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Video of first ever visit to Zoo by Sichuan Survivors. One of the Chidren lost 300 of  900 schoolmates in the quake. The father considers the dead children to be the “lucky” ones as there is little opportunity for handicapped workers in China and even less for those coming from poor areas.

Another child who lost 2/3 of her classmates in a school collapse. Her best friend, trapped by rubble, died in her mother’s arms while waiting for help.

One of the Volunteers from the University of Michigan who is also helping to organize the Sichuan Teachers initiative. This is not easy work and there is an element of risk involved, but this volunteer says that the experience has forever changed his worldview and strengthened his commitment to others.

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Pictures of rural area near Chengdu. Tent cities have little or no working facilities. Many toilets are hand dug holes in the ground covered with bits wood. Temporary houses (tin work sheds) have no ventilation and the temperature is running 10-20  degrees higher indoors than outside.

One of the volunteers became ill and left a day early. An aftershock struck shortly after his departure and destroyed the dorm in which volunteers were housed.

In Taekowndo we used to call this indomitable spirit”.

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One of two amazing young students with incredible skills and enviable enthusiasm.

my name is Roland Catellier founder and president of Disaster Relief Shelter Foundation,Inc a florida usa non profit corporation based in New Port Richey Fl usa 34553, I am in china temporarily to find a path thought the chinese government to build shelters perminent ones on the existing foundation of elderly villiagers, at no cost to them [free], I have formed the corporation in usa to raise the needed funds to set up a structural insulated panel production plant close to affected areas of earth quake and to deliver and set up small homes for elderly and disabled and or raising there grand children as a priority of need. the board of corporation has decided that we will raise fund once I am able to get permission from the government or any legally authorized agent of Chinese government for our organization to begin operating in or near the earth quake zone. We will use local materials and or imported one ,if they are imported we would appreciate then being duty free imports. We will need the use of a piece of land 13,000sq.meters to 20,000 sq meter to use for 2yrs with extention of a 3rd year if need requires. Also the apropriate visa for myself and technical volunteers would be helpful. We plan on useing local staff for majority of production and installation of prefab home hopefully earth quake victim helping neighbors.

A little about me; after university in usa i joined a volunteer group for 18 yrs, i served in india, nepal, pakistan, afgasnistan in the mid to late 1970ies, in the eighties i was in dubai uae,there is sold and installed prefab swimming pool for 2.5 yrs, then to sri lanka , and brazil in brazil i help organize an orphanage after one year i went back to india to help out there till 1988 when my wife fell ill we returned to usa and she died, at that point i was faced with changing career and raising 7 children 2yrs old to 14 yrs olds. now that my children are grow up i seek to help others again as in my first career. During the time i raised my children i became a real estate broker, doing both commercial and residential real estate, and developing my own rental portfolio.

A little of what we plan to build, we are thinking to build 3.66m x 7.32m basic shelter for an elderly couple with out grand children, and 4.88 m x 9.75m for elderly who are raising grand children. If there foundation is suitable we will build on it or modify it to be suitable,if water, sewer, or electric, is available on site will connect to it. The materials will be structural insulated panels to a quality to last 35-50 yrs with proper maintainace, plywood on both sides with styro foan in between, a vapor barrier and vinyl siding and shingle roof, much like the homes in the usa that last long term.

The funding for these basic homes will come from fund raising in usa ,we believe the american people are generous and caring and will donate to this cause, the treasure of foundation is a successful financial consultant with experience in fund raising, my children will also support this effort with local fund raising in there spere of influence, and i will do fund raising personally and as i have experience also.

The key factor at this point is finding a path to operate in china with the proper authorization from government, I’m very impressed by the speed and efficiency the army has handled this disaster. Replacing a city in 3yrs is a huge task, and the millions of temporary shelters are impressive. Our organization seek only to help needy elderly with or without grand children to care for, to have a warm secure shelter as fast as possible.

if anyone can be of help to get govt. approval please contact me rolin12 at hotmail.com

sincerely,

roland catellier

Some might say it would not do kids much good if they have a layman to teach them every year, but what these voluntary green hands are doing has won them acclaim from the international society.

US-based Amway Corporation recently donated 500,000 yuan (about US$60,240) to 30 volunteers — all graduates from the elite Fudan University in Shanghai who are to start teaching in the western provinces of Ningxia and Yunnan this year.

The money would cover these volunteers’ living expenses and help upgrade school facilities in the two needy provinces, said Amway Corporation Board Chairman Steve Van Andel.

Van Andel said he was moved by the young people’s zeal and hoped the donation would help them translate this enthusiasm into concrete moves that would eventually lift some children out of poverty.

This is the largest sum the east China university has received from a multinational firm since it started to send volunteers to the western regions in 1999, according to school officials.

