The scale of disasters overwhelm us. Whether it is in China, Myanmar, Katrina or now Iowa, it can be difficult to understand the plight of others, to know what to do in response. Being human, we are limited. Being human, we do the best we can -- sometimes all we can do is to try.
Here is an example, I think, from an organization and a group of people who are doing some very good, much needed work on the ground in China. Just one group among many who have come together, in response to the earthquake one month ago.
Half The Sky is an NGO whose goal is to improve the lives and prospects of orphaned children in China. They provide material aid, but also provide training for the special care and needs of orphans. Since the 8.0 earthquake, they have worked closely with local governmental agencies overwhelmed by the needs of thousands of newly orphaned children.
Following are clips from letters from Jenny Bowen, and it provides a point of view on the ground with the kids. Reprinted with permission.
For more Half the Sky Journals and pictures, please go here:
http://www.halfthesky.org/...
http://www.halfthesky.org/...
From Communications Director Patricia King:
An 8-year-old boy stands in front of the pile of rubble that had once been his school and explains that he was the last student to have been pulled out alive. When the earth shook, he was one of the obedient children sitting with arms crossed at their desks—some naughty boys were still outside, safe on the playground. For ten frantic minutes, trapped between a piece of concrete and brick on the second floor, he waited. His cries couldn't be heard over the wailing adults, but finally when the crowd outside the collapsing school quieted down they heard him and came to rescue him with their bare hands.
In the first days after the quake, he couldn't return to the pile of debris that had once been his three-storey school, but with the help of a volunteer teacher from his tent school, he has visited the site several times and now is not afraid when he comes back. Today, at 2:28, exactly one month after his world shattered, the boy and another child from the tent school placed their hands on their hearts, then bowed three times, saying goodbye to their friends who died at the Hongbaizhen Primary School. Finally these brave survivors vowed: "We will live our lives as best we can."
In Hongbaizhen:
Sitting under a tree outside a tent school only 100 yards from the collapsed Hongbaizhen Middle School, it took only minutes before a group of middle school girls, two with their heads bent into their arms and one sitting up straight, weeping and sobbing, opened their hearts to Vancouver psychologist Dan Zhang and University of Minnesota psychologist Pinian Chang, both of whom were also once students in China.
A 14-year-old twin, who aches for her one-minute-younger sister. She escaped the building, but her sister didn't. Finally her sister was pulled out of the rubble, but with no medical care available, her family listened helpless as she spoke her last words: "I hurt. I hurt. I am so tired. I think I am dying." Now her grieving sister refuses to go to any school with more than one storey—she tried a middle school with two stories and dropped out after two agonizing days. Still she is trying to take comfort from "Invisible Wings," the song she and her sister loved and sang together. "I know I've always had a pair of invisible wings that take me flying and give me hope."
Two girls mourning their brother, a 10th grader, and a nimble athlete as well as a good student, who made it out of the building. But he went back to rescue three crying girls only to die when another piece of the building gave way. One of his sisters is tormented by regrets—why did she brush off her brother, who wanted to talk to her a few days before the earthquake when she wasn't in the mood? Both sisters know that their brother died a hero, but they miss their older brother and cry for him as an adult volunteer encircles them in a hug to try to ease the pain.
"Do Not Underestimate the Good Kindness Can Do"
The volunteers, some with tears in their eyes, explain why they are worried for the children and feel helpless because they cannot help them more. They worry about a 5-year-old girl with a scar on her back from being buried by debris who screams whenever she sees a collapsed building, an unavoidable sight in this mostly leveled town. A thirteen year old boy, the last to be pulled out of the middle school, refuses to come to the tent school so close to where he was trapped. A six year-old boy whose two brothers died, draws a picture with cherries because his brothers liked cherries, but this volunteer thinks he is too calm, too matter-of-fact: "I am so worried about him. I ache for him."
Psychologist Marleen Wong tells them they have done well. "Do not underestimate how much good kindness can do." She recommends that they continue to reach out to the 13-year-old afraid to go to school. Visit him at home, offer him some water, bring him some notes from his friends. For the 5-year-old, try to have her draw or tell why she is screaming and help her learn to breathe deeply when she is afraid so that slowly, slowly the screams become less frequent and finally go away. And for the too-calm child, sometimes children have a delayed reaction, which is why long-term help is so crucial: "We have to wait for the child."
The parents of Hongbaizhen:
On this one month anniversary one tiny mom, her hair flecked with gray, shows visitors cell phone photos of the two children she lost. She lowers her arms to illustrate the unthinkable, the collapse of her daughters' school. She walks slowly away, but not without first thanking Half the Sky and everyone else who has come to help. It is that support, she says, that has recently made it possible for her to start to at least imagine a future for herself without her children.
And a short climb up one of the mountains that made Hongbaizhen renowned for its beauty before it became renowned for its suffering, parents are still trying to comfort their children, who died four weeks ago. At the four-tiered hillside cemetery with hundreds of children's freshly made graves, parents have laid things that their children once loved—a pink backpack, wrapped candy, spicy Sichuanese snacks, a big teddy bear and a stuffed monkey. A weeping dad injured in the quake, his arm still in a sling, burns paper money and incense and apologizes to his child. "I am so sorry. This is the first time I could come. I hope you don't mind," while his wife wails the lament of every parent who has wished that they could have saved the life of the child even at the cost of their own: "Mommy is here for you. How could you go before us? Please wait for us."
Executive Director Jenny Bowen tells the gathered volunteers:
Half the Sky's greatest contribution to helping in Sichuan will be to provide training for caregivers. She urges them to identify adults in the local community who can be trained to provide consistent, long-term help for the children long after the last volunteers have gone back to their homes.
When she tells them that Half the Sky is committed to working in Sichuan for "at least five years," they burst into applause.
In the next couple of months, with your help, we will be creating giant tent "Big Top" Children's Centers in temporary (estimate is 2-3 years) refugee camps at Dujiangyan, near the quake epicenter, to help the children as the town is rebuilt. Each will offer HTS preschool, after school counseling and art classes and other therapeutic activities for school-age children, as well as counseling and training for caregivers, teachers, parents and foster parents. The first "Big Top" is scheduled to open in QinJian camp on Saturday.
Funds permitting, we will also be creating new permanent children's community centers in six quake-affected towns as well as setting up Family Villages, supporting traditional foster care, and other HTS programs for orphaned children who are able to remain in their communities, providing long-term support for thousands of children.
By the way, Jenny will be running today in the Olympic Torch relay today, representing the children of China.
May the good kindness can do never be far from your home or your heart.
Peace to you.
And Happy Father's Day.
P.S. Click here give to the Half the Sky Earthquake fund.