SOS Children's Villages runs 'camp' School in quake-hit town of Mianzhu
13/06/2008
The SOS Children's Village in Chengdu is running a temporary School in Mianzhu city, which was badly affected by the recent earthquake when more than 11,000 people were killed. The city, which is in the southwestern Sichuan province, has virtually been flattened and thousands of people are living in tents.
"All schools are closed due to severe damage to the buildings and the education of children has been severly affected. In response, we decided to help these children and young people and started a 'camp' School in downtown Wenhua Square," said Xia Linhua, the Assistant Director of SOS Children's Village Chengdu.
"We have 56 children and young people currently enrolled in our camp School. We have named the camp School the 'Happy Class Tent' as it has three tents as classrooms. Eleven SOS staff members and two local teachers take turns in teaching Chinese language, maths, music and drawing. In the afternoon we take children to the nearby park where they play," said Xia.
The parents and guardians of the children and the local community have praised SOS Children for the initiative. "I was very concerned about the education of my child. It's been one month since the quake and he didn't touch the book at all. Thanks to the 'Happy Class Tent', he has returned to his learning routines," said Hu who is among the 5,000 people living in the camps.
Mianzhu is 100 kilometers away from the SOS Children's Village in Chengdu and is the place where many children were buried alive in the school building collapse when the 7.9 magnitude quake hit the province.