Today from Half The Sky

Dear Friends,

I want first to give you an update on our efforts to get food and shelter
to the 1,000 orphaned and displaced children in Aba. The roads are now
closed. We asked our colleagues at the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) to
see if we can possibly bring the desperately-needed goods in by
helicopter. A couple of hours ago, moments after the latest giant
aftershock, we got good news – a helicopter for Aba tomorrow! More soon -

Yesterday morning, when I arrived in Chengdu, I was invited by MCA to
visit some of the hardest-hit sites. We visited Dujiangyan – very close to
the epicenter. It was a painful day (I’ve put a few photos on our website
http://www.halfthesky.org/work/earthquake08.php - some just too sad to
write about) but I was also heartened to see both how quickly the
government has come in and tried to take care of the basics - building
thousands of temporary shelters and schools – and how the people have come
together to help each other. A sign in one of the tent cities reads, “The
earthquake has destroyed our homes but it can’t break our spirit.”

Today we visited Mianyang Zitong CWI. A 6.4 aftershock struck moments
before we arrived at the orphanage. All of the children were rushed
outside and, in what’s become routine now, they all sat calmly in little
chairs. There were 8 new arrivals – all of them had lost their parents.
It seems they are not brought to the orphanages until officials are fairly
certain that they will not be claimed by extended family. One little boy
told us in a matter-of-fact way that both his parents were killed. Ma
Lang, HTS’ director of child development, after days assisting the
displaced children staying at the Jiuzhou stadium observed, “From the
volunteers’ and counselors’ perspectives, the children’s most common signs
of being traumatized included insomnia, nightmares, tearfulness,
indifference, and refusing to eat. In the first few days, the volunteers
in the stadium’s 'inner circle (a holding place for separated children)
had to search bathrooms and corridors for children who hid there and
refused to eat. The volunteers told me it was heartbreaking to see the
children’s eyes and persuade them that they should eat.”

We visited the “inner circle” at Jiuzhou stadium today. Almost all of the
children who had not yet been identified by family members had been
transferred to children’s shelters. The Mianyang Civil Affairs director
told us that many, many children had been reunited – if not with their
parents, then with extended families. One of our colleagues at the MCA
told us that of the 200 children who’d been brought to shelter at the
Chengdu Medical College, only 18 had not been reunited with extended
family. Today we met a girl who has become famous in China because she
was interviewed on television by Wen JiaBao. It was believed her parents
had died. He tried to comfort her. Soon after, her parents were located.
Although they haven’t yet been able to get to Mianyang to pick her up,
today we met one happy little girl. The media has been making much of the
idea of thousands of orphans. Our friends at MCA are not certain this is
true and, to be honest, the situation is still too fluid to pin down the
numbers. There are certainly many, many children with uncertain status.
And they are traumatized and very much need consistent, caring support.

Provincial CAB (Civil Affairs Bureau) has begun the process of sending
displaced children to structurally-sound colleges, military bases, welfare
institutions, and other facilities. In less-stable areas, where there are
fears of flooding and environmental issues, children housed in some
temporary facilities are being transferred, yet again. Almost every
orphanage has been advised that they should prepare for new arrivals. We
met a few sad little faces yesterday at the Chengdu CWI; they are told to
expect at least 100 more. The director at Zitong CWI told me the same
thing. And so did the director at Guiyang CWI in Guizhou! The truth is,
I believe, nobody yet knows.

These past days, the MCA has been working to draft recommendations for the
care of displaced and orphaned children. I believe they will release an
official statement soon. After two days traveling with MCA officials, one
thing is clear - government is extremely concerned that every effort be
made to reunite children with surviving relatives before adoption by
non-relatives of orphaned children is even considered.

Meanwhile, tent schools are quickly being established wherever children
are sheltered. There is a great desire to give the children the comfort
of settling into a routine and regular attendance at school is seen as
key. I visited a large tent city in Dujiangyan yesterday and the scene at
4:30 pm, with children streaming out of the temporary school toward dozens
of waiting parents, was identical to that taking place in Chinese cities
and towns every day.

