BEIJING — Two years after the massive earthquake that devastated China’s Sichuan province, families of the thousands of missing people can on Wednesday finally register their loved ones as dead.

Under Chinese law, relatives of the 18,000 missing people can only register their family members as dead two years after they disappeared.

Nearly 70,000 people were killed in the May 2008 quake that devastated parts of the southwestern province and rattled a nation preparing to host the Beijing Olympics.

While the state-controlled press lavished praise on the government quake response and reconstruction effort on Wednesday, critics organised protests in honour of the thousands of children killed when poorly-built schools crumbled.

Read the full story.

Leslie Ng, President of the Association, said, “We are pleased that the rain stopped and the sun came out as soon as we started our fund raiser in Chinatown! We are grateful to the Chinese community and visitors to London Chinatown who made generous donations for such a worthwhile cause.”

From: LinkChinese News

Images of the aftermath of the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that hit Yushu county, near the Tibetan border this morning, have begun trickling through on the Web.

According to state media, around 400 people were killed and over 8,000 injured when the earthquake struck at 7:49am local time. The affected area is a remote and mountainous region of the north-western Qinghai province; the capital city of Xining is 12 hours away by road and many of the homes are built of wood and mud. Most of the locals are of Tibetan origin and rely on farming and livestock.

According to the Yushu Meteorological Bureau the majority of homes have collapsed and there are widespread power outages. The Red Cross has reported severe communication problems.

The pictures are from Qinghai local news site qhnews.com.

A year after a devastating earthquake, Sichuan province in China is still rebuilding. Many children remain separated from their parents. To raise awareness of victims still in need, folk musician Abigail Washburn and electronic artist Dave Liang spent two weeks in Sichuan to create Afterquake, an album that mixes actual sounds of the rebuilding with the voices of relocated school children.

Read the full story.

Abigail Washburn’s The Making of Afterquake

One year on

It was about this time last year, when the news kept coming. The casualty number kept increasing, and there were still places not accessible to the rescuers, many of whom were ill-equipped soldiers and volunteers trying to get through the mountainous roads destroyed by landslide. The whole nation of China was in deep shock and mourning. It touched everyone. I remembered that when reading Tania Branigan’s report from Dujiangyan on the street, I struggled to contain my emotion. Then there was the great determination shown by the rescuers coming from all parts of the country and overseas to save as many lives as possible. And for us who were thousand miles away, all we could say was we must do something.

The Sichuan Earthquake Update’s call for donation met with overwhelming response. People from all over the world approached us to give us support, send their donation, give their time, work as volunteers, donate their work for charity auction, and much more. Wendy Wu, CEO of Mother’s Bridge of Love, recently published the figures and plans for the distribution of the donation.

The news agenda have moved on. The earthquake may look remote and distant for most people who have matters closer to home to worry about. But in Sichuan, the reconstruction of the earthquake-hit area has only just begun. New schools are rising up, but the parents are still grieving their lost children. However, Out of ruins, people are rebuilding their life, and love has flourished.

I’ll keep the Sichuan Earthquake Update project going. Hopefully we will see more news about the rebuilding of homes and lives there.

http://cblog.chinadaily.com.cn/port/fujing/

Download PDF version of this letter and report

Dear Friends,

As CEO of MBL, I would like to thank you sincerely of your support of my Sichuan Earthquake appeal during my service. I was absolutely touched by your generosity and swift response to support Sichuan children. I am also very much indebted to my volunteers who gathered together strongly with me. My memories were filled with all the stories how hard my volunteers were working together for Sichuan Children. Today on this remembering day, I would like to reiterate that my promise to the public to deliver 100% of the donations to Sichuan relief still remains.

As an immediate relief to Sichuan, we have transferred the first 4000 pounds to the Chinese Children and Teenage Fund. They have confirmed that the funds were used to purchase school blackboard, tables and chairs. To follow this up, at a personal level, I funded myself the trip from London to Sichuan last year and also volunteered English teaching in the refugee camp at Pingwu. During that period, I had a chance to gather first hand information of what was needed on the ground. Following up my research and the recommendations by a group of young students in senior middle school, we found out Nanba School which is located at the foot of mountains. At the beginning of the earthquake rescue period, it was marooned by the landslide from four sides, the bridge collapsed and there were no communication with outside world.

Again being guided by the students, we found the headmaster of Naba Centre Primary School where gathered students from different villages from the neighbouring areas. The head teacher was still in grief as he lost both his only daughter and his sister. To be a Chinese man, he tried to hide his pains. He listed key donations that the school has received from donors. We sat down together and identified the gaps for schools that would improve the “software” of the local education system. That would include teachers’ training, widening access opportunities for students and relief for poor students. It was agreed that we would call it “Stepping Out the Mountain Go and See Fund.”

Due to the change of my career path last year when I came back from China, I have submitted this proposal to the MBL trustee board who are taking full responsibility to complete the further transfer to Sichuan.

I would like to report the funding situation to you:

Project: Help Children in Sichuan Earthquake

Part A:

From May 2008 to 12th Feb 2009

1. Just Giving £19,997.13
2. Cheques and Cash: £6034.26

Total: £26,031.39

Less: Transferred to China Children Teenagers Fund 07.09.08 £4000

The final balance that should be transferred to Sichuan is £22,031.39.

Part B:

Donation from a team effort from Miss Jia Cheng and Mr. Bong Choi, Legal and General (they intend to donate money to a designated school in Sichuan).

10 pound Cash Donations+ 31 Cheques (including CAF bank cheque) total = £6005.00

I have outlined the key points of the proposal that was agreed by the MBL turstee board in principle:

Sichuan Earthquake Release

Donor: MBL Solicited Earthquake Fund – Raised by the joint force of Sichuan Earthquake Updates

Beneficiaries: NanBa Primary School (南坝小学), PinWu County (平武县南坝镇中心小学)

Officer: 杜勇Mr. Yong Du ( Du is the family name) President of NanBa Primary School

Receiving Account: C/O NanBa Primary School via PingWu Red Cross Bank Account

Account NO: 51001658636059000035

Bank Name: MianYang Branch, China Construction Bank

Account Holder: PingWu County Red Cross

Date of Release: By 19th Jan 2009 (Before Chinese Lunar New Year)

Monitored by:

PingWu County Red Cross and Physical Education Financial Division of PingWu Educational Bureau.

Due to the delay of official verification and evidence gathering, the item of winter cloths need to be revised and merged into student hardship relieve.

I hope this clarifies the current funding situation. I also believe that the fund will be in the capable hands of MBL trustee board who will deliver along with your love to Sichuan Children on your behalf.

You might be aware that MBL’s earthquake 2008 appeal has now closed. Any further donations towards the earthquake should be sent to Red Cross, Save the Children or Care for Children. The 100% donation policy for Sichuan will only apply to the 2008 call during my service. However, if you feel you wish to donate any further money to MBL in general please feel free to do soon its justgiving website. www.justgiving.com/mbl

God Bless.

Many thanks, Wendy

Dear all,

Today China Daily has generously left its front-page space for OUR HONGBAI story and CCTV has kindly picked it up. The links follow:

After the quaker, there is love, there is hope
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2009-05/11/content_7761247.htm

记者回访：让废墟中孩子的遗画闪耀爱与希望
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/zgzx/2009-05/11/content_7761154.htm

For the recognition, I would like to thank Mr. James Jao and Madame Jao, Mr. Zhang Kailian, Mr. Peng Xiancheng for their all-heart support financially or in any other forms. And I am in deep debt to all the volunteers for your time, knowledge and love left with kids and teachers in the scarred mountains in Sichuan.

After more than ten-day enlightening trip in quake zone, I was quite impressed by fast and sound progress of building schools, hospitals, factories and residential places. Meanwhile, I was astonished that how little professional psychological counseling those traumatized minds, especially those hidden in sky-high mountains, have already obtained.

Our volunteers, I think, have already offered “cultural recipe” for those kids who were frightened by falling stones, collapses, corpses and heart-torn cries. This, in some sense, is healing the kids need. However, the problem is that we could not stay long with them. And we could not help those all traumatized hearts.

To address these problems, and on the occasion of one year anniversary of May 12 quake, I am still appealing:

Kids need your help and love.

Kids need your long-haul help and love.

And those kids in the mountains urgently need your long-haul help and love.

Tomorrow is a day of sorrow. And let us pray for those dead and let us help those survivors.

Fu Jing

The objectives of the conceptual competition are as follows: to gather design ideas to support the after earthquake recovery development for a high school in Sichuan; to encourage critical review of historic development and present state of school design; and to provoke discussion of ideas and direction regarding design intervention in contemporary school development.

We ask participants to critically review one (or more) of the questions below and present your views in the submission.

- The balance between local and global
- How to train more creative students in school
- A modern school in the internet age
- Flexible and adaptable space
- Design for human/ student’s needs
- Low-carbon emission design
- Excellence in seismic design

Additional prizes are set up for school furniture design and school uniform fashion design. The international competition is open for designers and students with background of architecture, masterplan, interior, product design, fashion design and artist.

The jury are of internationally experienced experts in design, industry, marketing, and the media. The judging criterion are based on creativity and rational analysis demonstrated in the scheme. The judging process will be done through a open and transparent workshop. All the submitted work will be shown online within 7 days after the deadline. The winning works will be exhibited and published in London and China.

Prizes

Architecture
1   First prize                   RMB 30000元 （GBP 3000）
2   Second prizes            RMB 5000元  （GBP 500）

10  Hororable Mentions
School Furniture Design
1   First prize                    RMB 20000元 （GBP 2000）
10  Hororable Mentions

School Fashion Design
1   First prize                    RMB 20000元 （GBP 2000）
10  Hororable Mentions

For more information please visit the competition website. http://www.wedesigngroup.com/competition