SOS Chidren's Villages

Children from Mianzhu said goodbye to the camp school run by the staff from SOS Children's Village in Chengdu and joined their regular schools after authorities gave the all-clear for them to be re-opened.

In response to the devastating earthquake, SOS Children's Village Chengdu had been running the temporary camp school in Mianzhu city to ensure education for children could continue. More than 11,000 people were killed in the city in the southwestern Sichuan province after it had virtually been flattened.

We reported in more detail about the camp in our response to China Earthquake article.

Lin, a child who lives in the community where the SOS Children's camp school was set up, said "We learnt a lot of things in the SOS camp school and made some good friends. We were really happy to spend time there".

Xia Linhua, the Director of SOS Children's Village Chengdu, said "In time of grief we tried our best to make the children happy and informed and we are satisfied with our work".

The SOS Children staff running the project have now returned to Chengdu. The Chinese army helped SOS Children run the school and as children and staff left, they sang a song praising the soldiers for their good work.