HTS is working hard to complete its emergency relief efforts and turn its
attention towards the effort for which it is better equipped – helping
orphaned children begin to recover emotionally. By the end of the coming
week, with your extraordinary generosity and the help of the amazing crew
at Gung-Ho Films, we will have purchased and delivered more than 30 tons
of tents, medicines, food and formula, children’s clothing, diapers and
other infant supplies. With the helicopter to Aba and the purchase today
of an emergency vehicle to transport orphaned and displaced children for 9
counties and one city, we will have answered every urgent request to take
care of the children’s basic needs. Now we move on to try to address
those needs no less urgent, but more elusive in every way.

Tomorrow (Monday, May 26) Half the Sky will launch its Sichuan Caregivers
Training Project. I am thrilled, honored and very, very excited to tell
you that HTS will work under the guidance of the foremost child trauma and
bereavement specialists in the world, the National Center on School Trauma
and Bereavement
http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/svc/alpha/s/school-crisis/default.htm.
Based at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, but comprising an
international network of child trauma experts, the Center grew from the
tragedy of the Terrorist Attacks of 9/11 and has served as a resource
during hurricanes, school shootings, airline disasters and wars.

Together with NCSTB and MCA, HTS will hold a two-day planning workshop,
June 3-4 in Chengdu. Three experts from the Center will lead the
workshop. Attending will be four volunteer pediatric psychologists and
psychiatric social workers, HTS team of 15 field supervisors, our program
directors and officials from MCA and Sichuan CAB. That will be the start
of what will likely be a long-term project to help children orphaned by
the disaster to recover and rebuild their lives.

I’ll send along further details of the Caregivers Training Project soon.
It’s almost midnight and I’m exhausted. I’ve had two days on the road
through a landscape filled with aching sadness, determination and hope.

More tomorrow!

If you would like to donate to Half the Sky’s Children’s Earthquake Fund
you can do so through Global Giving:
http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/2100/proj2086a.html

Or directly to Half the Sky. You can donate by calling Half the Sky
(+1-510-525-3377) or on our website:
http://give.halfthesky.org/prostores/servlet/Categories?category=Children's+Earthquake+Fund


Many companies have announced they will match employee gifts for
earthquake relief. Please check to see if your company will double your
gift!

If you would like a Canadian tax receipt, please donate at
http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s86248

If you would like a Hong Kong tax receipt, please call us at
+852-2520-5266 or online at
https://www.paydollar.com/b2c2/eng/charity/payInfo.jsp?charityId=4947

Thank you!

with love,

Jenny

Jenny Bowen
Executive Director
Half the Sky Foundation
www.halfthesky.org

Earthquake Update from Jenny Bowen

This is an image from Shifang of the Luoshi Middle School rescue efforts. Below is Jenny's update today from Half The Sky.

Dear Friends,

Today we were starting the process of wrapping up the major portion of our
orphanage relief efforts. With your help, we have purchased and delivered
or are in the process of delivering huge amounts of medicines and medical
supplies, tents, cribs, cots, bedding, baby formula, diapers, kids
clothing and shoes, rice, noodles, cooking oil, water, powdered milk,
bowls, cups, towels, mosquito repellent and much, much more. As we
finalized plans to ship, then bring in engineers to erect two giant tents
to house hundreds of newly orphaned children, we got an emergency call
from Aba Civil Affairs Bureau.

They are caring for approximately 1,000 orphaned and displaced children,
most of whom are 7-12 years old. There are over 100 infants. They’d been
placing the children in local shelters but had just received news that 70
more children are on the way. There are no more tents and no more beds
for them. Further, they urgently need powdered milk and diapers. And
they need foods that don’t require cooking as most of their cooking stoves
and supplies have been destroyed. They need so much they can’t even give
us an estimate.

