Saturday, July 5, 2008

The Great Sichuan Earthquake..May 12 2008




When this Great disaster struck Wenchuan County, in Sichuan Province, on 12th May 2008, D2 was away in Scotland. I caught the initial news on the TV. She immediately SMS to me requesting me to double check if Wuhan or Hubei was in any way affected. At that time, her GSPS kids were still in Singapore.
After checking many sources, I assured her Hubei was ok. And so the Exchange Programme went ahead about 12 days later.
When D2 and I first checked into our hotel in Wuhan, I noticed a big donation box placed near the foyer counter. There were posters and a banner describing the scenes of devastation at the " Da Di Zhen"[ great earthquake ]. And copies of the Red Cross pamphlet [ as above ] were on the table. I took a copy....and wanted to put in a cash donation immediately. But D2 told me that the Shui Guo Hu Primary School would be making a collective donation through their fund raising and so we made a donation towards that.
It was evident everywhere in China people of all ages wanted to help in any way possible.
The newspapers were filled with the heroic efforts of individuals rich or dirt poor, who went out of their way to make a difference.
More than 70,000 lives were lost and thousands more homeless. Over 5 million people displaced. It could not have come at a worse time. The Beijing Olympics is only 2 plus months away.
But I am confident the resilient spirit and nature of China's people will see them through this
crisis as well as hosting the BEST OLYMPICS ever.

No comments: