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| The Nan Ba Zhen primary school was leveled in the earthquake. |
Many thanks to the WAB community for all of their generous donations to earthquake relief efforts for Sichuan province, including those who contributed to the PTA's appeal. Your donations have truly helped to relieve, and rebuild, communities of people who were devestated by the natural disaster, as Liz Durkin, Chair of the PTA Charity Committee, reports in a letter to the WAB community.
Dear WAB Community,
Many thanks to the entire WAB community--parents, staff and families, as well as our children, who were so creative and compassionate in organizing their own fundraising efforts--for all of your contributions to the earthquake appeal.
As reported at the end of the school year, we designated some of your monetary contributions for the purchase of high-need items for an orphanage housing many paraplegic children. I'm now happy to advise you that a primary school in Nan Ba Zhen village, near Nanchong, will benefit from your kindness, and hard work.
The Nan Ba Zhen's main campus was severely affected by the earthquake, and the school received government aid in the form of tents and basic supplies. Unfortunately, however, several satellite campuses of the school, located in remote villages in the surrounding mountains, are still in great need of support. These communities are poor and as a consequence of the disaster the
children are unable even to receive that education that might enable
them to escape from their trap of poverty. There are 752 children in
total in all the schools.
I have communicated with the head of the school, Mr Du, who has
supplied me with a list of the most urgently required equipment which
includes paper, pencils, footballs, skipping ropes, one computer, an
overhead projector and for each school an electric keyboard, among other items.
Many thanks to WAB parent Rod Sudermann, a Mennonite pastor, who put us in contact with a colleague who visited the school this summer. He also suggested that we might like to place an order with a local supplier in Nanchong to buy equipment for this cluster of schools. We will also be paying for the hire of a van (and for petrol and road taxes) to transport the equipment down to the school.
May I thank you very much on behalf of all these children for your support? Education is the only way for them to escape from their poverty and you are offering them that chance of a different life.
Thank you again,
Liz Durkin, Chair of the PTA Charity Committee