The roads to Aba are dangerous but the need is tremendous. We have
obtained the necessary road pass and organized a convoy of three trucks.
Our senior preschool field supervisor, Yang Lei, will be leading the
effort along with Aba drivers who are familiar with the dangers. It’s a 3
day round-trip and they leave at dawn. I am so thankful our Half the Sky
staff are as tough as they are!

Stop presses! -- Just as I finished writing the above, I received the
following email. The situation continues to be ever-changing:

“While everyone has done an absolutely incredible job pulling this urgent
shipment together, it simply cannot leave tomorrow morning as we've all
been pushing for. The road between Chengdu and Aba is simply too dangerous
to travel, based on all the information we are able to gather. While it
hasn't registered on the news, nearly 200 people have died in the last few
days along these roads due to mudslides caused by the early summer rains.
Communications are, of course, sketchy, and we know Yang Lei has her
permit to travel the roads, but all reports are now that it's just too
dangerous and too unsure to risk take such a risk. The Director of the
Aba Institution agrees and the Director of the Chengdu Institution agrees.

“The efforts you've all put in today on behalf of the babies at Aba will
not be in vain. We will monitor the road situation very, very closely.
Civil Affairs wants us to get in, we want to go in, and the moment we feel
it is safe, we will go in. The good news is we've managed to amass
everything on Aba's "needs list" in one day and it's staged at Chengdu SWI
and ready to load on trucks. The items that were scheduled to load on the
Aba trucks will stay at Chengdu, ready to travel to Aba when conditions
allow. THESE ITEMS ARE NOT TO BE USED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE IN THE COMING
DAYS, THEY ARE TO BE KEPT TOGETHER, AND SEPARATE FROM ALL OTHER INVENTORY,
AND WILL TRAVEL TO ABA AS SOON AS CONDITIONS ALLOW. This is a very
difficult decision for us to make, but we simply can't risk life to save
life.”

You can see that the relief effort is not quite over. I will keep you all
posted.

Meanwhile, we have spent almost exactly the amount we have raised in
donations (just over US$300,000. And we have not yet really begun the
second critical phase of our operation in Sichuan: training caregivers and
volunteers to care for and address the non-material needs of displaced and
newly-orphaned children. There are billions being donated for rebuilding.
But we need help putting young lives back together.

Here’s a note from Ma Lang, who was at a “model” relief shelter today
talking to newly-orphaned children:
I talked to a junior high school girl. Here is part of our conversation:
Lang: Do you know there are psychologists and counselors there to help
people?
Girl: Yes.
Lang: Would you be willing to talk to a psychologist?
Girl: Yes.
Lang: What would you like to talk about with the psychologist?
Girl: Things that make me happy. Like happy stories and movies.
Lang: What do not you want the psychologist to ask?
Girl: [pause] Do not ask me where my families are!
P.S. There is little coordination among the 10 plus counselor groups at
the shelter. One main method they chose their “clients” was to look for
sad faces. If a child or adult looked sad, the likelihood was that she
would be “counseled” by more than one group of counselors. One concern
that I had was that the children (and adults) might be traumatized again
by the “counseling” process.

And then….

“I met Lei in the “inner circle” at Jiuzhou Stadium. He was a cute and
curious second grader who’d lost his parents in the quake. He approached
me and asked me what I was doing when I was organizing the pictures I
took. We looked at the pictures together, and chatted a little bit. He
told me that after the earthquake, there come aftershocks, and then comes
the epidemic. He said epidemic means you die if you do not wash hands
before and after meal. When I asked him what earthquake is, he said if
you talk loud, earthquake happens. I lowered my voice and asked him if
our voices were loud. He said, I do not know.”

Half the Sky is finalizing plans to work in consultation with an important
international resource for children traumatized by crisis. I want to
thank all of you who have worked to help us locate Mandarin-speaking child
trauma specialists. I think we are assembling an outstanding team. I will
share more details in the next few days. What I hope I can communicate to
you all is that our work is really just beginning. We need more help!