Earlier this year, Amway invested more than 3 million yuan (some US$360,000) to 88 volunteers from 18 provinces and municipalities nationwide, including graduates from the prestigious Tsinghua University based in Beijing.

A World Bank report suggests that investment in education has topped all other investment — including investment in the scopes of telecommunication, agricultural technologies, road construction, power and water resources — in relieving the want and need in China’s countryside.

In the mid-1990s, a group of college graduates volunteered to teach in rural schools in the country’s western areas on their own initiative, hoping to help the school dropouts there back to school.

Their move has won support from the Ministry of Education and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China in recent years and escalated into an annual “Go West” program.

Last year, 6,000 young volunteers selected from among nearly 44,000 college graduates went to western China to contribute to the development of impoverished regions under the program. The number of applicants has risen to 50,000 this year, according to sources with the Ministry of Education.

While some will be voluntary teachers, others are expected to work in the fields of public health, agro-sciences, poverty reduction and youth work management for a year or two.

When their voluntary mission is over, they will decide themselves whether to remain in the west or to seek career development in any other regions of China, with the first-hand knowledge and experience they have acquired.

Officials say to “go west” has become a top option for a large number of college and university graduates in the recent two years as competition heats up in the job market.

College students are experiencing exciting voluntary teaching in west China, while the mass

volunteer plan set up to serve the under-developed western areas is gradually spreading across

the entire country.

Zhang Xiao and his five schoolmates, all graduates of the prestigious Nanjing University of

east China’s Jiangsu Province, have just fulfilled a four-month voluntary teaching stint in Ili

Radio and Television University (IRTU) of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

When evaluating their teaching life in the west, Zhang said: “We felt quite happy here as the

volunteer campaign has enriched our practical experience.”

Though a bit disappointed at the education environment of this remote inland university, which

is no larger than a common middle school of comparatively developed coastal regions, they were

still proud of winning the volunteer opportunities to teach in west China when they first came

to Ili in March.

“We won through stiff competition as there were too many students in my university registering

for the volunteer teaching plan,” Zhang said.

Jiangsu’s educational department started cooperation with IRTU from the second half of 2000.

“The cooperation has brought us countless benefits, especially the advanced educational

theories currently prevailing in the country’s eastern regions,” said the secretary of IRTU

Party committee surnamed Ding.

So far, 36 graduates of Nanjing University have performed voluntary teaching in Ili in six

teams.

According to Wang Yajun, a teacher with the university’s graduate school, Nanjing University

has covered most of the expenses involved in the voluntary teaching plan, including the

traveling fees.

“The university has devoted great energies and materials in this campaign, which not only

assists the implementation of the central government’s strategy of developing the vast western

areas, but also provide students with precious opportunities for social interaction,” Wang

said.

Meanwhile, students, who were mainly confined to the campus, also thirst for a period of

colorful “adventures” that can enrich their experience, as proved by the surging number of the

applicants, Wang said.

Students participating in the volunteer teaching campaign have no need to worry about their own

studies, as special schedules have been arranged for them to make up the missed lessons after

they return and sufficient allowances are also given out to pay living expenses in the western

areas.

The State Council was planning to dispatch more college volunteers from Beijing and Shanghai

municipalities as well as Shandong and Jiangsu provinces to teach in Xinjiang, said an official

with the Ministry of Education.

In addition to Xinjiang, southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region has also benefited from the

country’s voluntary teaching plan with over 10,000 volunteer teachers working for local

educational development in the past five decades.

Candles, shoulder poles and mice are engraved in the memories of three college volunteers who came to teach in a junior middle school in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region more than one year ago.

The three have corrected pupils’ papers by candle light when there was no electricity, fetched water with buckets and shoulder poles from frozen rivers in winter and fallen asleep to a lullaby of squeaks and scratches in a mouse-infested dormitories.

In September 2003, Ma Youde, Juan Falong and Chen Ping — three graduates from teachers college — volunteered to go to the Tsona Junior Middle School in Tibet’s Tsona County, in response to the government’s call of “Go to the west (China) where talent is badly needed.”

They will teach in Lhasa for two years.

“I’ve gotten used to all of this here,” said Ma. “Most importantly, we cherish even a bit of achievement as long as the children here need us.”

The three volunteers teach Mandarin Chinese, mathematics, English, physics, geometry and physical education to students of different grades, with 16 to 20 classes a week for each of them.

The pupils — all minorities — come from primary schools in villages. A year ago, they knew little Mandarin Chinese, let alone English or computers, Ma said.

After these volunteers came, all that began to change.

Even those students who knew little Mandarin Chinese can speak the language now, he said. They have seen cameras and guitars for the first time. Some are determined to go to universities for further study after graduation.

