For many of us, it was our first time meeting with lepers. It really moved all of us to be there with them. Many had faced discrimination due to their illness and are now isolated from society. Our smiles and gifts certainly made their day, with interaction with the outside world. We were touched by their down-to-earth nature and strength to keep going despite the hardships they face.

Many of us sometimes wonder how much just a little bit of love and concern would make a difference to others, but for them, it made a world of a difference when they so rarely experience it.

CHINA – After difficulties winding through mountainous terrain, we finally arrived in SuXianLing, in Chenzhou this morning.  Lack of daily basic essentials is a stark reality for the residents of SuXianLing, in comparison to their city-dwelling neighbours and what media coverage has shown.  Damage to homes and losses from agriculture is a burden entirely carried by the locals — the notion of insurance and compensation do not exist in these parts of the country.  They had no water supply, no electricity and no machines or equipment, so they totally depended on their own hands to clear the roads.  The impact of the snow disaster here is certainly not recoverable immediately, but will require the combined strength of the local residents over a long period of time to return to their previous state.  What we saw and learnt from being here has made us realise how painful and hard the coming days, months and year will be for the locals.

At 11:30 a.m. we arrived at SuXianLing Orphanage with new jackets for 150 children.  It is a Chinese New Year tradition to put on new clothes on New Year’s Eve.  The children were delighted when they saw us arriving bearing them gifts.  At the same time, local helpers were busy offloading US$10,000 worth of milk powder and diapers purchased yesterday for the orphanage.

This afternoon, we made a visit to 150 elderly homeless people in Chenzhou Rural Nursing Home. Volunteers from local churches jointed us to help distribute winter coats.

CHINA – You may hear media reports about electricity being “restored to Chenzhou.” Some downtown areas of Chenzhou have had some restoration of electricity –Wal-Mart in Chenzhou has power as well as some other large stores and buildings. Last night, we observed a few restaurants open and a few residential areas with lights on. We know the government has been working quite furiously to try and restore power. Overall, however, the city appeared quite dark to us – as if little had changed. Still only two hotels have electricity and my half of the relief team spent the night in a hotel without power (quite cold!!). From our perspective on the ground, it sure feels like this is day #15 without power in Chenzhou.

Remember, the Chenzhou municipality is 74% rural — out of 4 million people in Chenzhou, only 400,000 are in the city; the rest are in the rural area. The discussion of “restored electricity” certainly is not accurate for those in the rural parts of the municipality. Our teams headed out this morning – to revisit the Chenzhou orphanage and other areas assisted. A second team headed to a much more remote area hearing that this area was quite severely impacted.

At the elderly home, most of the elderly there are without children or relatives to spend the Chinese New Year with. For them, a visitation from Operation Blessing along with the local 3-self Church Pastor (albeit strangers) was a very welcomed sight! We distributed items of warmth — quilts, winter coats and electric blankets — and offered words of hope and comfort.

Setting off to the next destination, we drove some 20 minutes on the muddy road filled with puddles, a sign of the ice finally beginning to thaw. Arriving at the village, we went to an elderly lady’s home made of mud and wood. With gratefulness she accepted our gifts of food and blanket. The circumstance of many in the village is unclear, with their income now frozen due to the effect of the cold spell on their crops and bamboo plantations. Moreover, many of their already weak building structures have been exacerbated by the heavy snow fall resulting in cracks…Many of the villages are concerned of building collapse in due time and other homes and buildings have roof damage.

There are no phones out here, so the only way to find out conditions is to visit. The situation is more severe than the other areas we have been. Their main crop is fruit trees — which appear to be a 100% loss. Not too far away from this area is a leper colony. We plan to come back here tomorrow to bring some basic relief supplies. They mostly need to repair buildings and start new fruit trees/other means of income. This is an area of extreme poverty.

CHINA – Since arriving in Chenzhou, we have seen the damage and heard the news, and both are shocking.  Early estimates say US$7 billion damages, not counting the losses of businesses and farms.  We got to see some of the disaster areas, and it’s worse than we thought.  I just found out, and was shocked, that there’s no NGO here, no other relief crews besides local government.  They don’t even have enough people to remove fallen trees from the roads.

We were able to make our first stop this morning at the Chenzhou Social-welfare Orphanage, where there are 150 orphans and 20 elderly people.   We delivered 426 bags of formula milk powder, 14,000 diapers and two suitcases of medicine.  We also ran basic health checkups on each child.  All the babies’ body temperatures were low, and one new-born had scleredema (caused by lack of warmth and nutrition).  We gave out chocolate and cereal bars to the kids for regaining energy. The orphanage had been using glass bottles filled with hot water as bed warmers, but we were able to provide 50 safe and long-lasting bed warmers.

Around noon time, we visited a nursing home for the impoverished elderly.  There were over 20 elders there.  The cold made them shiver, also seriously affected their sleeping quality and health status.  OB provided them with handheld warmers to make their winter easier.  They were touched by our presence and care and they held our hands tightly and kept saying “thank you for your kindness and wish you peace!”  Spring Festival is approaching, and there are more needy elderly lacking warmth.  We will do our best to deliver warmth to more elderly and we wish everyone suffering from this disaster a Happy Spring Festival!

Being the first NGO on the ground, we felt it was important to take video and photos, and let everyone know of the situation here.  Also, we are picking up needed cash donations to continue offering assistance.  Conditions in the city were serious but not life threatening except to particularly weak individuals or young babies perhaps.  The countryside we heard was much worse so our team traveled to two areas outside the city in order to view the situation and immediately move into critical planning and response.  We met with local government officals for needed meetings.  But now – no more meetings.  Time for action and to get critical supplies to the neediest populations in a timely fashion.