If you would like to donate to Half the Sky’s Children’s Earthquake Fund
you can do so through Global Giving:
http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/2100/proj2086a.html

Or directly to Half the Sky. You can donate by calling Half the Sky
(+1-510-525-3377) or on our website:
http://give.halfthesky.org/prostores/servlet/Categories?category=Children's+Earthquake+Fund


Many companies have announced they will match employee gifts for
earthquake relief. Please check to see if your company will double your
gift!

If you would like a Canadian tax receipt, please donate at
http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s86248

If you would like a Hong Kong tax receipt, please call us at
+852-2520-5266 or online at
https://www.paydollar.com/b2c2/eng/charity/payInfo.jsp?charityId=4947

Thank you for all you’ve already done for these children – and for what
you will do.

with love,
Jenny

Jenny Bowen
Executive Director
Half the Sky Foundation
www.halfthesky.org

Earthquake Updates

We have been receiving daily updates from Jenny Bowen at Half The Sky Foundation. This foundation supports Chinese Children in the SWI's and CWI's in every way imaginable. An SWI is a Social Welfare Institute and a CWI is a Children's Welfare Institute. Jenny's reports on the tragedy that continues to unfold in China are accurate. From the first day they have only reported on conditions in areas where they made contact. The needs she states and conditions she reports on are true.

We have not heard of any problems in Ty's area. He is around 350 miles or so from the epicenter. In our hearts, we feel he is fine. I will post these updates from Half the Sky on Ty's blog as I receive them. We recieved the following report today and the signs posted at the Zitong SWI were heartbreaking. I know that if you consider a donation to Half the Sky it will be used to best help these children.

Dear Friends,

Our work in Sichuan is in full swing now and it’s becoming harder to find
time to write. Yet I know how deeply concerned you are about the
children, so will continue to grab all the moments I can to tell you what
we've learned.

Since earthquake statistics are so readily available now, I will no longer
include them.

You will see below that there are preparations being made in many
institutions to receive newly orphaned and displaced children. There have
been numerous media reports about the thousands of new orphans; we have
received dozens of adoption inquiries here at Half the Sky (which has no
involvement in adoption!)

I really want to stress that many, many of these children you're hearing
about will be reunited with family – if not parents, then living
relatives. In rural China, especially, workers often leave their children
with grandparents so that they can support their families by working in
more prosperous areas. Many of the children do have parents – parents who
are desperately trying to find their children. The government is keenly
aware of this and, while there are many, many media reports of adoption
programs and applications submitted for domestic adoption of the children,
we don’t believe that any adoption procedures will be put into place
before every means has been exhausted to find parents or other living
relatives.

We, along with Ministry officials, are meeting with the provincial Civil
Affairs Bureau on Monday and may have more information about the plans for
transitional care of orphaned and displaced children. We are exploring
how we can, working with other NGOs, best help care for the children in
the interim and assist the government in its efforts to provide for their
future.

Here is the current situation:

Chengdu CWI has been notified to prepare to receive 100 children; they
expect that more may follow. At the same time, the orphanage has moved
the children out-of-doors out of concern for safety. (photos on our
website http://www.halfthesky.org/work/earthquake08.php) Half the Sky is
working with local government and erecting a giant tent that can serve as
shelter for orphaned and displaced children for as long as necessary.
More news on this early next week.

Chengdu 2nd SWI - 35 senior citizens and 10 preschool-age orphans have
been transferred there from Dujiangyan City. 40~50 more orphans will be
arriving soon. They are in need of 50 beds, sets of bedding, as well as
the same number of clothes for children between 5 and 7 years old. Before
the arrival of those 45, the institution had 100+ children and 500+
elderly people already. During aftershocks, they stayed in tents; but now,
they have all moved back to the buildings.

Chengdu 3rd SWI – Caring for 30 children, all fine, not expecting new
arrivals.

Wenjiang District SWI, Chengdu – Caring for only 4 children, all fine, not
expecting new arrivals

Dujiangyan SWI – All of the children are under good care and there is no
shortage of food or any daily necessity. 12 new children were recently
brought in, but they’ve been having much success in locating surviving
family members and have high hopes for these children as well.

