Twinned schools help earthquake victims

Page last updated: 6 June, 2008

From the BBC Chinese Service

The BBC Chinese service helped the students to reconnect with their friends in Leicestershire.

Students and staff at a college in Leicestershire, England, are pulling out all the stops to help their twin school in Sichuan, close to the epicentre of the massive earthquake that hit the Chinese province last month.

At the recent launch of a fund-raising campaign at William Bradford Community College, students were all clad in red, regarded as a lucky colour in China.

Money raised by selling the red T-shirt will go towards the earthquake relief, as will proceeds from a football tournament.

A particularly tragic feature of the Sichuan earthquake has been the number of school buildings that collapsed. Nanshan Middle School in Mianyang was spared this horror, and both students and staff have currently been working as volunteers.

With assistance from the BBC Chinese Service, the twinned schools were finally reconnected after losing all contact after the earthquake.

Yuan Chengkun, English teacher at Nanshan, told the BBC that none of the school's nine thousand students and staff lost their lives, but some of them have lost family and friends.

Teachers are now doing their best to bring back some semblance of normality and the school has set up a counselling service for the children.

"There are tens of thousands of victims in Mianyang City," Yuan told the BBC. "Some of us have helped to carry the injured to hospital, and a number of young teachers have gone to the earthquake-damaged areas to participate the search and rescue work. Others have been loading or unloading relief materials donated from other provinces in China. Many students and teachers donated money, blood or goods to the victims."

Students and staff at William Bradford, which formed ties with Nanshan School in 2003, have expressed relief at the news that all their friends are all safe.

Pupils at Nanshan Middle School having been taking lessons in the school grounds.

"We were very concerned and upset," says Sue Mitchell, the link co-ordinator for William Bradford College, "and it's an enormous relief to hear that everyone in Nanshan School is well. We were affected because of our connection."

On learning of the relief effort made by their British peers, teacher Yuan said that she and her students were greatly touched. "We're truly grateful for the support from Sue and from the teachers and students of William Bradford Community College. We'll try our best to make our originally planned trip to the UK to visit them in early July."