UPDATE - MELODY'S BLOG

SATURDAY, MAY 17th:
Is it Real? Medicine to Orphanages, Supplies to Hospitals, and The First Wave of Evacuations

For a small portion of the day, I was taken away from the disaster and brought into a normal, peaceful life. Could it be true? Was this real? For a moment I hoped, "Maybe this is all a long dream."

Then I heard the news on my TV. The death toll is now 21,000 and over 100,000 injured. The Wenchuan earthquake is the worst earthquake to hit China since 1949.

Last night I slept in a bed for the first time since I arrived in Sichuan. Two of us returned to Chengdu to use the computer and Internet, as well as plan our next steps. Thank you to our volunteer XiaoYu Mommy (her handle on the web) - she opened her house to us for rest and work space. Her building manager also offered their office as temporary storage for our supplies delivered in from different parts of the country. This saved us from moving those heavy boxes to our hosts 6th floor apartment.

Just now, as I tried to write this update, I felt the third earthquake of the day. The first quake - around 10 this morning, while I was connecting with Kara, my friend from Operation Blessing - I felt the sofa shake a little and I jumped and gathered all my things and left the 19th floor of a hotel room. When I reached the lobby, the front desk staff looked at me calmly and said, “This is normal. No need to worry.”

In a taxi later, the radio confirmed this – what I felt was one of the thousand aftershocks since May 12. It is surreal.

One night of sleep really helped my thinking. Our goal is to help children affected by the earthquake; there are two target groups: orphans and the children in need in general, especially those who are in need of medical assistance. In the first phase, as all disaster relief work goes, we focus on relief first, through distribution of much needed supplies and help with whatever need we can find. The next two phases will be recovery and development. Right now, I am thinking again about the need to work with children with PTSD, help with family reunification, etc. But now we are still in the first stage. Here is what happened today:

The volunteer group with medical supplies from United Hospital in Beijing went to Mianyang. A young lady, Dengshuang, contacted me for medical supplies, as her team is now assigned to Jiangyou, which is the other main city where victims are being sent. There is a great need in Jiangyou hospitals, with thousands of patients just now arriving. She gave me a list: antibiotics, diarrhea medicine, surgical tools for bone surgeries, blood protein, and any other medical supplies. I would like for our volunteers in other part of China, even overseas to please try to get these and find a way to get them to us in Chengdu. As soon as we receive them, we will deliver the items to the Jiangyou hospital right away.

I visited Sichuan Civil Office today. Mr. Ye, Mrs. Li and Mr. Han are the directors of the social welfare department of the entire province. They issued me an intro letter for three orphanages thought to be in great need - Jinyang Children’s Welfare Home in Deyang, GuangYuan, and Mianyang Children’s Home (the orphanage I visited Thursday). In China, having a letter like this can be a great help. I called Jinyang right away and was able to get connected to Director Wu. Our staff just sent another 13 boxes of baby supplies to us tonight and I will bring them to Jinyang tomorrow morning.

Xiaonian, our nurse from CHI who came with me, went to Beichuan from Mianyang today with a medical team all the way from Luoyang Henan. The latest news: people in Beichuan are being evacuated to nearby counties. After 100 hours of rescue effort, every survivor found now is considered a miracle.

New areas of disaster are being found everyday - like Mianzhu, Lixian, Shefang. More sad scenes are being seen on TV, dead bodies, moms crying for the loss of their children.

This is not a dream but a hard, hard time for the entire country...and it’s long from over. The entire country watches Sichuan.

What keeps us all going is the love we have felt from everyone in the country. Yes, this might be the worst earthquake we have experienced, yet, it is also the first time I have seen the whole country with one goal, and acting on it with a great unified force.

I can’t give much to you, children of May 12...But I want you to feel loved.

--Melody

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I came to Deyang orphanage to deliver baby supplies and arrived last night on May 17th. Here are the pictures. Deyang is another disaster area besides WenChuan, Beichuan.

These are the pictures I took yesterday in Mianyang. First was taken at the stadium, the second is me and Director Zhang in front of Mianyang orphanage. Children were all evacuated after the May 12th.