“They speak good Mandarin and know much more than us,” a pupil named Zhue’ma said. “They treat us just like elder brothers would. ”

“College students are quite rare here because of the area’s bad natural and teaching conditions,” said Benba Toinzhub, deputy head of the school. “These volunteers are a great help to us.”

Not all volunteer teachers like this place, however. In 2003, 10 volunteer teachers left after their service term expired.

The pupils have done what they can to try to persuade their beloved volunteer teachers to stay after their service term ends. They often wash clothes and fetch water for their teachers.

Ma and the other two volunteers say they will stay and work here.

“We will not leave this school as long as it needs us. To work here makes us quite happy and feel a sense of success,” Ma said. At the end of 2004, the three volunteers signed a contract with the school to extend their service term.

Of the 219 college volunteers who have gone to teach in Tibet, 179 remain, 18 of whom have decided to stay and work here, according the local government.

“After one and a half years of working here, I have gotten the most valuable thing in life — a sense of being respected and needed that I never felt before.” Ma said.

EIGHTY volunteers selected from more than 400 applicants for a charity teaching program in the earthquake-devastated Gansu Province left Shenzhen on Thursday.

They will teach at Wenxian and Kangxian counties in Longnan City for a year.

The program was launched jointly by two Shenzhen companies. CATIC gave 2 million yuan (US$) while Shenzhen Aeolus Motor Trade Co. Ltd. gave 263,000 yuan to cover the cost of the program. The recruitment of volunteers started nationwide July 18.

The volunteers, mostly in their 20s and from more than 10 provinces, were selected after taking part in tests and interviews. Most of them possess bachelor’s degrees and some have master’s degrees with international educational backgrounds.

Xiao Na, a volunteer from Hubei Province, has taught in a primary school in Wuhan. Xiao’s younger sisters went to see her off at a send-off ceremony at the Citizens’ Center on Thursday.

“My family didn’t agree with my sister’s decision at first because Longnan is remote and destitute, but we are very proud of her now after seeing so many volunteers are taking part in the program to help reconstruct the quake area,” said one of Xiao’s sisters.

Peng Yuanfeng, a fresh graduate from Shenzhen University, spoke at the ceremony on behalf all volunteers. He said they were determined to “construct a better homeland” in the quake area.

He Xinglin, vice mayor of Longnan City, hoped the teachers would bring advanced teaching methods and innovative ideas to the city.

This is the sixth group of volunteer teachers to go to less-developed western regions since the program was started in 2006. Previously 162 volunteers had gone to teach in eight counties in Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Jianxi and Shaanxi.

In another development, trucks carrying 42,000 cartons of stationery and sports equipment weighing a total of 20 tons left Shenzhen on Wednesday for Longnan City. The goods will be distributed to students on the eve of the opening of the new school year. All the stationery were donated by the Shenzhen Lions’ Club, Shajing Stationery Wholesale Market in Bao’an District and a number of department stores in Shenzhen.

To help more students go back to school, the Shenzhen Charity Association had sent to Longnan around 1.52 million yuan from a student-aid program, which was initiated in June. More than 600 students will benefit from the aid. The city had raised more than 11 million yuan in a special fund to help build hospitals and schools in the quake-affected counties.

I never stop being astonished at what Thomas Stader and the Library Project accomplish. TLP is a testament to the power of good social marketing. More importantly the group delivers more than it promises.

Here is a letter from Thomas about their recent work:

I am so proud of what The Library Project has accomplished over the past three months. We have far exceeded The Library Project’s goals and expectations. There is so much to share - from an incredible and growing list of elementary schools which have benefited from new libraries to how you can get involved in helping to improve the lives of China’s rural children.

Before we start sharing our library’s successes, I would like to discuss how The Library Project is providing assistance to the people affected by the recent earthquake in China. On May 12, 2008 China experienced a 7.9 earthquake in Sichuan Province, located in central China, 70,000 people died, and over five million people were left homeless. Thousands of elementary schools were damaged in Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi Provinces. The Library Project will continue to do all we can by providing books and libraries to elementary schools and orphanages by way of our new 2008 Earthquake Program. The Library Project will be providing our first libraries to six “tent schools” located 25 km from the epicenter. To learn more about this program, please click here.

Over the past three months The Library Project created twenty-five school libraries and donated more than thirty thousand books. Each of the twenty-five schools received a wide range of high quality children’s books including: history, science, short stories, fairy tales, reference books and comics. We also provided a full set of children’s encyclopedias for older students and pinyin language books for the kids just learning to read. The Library Project also provided colorful child-safe tables and chairs, posters and a world globe to all the classroom and/or library rooms.

These fabulous new libraries are located throughout China in the countryside of Shaanxi, Anhui, and Gansu Provinces. At each library site, The Library Project held book drives, which collected over thirty thousand quality second-hand books from local donors. We also purchased over ten thousand first-hand books from Xin Hua Books Stores at just $1 a book.

