
Kong
for
materials and lessons
on
major disaster
interventions.
We are cooperating with the Red Cross
to
design
a
poster,
to be
printed and issued to the public
after government confirmation for epidemic prevention.
A lot of charity organizations and
NGOs are collecting donations, both cash and
material.
Children’s Hope has had an amazing
response to material aid; many needed items reported from the front lines
are met
almost immediately from our
different sources. The
money we raise
is used
for the greatest need of children.
I have a proposal now: I want to build a
foundation with the money we have,
a Growing
Fund.
This fund
will help the children effected by
the earthquake, specifically, for
psychoanalytic consultation,
education assistance, necessary medical treatments, and skill training
and
career assistance
for the older
children.
As time goes by and people change their focus
from the disaster, I wish
this fund will bring professionals together to
help and care
for
these
children
as they
grow into adults.
It
is a big proposal, but together – we
can do this for the children.
|
|
Thursday,
May 22,
2008,
7:16
p.m.
(Beijing
time)
CHI
Beijing office received
a SMS
from
Melody:
"In the
last 2
hours,
we have
been met
with
frequent
dangerous
conditions.
The road
from Li
to
Wenchuan
is too
rugged
to go
through.
Our tire
has
burst
twice. A
leak in
our
petrol
tank was
discovered
after we
arrived
in
Wenchuan.
We're
going to
repair
it now.
We are
unable
to send
pictures."
Beijing
office:
today we sent 250 boxes of formula through "motor transport", and it will take 2 or 3 days on the road.
250 boxes of formula that have been sent to Sichuan
|
|
|
Baby
Xiao
Qin
is
on
her
way
to
Beijing
and
Children's
Hope
International's
foster
home
#2,
run
by
Angel
Moms.
(Lily,
who
has
been
traveling
with
me,
is
the
head
of
Angel
Moms.)
Amidst
the
chaos,
I
was
able
to
give
Xiao
Qin
a
peaceful
moment
this
morning.
|
|
 |
We
delivered
the
supplies
the
Guangzhou
Moms
brought
Sunday
to
the
Deyang
Orphanage.
Director
Wu
is
delighted
to
see
us
back.
I
told
her
I
received
a
request
from
one
of
my
blog
readers
to
come
and
see
one
baby
here.
The
little
boy
has
an
American
family
coming
for
his
adoption
and
they
are
so
worried.
I
took
the
picture
of
this
boy
and
another
boy
the
director
knows
is
assigned
to a
family
already.
For
privacy
reasons,
I
will
not
say
which
is
which.
I am
sure
the
families
will
recognize
their
little
ones.
My
best
wishes
to
you!
|
|
|
|
The
children
at
Deyang
orphanage
are
great.
On
the
back
wall
there
are
pictures
of
all
the
children
adopted
by
foreign
families.
Director
Wu
remembers
every
one
of
them.
She
has
been
working
here
since
1998
before
the
current
building
was
built.
Post-quake
this
building
is
now
dangerous
to
live;
they
will
need
to
build
a
new
steadier
building
in
the
future.
|
|
Two
shipments
arrived
today
from
Beijing,
after
seeing
off
Lily
and
baby
Xiaoqin,
I
stayed
at
the
airport
to
meet
both
groups
arriving
at 8
and
9pm.
The
volunteer
driver
delivered
the
Babytree
donor
supplies
to
their
van
and
are
scheduled
to
take
more
to
Deyang
orphanage.
The
rest
of
the
supplies
were
purchased
by
Angel
moms
in
Beijing
and
scheduled
to
ship
to
Mianyang
tonight.
Five
boxes
of
baby
items
and
medicines
from
these
shipments
will
be
for
the
Wenchuan
orphanage.
Below
are
the
supplies
we
sent
to
Mianyang
tonight,
including
1,000
bags
of
Chinese
medicines,
Angel
Mom
Xiaowei
brought
for
the
soldiers
to
prevent
the
spread
of
disease
while
in
the
front
lines
of
the
disaster
area.
|
Here
I am
in
our
makeshift
office;
|
last
night
we
slept
on
the
grass
and
some
of
us
in
cars.
|
Monday, May 19, 2008
(Beijing Time)
I just got in touch with director Lang. He said
all children in Wenchuan (orphanage) are safe.
It is a miracle giving the fact they are in
between the worst hit places Wenchuan and
Maoxian. They don't have water yet, and need
rice, oil, bowls, beddings, etc. 37 children and
12 care-takers live together in tents. Our team
is going there as soon as we get supply and van
ready.
