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