It is now reported that 7,000 children died on May 12.
But many, many thousands more survived. Thankfully, the numbers truly orphaned are much smaller than first believed.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Civil Affairs told us that 420 children are confirmed orphaned. The government continues to search for living relatives of another 1072. Those numbers, though, represent only a small portion of the many thousands of children who need help.
Children who have lost one parent. Children grieving for their lost parents even as they have been reunited with their grandparents or other extended family. The estimated 16,000 children who were injured during the quakes. And countless others children who are struggling to deal emotionally with the horror they have experienced. These are children whose lives were really just beginning-and now must begin again.
Thanks to your generosity, we have helped the surviving children by bringing them much-needed supplies, including supplies to the stranded children in the isolated mountains of Aba, where roads were buried under landslides, and to the children of Leigu, whose villages were threatened by flood. Our sincere thanks to everyone who helped us buy and get those supplies to the children quickly in the chaotic first days. Thanks to the amazing crew at Gung Ho Films, to the extraordinary Sichuan volunteers from Silk Road Telecommunications, to our volunteer shoppers and shippers in Chengdu and around China, and to our extraordinary donors who provided the funds that enabled us to act so quickly to get the supplies to the children.
Now that we have completed that first phase of our earthquake relief effort, it is time for Half the Sky to help the youngest survivors begin to heal emotionally. Though we have never provided emotional support for children in the wake of a natural disaster, we have over the last decade provided that support for 15,000 children living in social welfare institutions who have lost their families - delivering such care is the essence of Half the Sky.
In preparation for our first workshop with the US National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, our field staff spent last observing and interacting with children living in temporary shelters and welfare institutions. While the world is rejoicing that they survived, many of these children are mourning the friends and family members who did not and wondering why they are the "lucky" ones. Others are in shock, unable to face the pain of loss of those they depended on most.
At a shelter in Chengdu, one middle schooler who was evacuated from Wenchuan told our team:
"The first floor of the school disappeared. The second floor became the first floor. Our teachers were too busy helping us to have time for their own children. We carried two injured students from the collapsed building to a tent on a mountain top. We stayed in the mountains after that and lived on potatoes that weren't ripe and shared 2-3 bottles of water among more than 60 of us every day. Later, two students died in the tent. It rained and rained. We knew there could be landslides because we knew a big aftershock could happen at any time, but we didn't know what to fear any more."
At at the Sichuan Children's Activity Center west of Chengdu, our team learned about a boy who feels guilty that he was not able to save the girl that sat next to him in class. When the building was about to collapse, the boy managed to run out of the building. Some of his classmates were not so lucky and he tried pulling his classmate whose leg was stuck in the rubble. Unfortunately he did not succeed and the girl later died. Now he feels guilty that he could not save his friend and talks about it over and over.
And our staff filed this heartbreaking report from the Zitong Children's Welfare Institute:
"A boy arrived at the institution with a bandage on one side of his head.The staff gave him a name and estimated that he is two years old. Every time the institution gate opens he runs to it and says "baba," "mama," the only words he knows. The expression of his face is one of sadness and fear without security. There was no smile on this face during the whole time we were there."
On Monday, in cooperation with the MCA and the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, we held our first Sichuan Caregiver Traing Project workshop at the Chengdu CWI, a milestone on that long road to bring emotional relief to the children. While we tried to keep the first workshop small, because we knew that we needed to have time and interactive discussion in order to make plans for the next steps, it was not possible. The need for caregiver support is just too great. By the workshop's second day, we included 90 volunteers who'd been working in shelters as well as administrators from the two largest shelters in Chengdu. There will be no shortage of trainees as our field staff and experts head out into hard-hit areas today.
The questions from caregivers and volunteers were challenging. Do we try to gently tell the children who cling to the hope that their parents are alive that they are instead likely dead? How do we reach children who have shut down, refusing to talk about what they went through yet screaming in the night from memories too horrible to consider during the day? How can we help a child who won't eat, a child who lives in her imagination? Do we let them see us cry? How do we keep our own sanity as we try to be there for the children? Sadly, the experts in child trauma during disaster have heard the questions and have seen the suffering many times before. They were able to provide tools for caregivers and for children, as well as reassurance that they will be there to help as the healing process begins.
Yesterday, after the workshop, we visited a shelter in Chengdu. Children told us of seeing their friends killed, of waking up next to dead bodies, of their fear of falling asleep, their fear of being indoors.
We know that with this workshop our new work is just beginning..we have pledged to work with other organizations and with government to help the children in Sichuan for as long as help is needed. There is no question that this will be a long process and that we will need the help of all of you, who have already given so much.
We know you want to help because our mailboxes are full of offers of tents, blankets, diapers, and strong backs to help rebuild. These are wonderful offers but we cannot accept them now that we have moved on to the work of helping children emotionally.
What we do need is financial support and your trust that we are exploring and will develop and carry out a plan for maximum impact on children's lives. In turn, we commit to report in detail, and often, how we are using the resources you are so generously supplying. By the end of this week, we expect to be able to report more fully on our midterm and longterm plans in Sichuan. We anticipate that the work may last for 2-3 years. As the emergency eases, we will make certain that Half the Sky's direct involvement will be limited, as it must, by our mission (providing nurturing care for orphaned children) but we will do our best to facilitate involvement of other organizations that can help meet the needs of affected children in the broader population.
Every year, in June, we launch a Children's Day campaign to raise funds to bring Half the Sky's programs to more children in the fall. This year we must do even more. We have to help the children even as we continue to run our programs and open new, comprehensive Blue Sky Model Centers. Never have we needed your help more.
Of the US$600,000 you have so generously committed to help the children of Sichuan, we have spent approximately one-half on emergency relief. We should have a full accounting very soon. We do not yet know what the cost of our long-term effort to rebuild lives will be, but hope to have more information as the plans develop and the numbers of children in need of emotional assistance are clearer.
If you would like to donate to Half the Sky's Children's Earthquake Fund you can do so by calling Half the Sky (+1-510-525-3377) or visit our website: http://give.halfthesky.org/prostores/servlet/Categories?category=Children's+Earthquake+Fund
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 Half the Sky - Asia (+852-2520-5266) or donate online at https://www.paydollar.com/b2c2/eng/charity/payInfo.jsp?charityId=4947
If you'd like to view previous earthquake journal entries: http://www.halfthesky.org/journal/
Thank you!
with love,
Jenny Bowen
Executive Director
Half the Sky Foundation
www.halfthesky.org
Ps - For our many new friends - Half the Sky is a global NGO that establishes and operates programs that provide emotional and educational support for orphaned children living in 38 government-run social welfare institutions in China. Half the Sky does not operate orphanages. It is not an adoption agency. We exist for China's children.
Half the Sky was created in order to enrich the lives and enhance the prospects for orphaned children in China. We establish and operate infant nurture and preschool programs, provide personalized learning for older children and establish loving permanent family care and guidance for children with disabilities. It is our goal to ensure that every orphaned child has a caring adult in her life and a chance at a bright future.
Here in Sichuan, Sunday was filled with both sadness and hope. For those parents who lost their only child, it was a day of immeasurable anguish. For those families still whole or partially intact, it was a time of sad resolve to get on with the task of rebuilding their lives and the lives of their children. For children who survived but lost a parent, schoolmates, teachers, home, the holiday toys and candies were small comfort. Still, life goes on and the children will slowly begin to heal. They will need help.