Today, three GuangZhou moms arrived with 75
boxes of diapers and formula. Some donated some
they purchased from Guangzhou. Guangzhou
airport let them take it all on without
overweight charges. By 10:50pm, they arrived at
the hotel we stayed. We promised Deyang and
Guangyuan orphanage director, we will deliver
the supply on May 19th.
We moved to a nearby motel since last
night. It’s 120 per night per room.
The owner Ms Liao after knowing we are
here to help the victims of the earth
quake, gave us free room to store our
supply and offered us her own SUV for us
last night to sleep in. Most of the
people in Chengdu sleep outside every
night since May 12th due to
the after quake everyday. By 2:pm last
night, we felt one pretty big in the
car.
At Midnight:
We just came back from the airport with
boxes of supplies. The news says there
is a big possibility of another earth
quake tonight up to 7degree. The hotel
staff urges us not to return to our room
so we are out again in the street. A
friend suggests we sleep in nearby
college.
|
Our bed
|
|
Sunday, May 18, 2008 (Beijing Time)
Today, I went back to Deyang orphanage with two of our
team members to deliver more supplies. It has been in
my heart since we came on the 14th, to help
take care of the Sichuan orphans. And this wish finally
become ture. Today, I found this one month little baby
girl with a deformity of foot and hand. We know she
needs some correctable surgery and asked the director.
She said they are so busy now and they had to wait on
this. So I asked if we can take her back to Beijing
with us and help her to get the surgery and
rehabilitation there. Since I was turned down for two
other children yesterday, I was so supprised when the
director said, yes, but only if we sign a foster care
agreement first. Our two volunteer moms were so
delighted to hear that and Lily held little Xiao Qin in
her arm the whole way back to Chengdu. In the car, we
looked at the baby, and she turned prettier and prettier
in our eyes. We heard from three area orphanage
directors that they will soon receive earth quake
orphans 20-40 each. There are many Chinese families
requesting to adopt earth quake orphans lately, the
provincial Civil Affairs office announced two days ago,
that this is the time period for families’ reunification
and not adoption. And they prefer to keep those
children in the area so the families can find them
easier. Our hope is if we can help take some of the
orphans back to Beijing before those children arrive the
orphanage, we will take some load off of the workers
there. I am so glad we are able to start with little
Min Xiao Qin.
|
A place for bodies |
|
Friday, May 17, 2008
(Beijing Time)
Last night is the
first night I slept in a bed since I got to Sichuan.
Two of us came back from Mianyang to Chengdu to work on
computer and internet, as well as making plan for the
next step. Thanks for our volunteer XiaoYu mommy, ( her
name on the web) she let us stay at her house, and uses
her home as the temporary office. Her building manager
offered their office to be the temporary storage for our
supplies coming from different parts of the country,
this saved us hard work to take those heavy boxes to 6th
floor where her apartment is. For a short day, I
realized the huge difference from a disaster relief time
to a normal, peaceful life. Could it be true? For a
moment I dreamed, maybe this is all a long dream. And
then I heard the news on TV screen, the death roll is
now 21,000 and over 100,000 injured. Wenchuan earth
quake is the worst one in China since 1949. Just now,
as I tried to write this update, I felt the third earth
quake of today at 11:25pm. When it happened first time
around 10:00 this morning, I felt the sofa shaked a
little and I jumped and gathered all my things and left
the 19th floor of a hotel room where I visit Kara, my
friend from Operation Blessing. When I got down to the
lobby and told the front desk staff, they looked at me
calmly and said, this is normal, no need to worry. In
the taxi, the radio confirmed, it is one of the thousand
after quake of May 12th, and it's not going to be
dangerous. Wow!
One night sleep really helped me thinking. Our goal to
be here is to help children who are affected by the
earthquake. There are two target groups; orphans and
the children in need in general, especially those who
are in need of medical assistance. For the first step,
as all the disaster relief work goes, we focus on relief
mainly, through distribute much needed supplies and help
with whatever need we can find. The next two steps will
be recovery and development. Right now, I think about
the need to work with children with PTSD, help with
family reunification, etc. But now I believe we are
still in the first stage mainly. So here is what
happened today:
The volunteer group came last night who brought the
medical supplies from United Hospital in Beijing went to
Mianyang today. The young lady Dengshuang called me she
and her team is now assigned to Jiangyou, which is the
other city where many victims are being sent. Her
reason of calling is to ask for some of the medical
supply. There is a great need for them in Jiangyou
hospitals due to the thousands of patients just arrived.
She gave me a list: Antibiotics, diarrhea medicine,
surgical tool for bone surgeries, Blood protein, and any
other medical supplies. I would like for our volunteers
in other part of China, even overseas to please try to
get these and find a way to get to us in Chengdu. I
know as soon as we get them, we will deliver them to the
Jiangyou hospital right away.
I visited Sichuan Civil Office today. Mr Ye, Mrs. Li
and Mr. Han were the officials who are the directors in
charge of social welfare Department of the entire
province. My visit was very fruitful, because they
issued an intro letter for me to three orphanages they
think are in great need. Jinyang Children's Welfare
Home in Deyang, GuangYuan, and Mianyang Children's Home(
the place I went on 15th). In China, having a letter
like this can be a great help sometime. I called
Jinyang right away and was able to get connected to
director Wu. Our staff just sent another 13 boxes baby
supplies to us tonight and I will bring them to Jinyang
tomorrow morning.
Xiaonian, our nurse from CHI who came with me, went to
Beichuan from Mianyang today with a medical team drove
all the way from Luoyang Henan. The latest news from
Beichuan is most of the people are being evacuated to
nearby counties. After 100 hours of rescuing effort,
all the survivors found now are called miracles cases.
There are new most hit places being found everyday, like
Mianzhu, Lixian, Shefang, etc. More sad scenes are
being seen on TV , dead bodies, moms crying for the lost
of their children, etc. This is not a dream but a hard,
hard time for the entire country, and it's long from
getting over. The whole country watches Sichuan. TV
has 24 hours coverage on Sichuan.
What kept us all going is the love we felt among
everyone in the entire country. Yes, this is might be
the worst earth quake we have experienced, yet, it is
also the first time I see the whole country has only one
goal, and act on it with the great unified force.
I can't give much to you, the children victim of May
12th, but I want to help you feel loved.
|
|
|
|
I came to Deyang orphanage to deliver baby
supplies arrived last night on May17th here are
the pictures, Deyang is
another disaster area besides WenChuan,
Beichuan.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Friday, May 16, 2008 (Beijing Time)
These are the pictures I took yesterday in Mianyang.
First was taken at the stadium, the second is me and
Director Zhang in front of Mianyang orphanage. Children
were all evacuated after the May 12th.
Cory
Barron, CHI’s Outreach Director had an interview with Melody last night around
9:30 PM Central. She was in a taxi heading back to her
Hotel in Chengdu. She had spent the last two nights on
the road distributing formula, medicine and toys. You
will hear that she just purchased 500 tents to take back
to Mianyang where there is little shelter for the
victims or the rescue workers.
Click here for audio of interview
Here is a link to
an article covering Children's Hope work in the earth
quake zone:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/1F8D9ABA5BCDD4C48625744B0013E970?OpenDocument
Midnight, Thursday, May 15, 2008 (Beijing time)
I arrived in Chengdu at 5:25pm yesterday with two other
volunteers, Hehong and Lily. On the plane, two more
joined our team - reporter Qiyan and a radiologist,
Maowei. We were met by our Chengdu volunteers at the
airport and they took us to the nearby earthquake-hit
city, Dujiangyan.
We saw the Chinese medicine hospital, where the whole
building collapsed and buried over one hundred people
alive. We went with people from a Chinese formula
company, which is donating over one million Yuan of
formula. They have two truckloads of formula and bottles
for children. When we got to the city maternity
hospital, we were told all children were sent back home.
There was a long line for the registration of donated
items and we decided to head to the city of Mianyang
where there are more victims, instead of waiting in line
in Dujiangyan. It was 10pm when we left. We saw
ambulances al the way as we traveled on the highway
between the two cities. We had to wear masks for part of
the trip as there was a strong chemical odor.
By the time we got to Mian Yang City, it was 3am. The
drivers told us they felt a small earthquake while
driving. We went to the first maternity hospital and
delivered about 20 boxes of infant formula. We were told
many babies born in the last several days have been
starving with no milk from their moms and a shortage of
formula.
|
Hospital
|
Formula donation
|
At the second hospital, we saw the victims from
Beichuan, where over 7000 were reported dead on May 12,
right after the quake. Mianyang is the central city
Beichuan belongs to. At the Mianyang Central Hospital,
they set aside 5 -6 rooms just for Beichuan’s young
victims. I met the 4-year-old girl Shenxiaoyu, whose
face is still covered with blood. Her volunteer
caretaker said Shenxiaoyu climbed out of the daycare
building debris on her own. She is a brave little girl
but now refuses to speak to anyone.
So it is with the other young victims in this hospital.
A little 6-year-old boy has nightmares and cries for
help every night. This made me consider again a
counseling program for PTSD for these
children. Children’s Hope can help train the volunteers
necessary to begin a small and simple art/play program
for all the children in this hospital.
