China marks earthquake anniversary

Today marks the first anniversary of China's massive earthquake that struck the Sichuan province, killing tens of thousands of people. The tragedy left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing and five million homeless.

At the Xuan Kou Middle School in Yingxiu, near the epicenter of the quake, a moment of silence was held amid the ruins of collapsed buildings and debris. Mourners placed yellow and white silk flowers at a quake memorial, sang the national anthem and a white jade carving of a clock that stopped at 2:28, when the temblor hit, with the date underneath, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

When the earthquake struck, a disproportionate number of school buildings collapsed. Parents and survivors have since said that school buildings were disproportionately affected because they were shoddily constructed. Many have accused government officials and construction contractors of being responsible and say that when they have complained they have been harassed or detained. Some correspondents say parents have been stopped from going back to the schools on sensitive occasions, and the authorities are believed to be monitoring parents leading up to the anniversary of the disaster.

SOS: helping earthquake survivors

In response to the earthquake, SOS Children's Village Chengdu (which was located 100km from the earthquakes epicentre) ran a temporary camp school in Mianzhu city to ensure education for children could continue. More than 11,000 people were killed in the city of Mianzhu in the southwestern Sichuan province after it had virtually been flattened.

SOS Children began working in China in 1986 when the first SOS Children's Village was built in Tianjin (also known as Tientsin), a large city about 100 km south east of Beijing. There are now nine SOS Children's Villages in China, which between them are home to over 1000 children. There are also nine SOS Youth Homes, ten SOS Nurseries, one SOS Secondary School, two Social Centers, and three SOS Vocational Training Centres.

If you would like to support SOS Children by sponsoring a child in China, read more here