Reconstruct a School in China Post-Earthquake

A year has passed since the devastating earthquake in the Sichuan Province of China with a death count of more than 68,000 lives, while an additional 17,921 people are listed as missing. On the one-year anniversary I was exploring Chengdu, the closest major city to the epicenter of the quake, and I could feel the remembered loss shared by everyone.

During the quake, 7,000 classrooms and dormitory rooms collapsed, one of which I revisited. It felt appropriate to visit the Chengdu Education Foundation the day after the anniversary as we look ahead and concentrate on the reconstruction. After an hour and half of driving away from Chengdu my translator and I arrived at the Chujiang Nine-Year Compulsory School to what seemed to be a welcome from the entire school staff with hopeful smiles. The construction, they said, was moving quickly and they plan on finishing by August of this year. The new buildings would include classrooms that would allow an additional 200 students to enroll and dormitories that would allow 50% of the students to reside on school grounds compared to the 5% there’s room for today. The dormitories that are available now are only temporary that can last a maximum of four years. Because the 200 additional students will be coming from the countryside where it is often hard to travel to, the dormitories are necessary because the commute to and from school each day would be too difficult.

Currently, the one remaining building that made it through the earthquake holds 1,200 students, but the need for more facilities is clear. The financial crisis has made it difficult for the major investor, Shenji Investment and Consultancy Company, to give what they had initially planned on, but I was assured that the construction would be completed before the start of the next school year. Because of the possible shortcoming of funds, outside donations are even more vital than previously thought. Without the proper funding, basic school appliances, such as desks, teacher supplies, and computers will be lacking.

The director of the Chujiang School was clearly excited about the swift improvements and construction of the school, but each time he finished telling me about plans for growth he finished with, “but there’s the problem of funding.” With great destruction, comes the need for reconstruction, and the global recession isn’t making it easy. To make a donation to the Chendgu Education Fund you can visit their GlobalGiving page at: http://www.globalgiving.com/2149. To learn more about the other projects that are responding to the earthquake in China visit http://www.globalgiving.org/chinaoneyearlater/