SOS Children not affected by violence in Urumqi, Western China

As of 07 July, the children and mothers at SOS Children's Village Urumqi in western China are safe as the Village is not in an area directly affected by the violence.

The city of Urumqi is the capital of the Xianjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in Northwest China. The Uighurs, an ancient Turkic people, are the largest population group of this region. Xianjiang is situated in the very heart of Asia: Urumqi is the world's farthest city from the sea (about 2,000 miles).

Both the Uighurs and the Han Chinese blame each other for the recent outbreak of violence in Urumqi. The unrest was apparently sparked by a brawl between Uighurs and Han Chinese several weeks earlier in a toy factory thousands of miles away in Guangdong province. Sunday's violence started when Uighur protesters attacked cars and turned on local Han Chinese battling security forces.

SOS Children's Village Urumqi is located in the western part of the city. It has fourteen family homes for 140 orphans. There is also an SOS Nursery School, which has four classrooms. The nursery cares for 120 children and is attended by many children from the local community. A few miles from the SOS Children's Village are a large market and a big hospital. A school, which is part of Xinjiang Agriculture University, is close by as well.