Luojiang County SWI, Deyang City – The children are being cared for in a
shelter, including 6 new arrivals. They are expecting a 2 year-old and
have asked for a crib as well as diapers, powdered milk and rice.

Deyang SWI – Has prepared to receive new children per instructions.

Nanchong 2nd SWI – They are caring for 27 children and are expecting
another 20. They are sleeping in tents due to concerns about aftershocks.
They ask for 10 tents, tarps and beds.

Cangxi SWI, Guangyuan City – They have some building damage. They have
been advised that they may be receiving children from Qingchuan but this
has not yet been confirmed by the provincial Civil Affairs Bureau.

I told you that 13 of the 24 children brought to the Zitong SWI had been
reunited with family. Today I was told there were 12. Two signs hang at
the institution. One says “There are only 20 children from Xiao Ba
Primary School in An'Xian in our institution. There are no children from
Beichuan. If you are looking for those from Beichuan, please go to (name)
Hotel. If you are looking to adopt, please come in 3 months." The other,
poignantly says, "Yan: only her mother was home; XianLin & LiGang are
brothers: only their father was home: Cheng: her father is working in
Xinjiang; Dan: her parents are working in Zhejiang; Jun: about 2 years
old, parents whereabouts unknown; Zhou: about 1 year old, parents
whereabouts unknown. Needs: Books to read; stable place to live. Emotional
needs: their family...their relatives."

Mianyang – The Jiuzhou Stadium that houses 20,000 refugees is now,
considering the situation, well-organized and, beyond trash bags and
disposable gloves, there seem to be no unmet material needs. While there
were, at first, about 1,700 children staying in the “inner circle” of the
stadium (on the first floor inside the building), most of those children
have either been reunited with family or transferred to smaller shelters
in Mianyang. There are only about 130 children remaining. There are
volunteer counselors and psychologists for these children. The “inner
circle” is strictly guarded by police, soldiers, and volunteers. Mr.
Liang JianHua, a volunteer leader and veteran, has been supervising care
of the children in the “inner circle” from the very beginning, with the
help of about a dozen volunteers. According to Ma Lang, he seems to be an
extremely competent, kind, and devoted person.

Meanwhile, for children less well-served, Half the Sky is moving goods
like crazy and working hard to initiate the next, and most important phase
of our efforts – trauma counseling and care for displaced and orphaned
children.

Thanks to help from dozens of volunteers, we’ve delivered about 100 of the
promised tents, cases of blankets, tarps, clothes, diapers, food and
medicines to several institutions. There will be many more arrivals and
deliveries over the coming days. We have received permits to enter and
provide aid to one of the more inaccesible hard-hit areas tomorrow (Aba
County) and are working on helping in Li and Mao counties, also hard-hit.

We have begun the process of distributing to temporary children’s
shelters. We give special thanks to the Sichuan employees of Silk Road
Telecommunications, many of whom helped us load and unload trucks and have
offered to aid in distribution and logistics all around the province.

I’ve got lots more to report but have run out of steam and time. I’ll be
back tomorrow with more, I promise.

If you would like to donate to Half the Sky’s Children’s Earthquake Fund
you can do so through Global Giving:
http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/2100/proj2086a.html

Or directly to Half the Sky. You can donate by calling Half the Sky
(+1-510-525-3377) or on our website:
http://give.halfthesky.org/prostores/servlet/Categories?category=Children's+Earthquake+Fund


Many companies have announced they will match employee gifts for
earthquake relief. Please note, the Ford Motor Company matching pledge
has been met and is no longer in effect, but there are many others. Please
check to see if your company will double your gift!

If you would like a Canadian tax receipt, please donate at
http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s86248

If you would like a Hong Kong tax receipt, please call us at
+852-2520-5266 or online at
https://www.paydollar.com/b2c2/eng/charity/payInfo.jsp?charityId=4947

Once again, THANK YOU, all of you, who are making this work possible!

with love,
Jenny

Jenny Bowen
Executive Director
Half the Sky Foundation
www.halfthesky.org