International Save the Children Alliance
Xu Kesheng and Zhao Weiyi are others who have
shared their experience of the China earthquake
Voices from China
Peng Jing's Story
Peng Jing, a fourth-grade student in the Huamiao Primary School, she was taking the final exam when we visited her. We could tell that she was very happy with the rapid resumption of school. After the earthquake, Peng Jing felt depressed about the damaged school, helpless about the chances of the resumption of school, and surprised and delighted at coming back to school. All these changes have made her more mature, and she is grateful for the many opportunities to learn.
“I’m glad that the school has resumed before the end of this semester, and now I even feel no fear in regards to exams right now.”
“When the earthquake hit, teachers rapidly organised us to exit the classroom. In the playground, we saw that the ground was drastically shaking, making tiles and even walls fell…”
“Although the teachers and students were all safe, our textbooks and schoolbags were left behind. Our teachers repeatedly warned us not to go back in for things. Later the PLA soldiers came and bulldozed the school. Although our teachers told us that the soldiers would come back to build a better school for us, we felt really sad when we saw the debris…”
“After that I had been helping my family with farm work, such as collecting vegetable seeds and transplanting rice seedlings. My grandparents are in bad shape, and my parents work on the land. The family has had work as migrant labourers since I was born. I know that they hope I can have a promising future, so I study hard and achieve decent scores. I was rather worried when the school suspended classes. I thought that the resumption would not happen in such a short period of time.”
“One day a teacher came to my home with news that the school had gotten tents and new desks and chairs, and would be resumed in two days. I was so elated that I helped teachers disseminate the news to other students right away.”
"Though we take classes in a tent, we have new desks and chairs and we believe that the new school will be very nice. I know many people are trying to help us. I thank them from the bottom of my heart."
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 (Peng Jing'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: supporting a 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 Peng Jing'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
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