International Save the Children Alliance
Peng Jing and Xu Kesheng are
others who have shared their
experience of the China earthquake
Voices from China
Zhao Weiyi's Story
“The earthquake has changed the school and family environment a lot. The school buildings and family houses have become decrepit. The school has been bull-dozed, but we still live in our house that was only renovated.”
“The earthquake suspended our classes, but the classmates live near each other and we all know that we are all OK. This makes us relieved. After the earthquake, I helped with some chores at home. Usually my mother labours on the farm, and my father renovates the house. I would boil water for him. My parents sometimes talk about our future life, but they would not let me hear. I think our future life definitely has been affected.”
“My teacher visited us once every few days, assigning some homework. Therefore I spent about two hours on homework every day. Every time the teacher visited, he would tell us the school would resume soon. Later, it happened indeed. I was very glad, but later I knew that we would have classes in tents by the temple.
The tents are fairly hot when the sun comes out.”
“Teachers tell us not to worry, because we will have bunk houses soon. They say everything will be alright. Right now we have new yellow desks and chairs, which previously I only saw on TV. My relative gave me my skirt, and although it’s old, I like it. And I’m happy to learn that my friends also think it is beautiful.”
The extent of the damage
On May 12, 2008, a catastrophic earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter Scale shook Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province at 14:28:04. As of 12:00 on June 29, the statistical data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs reported that 69,196 people died, 374,176 people were wounded and 18,379 people were missing. The earthquake caused particularly severe damage to school buildings. Huamiao Primary School (Zhao Weiyi's school) in An County was a village school with seven classes and 319 students. The school buildings were just a single story. During the earthquake, there were no injuries or deaths among teachers and students, but the school buildings were flattened.
On May 26, all six classes except the preschool class resumed in three tabernacles, which were erected in front of a local abandoned temple. Currently, 210 students have returned to classes. Most of the other students are temporarily staying in other provinces with their parents.
Save the Children's supporting return to education
During the first three months of emergency response, the focus has been to establish "child-friendly activity centres" and "infant and children health centres." Save the Children has also distributed schools supplies to around 11,656 students and 524 teachers in 23 primary and middle schools in the worst affected counties. The school supplies include blackboards, fans, desks and chairs for students and teachers.
Save the Children has provided Zhao Weiyi's school with 10 blackboards, 210 sets of desks and chairs for students, 8 sets of desks and chairs for teachers and 40 sets of reading books for students in order to help the school resume classes as soon as possible.
How you can help
Learn more about our response in China and how you can help.