grant b ([info]grantb) wrote,
@ 2008-05-23 10:33:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend  Next Entry
my emotions make me boring, i know.
> Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 06:43:09 -0700
> Subject: Half the Sky Earthquake Update - May
> 21-22
> To: "Grant Balfour" <xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx>
> From: "Jenny Bowen" <jenny@halfthesky.org>
> ...........
>
> >
> 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.
>
...............
>
> 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."
>
............
>
> 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
>

(6 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]kerrickadrian
2008-05-23 03:11 pm UTC (link)
I saw Half The Sky online yesterday while looking for places to give, thought of you—wondered how much you knew about their work. Thanks for this.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]grantb
2008-05-23 03:56 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, they do quite good work, as far as I can tell - hug rooms and encouraging domestic adoptions.

They also won a bid to carry the Olympic torch, which is an interesting thing.
"Hi! We're orphanages! We're over HERE!"

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]nancyblue
2008-05-23 03:44 pm UTC (link)
Thank you for sharing this information. It is so much more real and personal than anything else I seem to be hearing at the moment.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]grantb
2008-05-23 03:55 pm UTC (link)
(see below for more).

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]grantb
2008-05-23 03:54 pm UTC (link)
Well, if you want something even more human, here.

(Sorry about the length.)

> 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."
>

I'm quite fond of Half the Sky as a charity.

(Reply to this)


[info]traballenguas
2008-05-23 09:29 pm UTC (link)
Thanks for the info, Grant. It is very welcome.

(Reply to this)

(6 comments) - (Post a new comment)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…