BEIJING, June 26 (Xinhua) — Vice Premier Li Keqiang said here Thursday that China’s quake relief work had already entered into anew phase and future work would focus on resettlement of the affected people and the post-quake reconstruction.

He made the remarks at a reception held by the Chinese Foreign Ministry to express the country’s gratitude for international assistance in the quake relief efforts.

According to the latest statistics, more than 160 countries and 10 international organizations offered funds, materials and personnel assistance to China.

Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said the funds and materials donated by the international community, as well as the rescue and medical teams dispatched by some countries, made great contribution to help the country win the victory.

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Baby Love born to quake victim in China

By DAVID WIVELL – 12 hours ago

URUMQI, China (AP) — A little over a month ago, Zhang Xiaoyan lay in the rubble of her earthquake-shattered apartment building. Trapped for more than 50 hours, she prayed for the life of her unborn child.

“Even if I didn’t make it, I just wanted my baby to survive,” she said. “I was holding out hope during the earthquake that this day would come.”

That day was Wednesday, when Zhang’s daughter was born by Caesarean section in the Urumqi Maternal Care Hospital. Hours later, Zhang talked to The Associated Press as she reclined next to her newborn baby, a rosy-cheeked infant swaddled in a pink floral blanket.

Zhang’s dramatic rescue in the town of Dujiangyan — captured in photos and video footage that made their way around the globe — was a rare bright spot after the May 12 earthquake that ravaged mountainous Sichuan province and killed almost 70,000 people.

Emergency workers trying not to bring down the rest of the pancaked, seven-story building pulled out Zhang, 35. A bulldozer had to raise its scoop 18 feet so workers could lay her in it. As they did, a rescuer raised a thumbs-up to the crowd of neighbors, who cheered and clapped.

The image of the eight-month pregnant Zhang being carried on a stretcher — her stomach protruding from under a blue sweater and pink pants — was played on TV screens and newspapers across China as well as in media abroad. Her 63-year-old mother also was pulled out alive.

“When we were stuck in the debris there, I just held on to the hope that we would share this time we have here now,” said Zhang, who remarkably suffered only superficial injuries. “Because we were buried in there, we didn’t know if we’d ever get out, and I was just thinking, ‘Save my child. Save my child.’”

Zhang named her 7-pound, 4-ounce girl “Ai,” or “Love,” in honor of the rescuers and other strangers who have showered her with kindness, gifts and VIP treatment since she was pulled out of the wreckage.

Because Zhang spent 50 hours trapped in the partially collapsed building, doctors said her unborn child initially suffered some dehydration and low blood sugar. By the time of her birth Wednesday, however, she had improved and doctors said she was healthy.

Before Ai was born, Zhang said that if her child was a boy, “I’d like to train him to be a pilot or a rescue worker, because they are the ones that saved us and gave us a second chance at life. If it is a girl baby, I would also want to teach her to be a useful person that helps people in need.”

Because of the publicity stemming from her rescue, Zhang became something of a celebrity. She was flown first-class from Sichuan to Urumqi, located in her home region of Xinjiang in China’s far west, and was given a private room in the maternity hospital.

Doctors and nurses, who clearly were moved by Zhang’s saga, donated clothing to her and her mother to replace items lost in the quake. The staff also gave gifts for the baby: clothes, a stroller, a tiny bathtub, bottles, shampoo, lotion and wipes. Her room also contained gifts of fruit and a bowl of hard-boiled eggs, dyed red for good luck.

On Wednesday, Zhang was still a bit groggy from the Caesarean section, but she spoke briefly by telephone with her husband, Pan Yuncheng, who remains in a refugee camp in Dujiangyan. The phone call was set up by a local radio station.

“I want to thank all the people that were helpful. It was very moving,” he said in the conversation as his daughter gave out a loud yell over the phone.

The family is now among the 5 million people left homeless by the earthquake, and Zhang said she plans to stay in Xinjiang with her mother until living conditions improve in Sichuan.

By CLAIRE TRAGESER
P-I REPORTER

When a catastrophic earthquake hit China’s Sichuan Province last month, Min Christ wondered how much she could help halfway around the world.

Because her daughter, Shelby, performs with the Henga Dance Academy, a professional Chinese dance school, Christ decided to hold a dance show to raise money for Sichuan residents.

“Originally we thought just our family wanted to do something, but then we talked to my daughter’s dance teacher, and he said, ‘Yeah, we want to help,’ ” Christ said. “Then more families and more friends wanted to help.”

