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

Sichuan Earquake Update’s Wendy Wu, who is also the CEO of charity Mother Bridge of Love, visited Sichuan and Yunnan during September and October. Here is one of her reports, from a village orphanage run by Kunming Children Welfare Institiute in Yunnan:

Altogether I have managed to visit families in three villages. The reason that they have decided to place the children in the countryside for various reasons: a) more space for children to play around B) safer in the villages, no busy traffic, more convenient to set up recovering center for various physical treatment for disabled children C) appropriate human resources as much that much labour work needed in the field. d) fundamentally countryside family has been approved that being able to provide sustained support in a long run. Why, I don’t know, I guess, life pressure is much lighter, and countryside family is much less materialised somehow. One mother told me in tears, her fostered daughter is so close to her as if they were akin mother-daughter. The girl doesn’t want them to introduce her to people as a fostered child. The longer she lives, the deeper love has being developed, both side they can’t face departure while the girl has to move to a town school, which means that the government has to seek another family for her. I had a chance to look at every room of the local courtyard, surrounded by loads of sweet corns. When we knocked on the family’s door, the flower shape pepper looks so amazing.

Read the full story.

Extend help to quake victims
By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-08 08:00

Charitable deeds should be done without publicity.

This my friend James Jao believes is a traditional Chinese virtue, and he has engraved it in his mind as one of life’s philosophies. I agree.

But after an enlightening weekend tour of Sichuan’s earthquake zone, we decided to put aside that belief for a while. Our desire was to share what we were doing in a ruined primary school - bring hope, more help and assistance to kids enveloped in the scarred mountains.

It began half year ago when I was reporting the earthquake. In the ruins of Hongbai Primary School of Shifang, one of the severely hit cities near the epicenter, I found a dozen paintings by kids, which were themed “Green Earth” and “World Full of Love.”

It was the third day after the quake. Homeless people were flocking to the town where the school was located, most of the buildings were flattened and corpses scattered everywhere. The town resembled a battlefield.

I was touched by the themes of the paintings drawn by the six-grade kids in the mountains. I carefully retrieved them from the ruins and decided to auction them, donating the proceeds to the suffering villagers and kids.

Jao recently bought the first painting for 100,000 yuan ($14,490) at a charitable dinner organized in Beijing. And 10 days ago, Jao set up a micro-fund in his name to bring the various cultures together by improving English teaching in the school.

We want to make difference. Just as Jao said: “This program is about humans, about cultural exchanges, and opening a new window for the teachers and kids in the mountains.”

We decided to let the locals have a decisive say on how the fund should be used. We let them frame the regulations on its management and application procedures for the teachers.

And we are encouraging them to organize an “English Cultural Festival” every semester. We are also looking at more ideas on how the fund can be used.

We will do every thing in a transparent way using the Internet. All documents and even minutes of meetings will be posted on a website. Apart from its cultural content, this approach is also about education. It is about transparency, vital during any stage of the post-quake recovery.

I am shy of getting a little publicity in this cause. In reporting on disasters, journalists put themselves at great risk to get exclusive, real-time stories. But we must also put in that extra mile to help the victims.

I still have more paintings in hand. I appeal for more efforts and innovative ideas to show our love and care for the people of Sichuan, especially those in the mountains.

This is my first appeal: Help those in the mountains. The earthquake brought massive losses to some cities but the villagers in the mountains suffered most. Most of the cities have highways making it relatively easy for aid and volunteers to reach them. This however, is not the case with some villages, still locked out.

My second appeal is: Let your love be long lasting. The coming three years will be difficult, especially for those made homeless who will have to find a safe place to rebuild their homes.

And my third appeal concerns innovation and diversity. Please make your contributions innovative and properly targeted. One of my colleagues already has his New Year resolution - to spend the coming Spring Festival in Sichuan together with his family. His reason is simple: we can help locals by being with them,

From the target perspective, my China Daily colleagues have voluntarily set an example: we have identified 30 poor families in Pingwu county of Sichuan and we 30 colleagues have helped them set up personal bank accounts. We directly deposit money into their accounts. It is a life-long commitment and we have promised to help the kids until they are 18. Of course, apart from the money, we are constantly communicating with the kids and their parents.

If you find this works, please write to me. During my recent tour of Dujiangyan, a former tourist destination but now a “ghost city”, a Shanghai volunteer left me with a long list for the needy coupled with the words:

“As winter is coming, they need warmth.”

(China Daily 11/08/2008 page4)