We spent the rest of the night at the square where the
government and Red Cross set up a temporary
headquarters. We asked the Civil Affairs officials on
duty for the name and location of the local orphanage
and learned of one an hour away from us. They have 20
new orphans resulting from the Beichuan earthquake. We
waited a couple of hours until we found our volunteer
driver, Mr. Jiang and his wife and son.
They drove us and our 40 boxes of formula to Zitong
County. Director Zhang Ping met with us and was
delighted to receive the formula, toys, blankets,
bottled water and one big sack of cucumbers. She told us
their orphanage is now a dangerous place, with cracking
walls and electric leakage. She also told me they need
formula, cloth diapers, materials and cottons for making
their own quilts, clothes for children, etc. They also
need cold, stomach and other medicines. She hopes they
will be able to build a new building for their
orphanage.
On the square where we stayed, a 10-year-old girl from
Beijing told us her family story. Her name is Liu Liya.
She came out to the streets with her aunty and met with
her dad, but her dad went back right away for her mom
and has not been back since yesterday. Obviously, there
is a small road the locals know because others say only
the relief workers are allowed.
While Lily and I visited the Mianyang orphans, three
other members of our team, Hehong, Qiyan and Maowei,
joined the medical team and went to the front line -
Beichuan. Their goal is to help dig through the debris
and find more survivors. I took a picture of them when I
said goodbye and wish them good luck!
The last thing I did before heading back to Chengdu, was
visiting Jiuzhou Stadium, where over 10,000 victims are
staying. This is what I saw:
-
A
very nice looking family with two children, ‘mom”
and “dad” and “grandpa”; when I asked, I was told
they are from 5 different families
-
A
bulletin board with handwritten notes searching for
lost family members
-
Tens of thousands of people living on the floor of
the stadium, under covers or on the grass – some
with and some without tents
-
A
loudspeaker, announcing formula supply, medical
assistance, and missing family information
-
Many young children playing on the swings and
playgrounds; finding some relief during this hard
time for everyone
It is amazing with this many people living under one
roof how things seem to be running smoothly and calmly.
People are sad, but are in good spirits and living with
thanksgiving. Many locals bring food, water, and clothes
to the victims everyday.
We will be in touch with Mianyang Red Cross before Lily
and I return to Chengdu in the afternoon. We learned,
right now, the need is sterilizing liquid, medicine of
all kinds, and mostly, tents of any size.
The word from our front line team: Hehong came just as I
write this. They are finding dead bodies today in
Beichuan; it is extremely difficult because the rescue
teams don’t have large equipment, as the roads are
blocked. The latest numbers from CCTV: there were 20,000
people dead from May 12’s earthquake in Sichuan, more
than 100,000 people injured, and 10,000 people saved.
All of China is helping Sichuan, more volunteers are
pouring in each day. More foreign donations are being
received.
Let’s pray for the thousands of victims still waiting to
be rescued,
Thursday, May 15,
2008
(Beijing Time)
At 12:00AM on May 15, we contacted
with Melody Zhang. Melody told us that they are in Mianyang and
on the road to Zitong. They first arrived in Dujiangyan. They
met some children, and found the young victims had very serious
psychological problems, which are caused by the earthquake
disaster.
In Mianyang, they saw many families
open the door and welcome the people to live in. A lot of people
who have private cars put the red signs on the cars to let
people know that they are volunteers to provide free service for
those in need. Melody Zhang found two such cars to send the
medical supplies and milk to the victims.
This is the list of materials
Melody sent to the earthquake areas: 33 blankets; 100 Raincoats:
100; toys; 15 boxes of Alcohol-cotton patch; 9600 boxes of
Skin bandages; 2400 packages of Amoxicillin; 4000 Disposable
masks; 288 Medical masks; 99 Medical scrubs; 25 Intravenous
infusion needle; 147 bottles of Disposable hand sanitizer; 3
Surgical backup package; 137 Wound dressings; 11 Catheterization
kits; 6 boxes of Sterile rubber gloves; 500 boxed of Disinfected
cotton swabs.
Melody Zhang shared all of her food
with the victims. She told us by telephone, in the disaster area
everything is needed; the children need milk powder, diapers and
supplies. People cannot buy these things in stores and shops.
Melody sent the following pictures
to us.
| |
|
|
A young victim
|
Mother and son
|
|
Waiting for help
|
Melody with children
|
|
Sign said: "Please help finding my mother..."
|
CBN reporter interviewed
Melody Zhang. "We have already heard from the director
in Wenchuan orphanage they have 37 children there and 20
of them under 2 years old and their building is built in
1980s which is not very steady," Melody Zhang told CBN.
Please watch
CBN’s video news on May
14, 2008.
|
|