By David Qiu, World Vision Communicator
“It is very cold at night as our family hasn’t got a tent.” Qiucuo, the 8-year-old Zang girl, said. She, together with her family and relatives, are sleeping on the street after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit Qinghai Province in western China. “Our house collapsed totally. We have been sleeping in the open area for nearly 6 days.”
An assessment team from World Vision, bringing along a truck of relief items, set off to the quake zone immediately after the earthquake hit. Our staff met Qiucuo in a village of Jiegu Township in Yushu County of Qinghai and gave her a child friendly kit. She felt so happy that she shared the kit with her sister and cousins.
8-year-old Qiucuo, together with her family and relatives, are sleeping on the street after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit Qinghai Province in western China.
Qiucuo is a primary two student. Besides her parents, she also has an elder brother and three elder sisters. However, her brother and two sisters have left home for work. Qiucuo studies with her 13-year-old sister in a same school.
Qiucuo was still scared whenever she called forth the earthquake. “At that day, my classmates and I were preparing for the first lesson. Suddenly, the school shook. Some of the classmates knew there was an earthquake. We rushed out from the school building to open area immediately. I felt very frightened.”
Although the school building did not collapse, some big lumps felt down and hit some students. Qiucuo said that three of her classmates were killed by the earthquake. “I feel upset about that.”
Qiucuo (right) shares the child friendly kit with her cousins.
Just recovering from fright, Qiucuo then ran back home. She found that her house and other houses nearly collapsed totally. Some of her relatives were slightly injured. Fortunately, there was no casualty in Qiucuo’s family.
However, life was still tough for them as the family has not got a tent to live in. While they were waiting for the relief tent, they could only sleep in the open area at night. Jiegu Township is situated in mountain area and has a wide temperature range between day and night. Qiucuo and her family then found some quilts and clothes among the debris of their house to keep their body warm at night.
“It is very cold as the wind is strong at night. We need to sleep closely in order to keep warm.” One of her cousins got a running nose when Qiucuo told us her story. You can imagine that the situation will become worst if there is rain or snow at night.
The problem of food grains was solved as the family found out their food storage from the debris. However, Qiucuo did not know when she will be able to go back to school as the school building became dangerous. “I wish I could be a teacher in future. I love my teachers and I wish I will be like them.”
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