BEIJING – I was driving on a highway headed out of the city to coordinate donated goods and relief supplies when all other drivers began honking and pulling over. I glanced at the clock and realized it was the moment declared by the national government to launch a 3-day period of mourning.

People stood by their cars, others honked for minutes. An estimated 1.3 billion people all stopped what they were doing to remember those who had lost their lives in the earthquake. The death toll has now topped 40,000 people.

When I was returning from Chengdu and waiting at the airport, a foreign woman passed by me in a wheelchair – terribly bruised, wrapped in bandages and a blanket – and being escorted by a government representative. I approached her and asked if I could help in any way or contact her family. She said nothing and just looked at me with hollow eyes. I couldn’t bear to take her photo. I’m not sure where she was from or where she was going but she looked completely fatigued.

More and more victims are spreading out – for care, hospital treatment, or reassignment into temporary tents or open stadiums. Operation Blessing staff in Chengdu today delivered tents and supplies to 100 families in a remote village, giving them temporary shelter from the rain and elements. With 5 million people homeless, the task of finding housing is a mammoth one.

The Operation Blessing office in Beijing was bustling with staff and volunteers and full of boxes and donations such as surgical masks, gloves, children’s supplies and hundreds of disaster relief packs donated by school children and employees of Beijing corporations. We have a special agreement set up with two airlines in China allowing us to ship boxes for free – even if no one is on the plane – so we’re able to quickly and inexpensively get critically needed supplies to staff in Chengdu. We can then distribute the supplies ourselves or coordinate with other partners offering relief in the city.

No one would have thought that just weeks before the long-awaited Beijing Olympics this country would be in national mourning…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 11:00 am and is filed under Asia, China Disaster. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.