In addition to books and supplies, the school librarians received library management training. Since most rural elementary schools have never had a single book in their libraries our Librarian Training Program gets them up to speed starting day one.

The Library Project is very happy to announce that Scott Perkins and Nicholas Ingleton have joined our Board of Directors. Scott Perkins is President and CEO of Connectify Networks based in San Francisco, California. Nicholas Ingleton has lived in Asia for 50 years and currently is a director of Aston Holdings (Overseas) Limited in Hong Kong and Aston Associates Limited in Beijing. I am honored to have them a part of our growing team.

In addition to providing libraries to twenty-five elementary schools in rural China, we have had over twenty small awareness and fundraising events since March. Our volunteers hosted most of these events around Asia and the world. For example, Celia held an all women’s wine tasting in Beijing that raised enough funds for one library. Siok Siok Tan has been doing charity screenings of her new documentary on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, “Booming Beijing” and raised enough funds for five libraries. Sophia and Eric organized an event at Kommune (great Ozzie BBQ) and a lecture on ”rural education in China” at the Glamour Bar, both in Shanghai. We raised enough funds at these two events for libraries in two different rural elementary schools. I would also like to thank everyone that came out to our San Francisco, Phoenix and New Jersey events. We raised enough for seven libraries during that USA fundraising run! Finally, a huge thank you goes out to Napoleon and Marcel in Hong Kong for organizing our lecture at Web Wednesdays and the XL Results Foundation. We raised enough for three libraries at these events. Thank you everyone for your hard work and dedication!

WE NEED YOUR HELP

There are three ways to get involved:

Help by spreading the word. You can help out in so many ways. Forward this newsletter to your friends, family members and coworkers, make a post on your MySpace page, blog to help raise awareness for The Library Project, or join our Facebook Group by clicking here. You can also help by hosting a small event at your home, work or local restaurant. . If you need help organizing a fundraiser, please contact me anytime at tom at library-project.org. Thank you!

Help by volunteering. You can make a huge difference in the lives of countless children in the developing world by becoming a volunteer. There are so many different ways to volunteer: you can throw a wine tasting or dinner to introduce The Library Project to others, hang a poster above the water cooler at your office, or introduce us to your company’s HR Department.

Help by making a donation. Without money, we can’t buy books. At a dollar a book, most of us can afford to buy 10, 20 or even 100 books. Make a donation and help bring the gift of education to countless children. Our libraries generally contain about 500 - 1000 books, thus every donated book (or dollar) helps!

Lastly, please check out some of our new products. We created 50 book, 100 book, 250 book and 500 book gift cards available at $1 a book. Each card also has a beautiful picture of a library we have donated. The gift cards are a perfect gift idea.

The Library Project is a non-profit organization. Your donation is 100% tax deductible. Thank you in advance for your kind support of our efforts.

Sincerely,
Tom Stader
The Library Project
Founder

When San Francisco graphic designer Tom Stader moved to China to teach English in 2003, he simply wanted to get a taste of a different culture, not necessarily change lives. After seeing firsthand some of the county’s most impoverished elementary schools and orphanages, however, he decided he could do more. So he started The Library Project, an organization that donates books to under-funded schools in remote rural communities.
“I spent a lot of time in the countryside and I saw there was a great need for books,” the Pennsylvania native says.
Stader started the project in 2006 when he donated libraries to two orphanages in Dalian. By the end of 2008, he estimates the project will have donated approximately 200,000 books and established 80 libraries throughout China, as well as 10 in Vietnam.
Typically, a library donated by Stader’s organization will include around 800 local-language books, such as children’s encyclopedias and dictionaries, as well as comic books popular with young readers. What’s more, The Library Project will often provide bookshelves, reading mats and teaching aids. The cost for a complete library is only around RMB 7,000, thanks to book drives and partnerships with local charitable organizations that assist with logistics and transportation. Such help is vital to The Library Project, as the schools they help are often in hard-to-reach locations.
“Size is everything in China. Getting books from point A to point B can be very difficult,” Stader admits.
In addition to books, The Library Project provides teachers and school administrators with a librarian-training program to help them make the most of their new resources. They also conduct a thorough follow-up evaluation to make sure the books are being used as intended, though Stader says he’s never encountered any abuse of the program.
Tall and thin with a bushy pony tail, Stader radiates enthusiasm for The Library Project. He’s also confident that the steady improvement of infrastructure in rural China will eventually make his work unnecessary. “I can’t tell you how many positive things I’ve seen in China with regards to education,” he says. “It’s getting better. But there are still a lot of areas for improvement.”

To help The Library Project deliver books to children in rural China, consider sponsoring a library, hosting a fundraising event or creating a partnership with your business or organization. The Library Project is also always looking for volunteers to help with their operations. For more information, visit  www.library-project.org.