More and more people became involved until the Christs found themselves with an 18-performance program that includes Zhenglun Li, winner of China’s National Cello Competition in 1988; Claire Yu Qi, a singer who won the famous GuZheng Chinese Department of Culture competition in 1995; the Seattle Chinese Opera; and the Microsoft Chime Band. Other singers, dancers, musicians and martial artists will also perform.

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The one-day fundraising took place in front of the library of QMUL. Staff, students in Queen Mary and engineer workers working near by show great concern about the Chinese earthquake and donated generously. Chinese students donated elegant traditional Chinese handicraft, silk scarf and fine calligraphy tool kits as gifts, as well as for donation sale. But a lot of the donors kindly refused the expensive gifts. Instead, they happily took a simple handmade Green ribbon or Chinese knot as a memory.

1738.41 in GBP were collected in this event and has been sent to the China Education Development Foundation. Click here to view the receipt for the bank transfer.

The Yomiuri Shimbun
(May. 23, 2008)

MIANYANG, China–A Chinese kindergarten teacher has opened a school at a camp in Mianyang, China, for children displaced by the recent earthquake that struck Sichuan Province.

Zhu Xia, 32, visited an area hit by the quake in the Anxian district, about 40 kilometers from the center of Mianyang, on Saturday to donate goods to quake evacuees.

While at a camp for displaced people, she noticed that children looked depressed, and were wandering around with nothing to do. She concluded that they were traumatized by the physical injuries they suffered in the quake, or because they had lost family members.

As Zhu’s kindergarten in Chengdu is currently closed due to the risk of aftershocks, she decided to offer classes to the children at the camp.

On Sunday, she read a picture book to a class of eight. On Monday, 30 children gathered for her class. By Tuesday, the number jumped to about 150.

The school, which is held outside, has been named “Yang Guang” (Sunshine) school. As there are no chairs or desks, the children attending Yang Guang sit on the ground, surrounded by tents set up for the evacuees.

When a group of Yomiuri Shimbun reporters covering the earthquake visited the school, children, who were taking an English class, shouted, “Happy!”

“Though the children were fearful of aftershocks, it now appears they feel safer by being with others of a similar age,” Zhu said.

Zhu returned to Chengdu on Wednesday, and volunteers from Hong Kong have taken over.

At the school, children are taught how to prevent diseases while they are living in the tents and how to react toward children who lost their parents in the disaster.

The school has made children in the district far happier, and adults look relieved when they drop by the school and see their children in class, residents said.

Zhao Lin, 11, who lost his parents in the earthquake, still looked depressed, but said, “Now I know I’m not alone.”

In short term, orphans and children with missing parents must be taken care by the local government, in separation with other victims. While in the process of identifying their parents, the authority must arrange the children to be taken care by social welfare organisation, temporary foster families or boarding schools in other areas of Sichuan with better conditions, or other provinces.

In long term, the momorandum has highlighted several principles in terms of child adoption and fostering. The priority will be given to children’s relatives, with the support of local government. If relatives can not be found, or are not able to support the child, those families who lost their children in the earthquake will be given the priority to adopt an orphan. The orphans can also be fostered by other families in China who are willing to help. The memorandum stresses that consent must be sought from the child if he or she is over 10 years old before being adopted or fostered. Some orphans may be taken by orphanages.

Wendy Wu

CEO, Mother Bridge of Love

04 June 2008

A small body frozen in a moment, surrounded by rubble. A terrified, bleeding young girl carried on a stretcher. Sobbing mothers clutching photos of children lost to the earthquake in China.

“There for the grace of God go our daughters, and us,” said Sandi Janusch, who adopted 7-year-old Kaili from China as a baby.

Moved by images of the tragedy and pulled by an invisible red thread that — as Chinese legend holds — forever connects her to her daughter’s birth country, Janusch wanted to do something, anything, to help.

So she, Kaili and some friends baked. A lot. Together they raised $2,400 for relief efforts by making and selling gourmet fortune cookies — espresso and jasmine tea were among the specialty flavors sold eight to a decorated box — in Calgary, Canada.

Where there are Chinese girls adopted by parents halfway around the world, there are bake sales, garage sales, dance performances, memorial services and cash campaigns raising money for earthquake victims in the country that united their families.

The amounts raised are tiny in contrast to the nearly 69,000 people dead, estimated 18,000 missing and millions left homeless by the earthquake, but reaching out to their birth country is priceless to the girls and their families.

Read more here.