Letter From Gongzhan Wu Re Earthquake In China

Dear Families & Friends,

As you all know, the biggest natural disaster since 1976 occurred with the earthquake yesterday in China’s Sichuan province. I am deeply saddened by the reports and photos. The earth quake has already caused severe consequences. More than 12,000 have been killed with 26,000 plus wounded. Hundreds of school children in Dujiangyan city are still missing when having classes. Yinxiu town near the center of the earth quake, has 12,000 resident, but only 3,000 survived, according to a local report.
I am in touch with people living in the area hit by the earthquake. Here is the latest news:


Chengdu – the provincial capital city of Sichuan, which is 90 kg away from Wenchuan, the center of the earth quake, has some damage, but is manageable. Chendu airport is closed, and all the flights go through Chongqin now.

Changsha is fine. They felt the earthquake, but there were no severe consequences.

Beijing, Tianjin, and Nanjing also felt the earthquake, but not on the same scale as Shihcuan.

The Shanghai Children's Home is closed for volunteers. It was first closed in March and April due to an epidemic of Measles and Flu. It was going to reopen, but it closed again due to an epidemic of the EV71 hand-foot-mouth virus. The good news is that none of the children at SCH is infected.

Communication is still down in many of the affected areas, but so far the Half the Sky Foundation is reporting that the children in the SWIs in Chengdu, Chongqing and Yibin are all safe.

Two Gladney mom, Stephanie Bluckel and Beth Ann are trying to collect information about the regions where our families have adopted from and post the updates on the blog at www.gladneychinaadoption.blogspot.com.

Although children living in the SWI's seem, so far, to be safe, there has been tremendous loss of life and damage in the earthquake affected areas of China. Gladney's China Initiative will be collecting donations to help in this time of great need. Checks can be made out to Gladney Center with earmark to China-earthquake, and sent to the New York office at:

Gladney Center for Adoption

363 Seventh Avenue
3rd Floor

New York, NY 10001


The donation is tax deductable, and I promise every penny of your donation will go to the children from the earth quake hit area in Sichuan.
For more information about Gladney's China Initiative, please visit http://chinainitiative.org

For the latest news and pictures, please visit http://www.nytimes.com

Thank you,



Gongzhan Wu

Asian Program Manager
& Director, New York Office
Gladney Center for Adoption
363 Seventh Avenue, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10001
Tel: 212-868-4561
Fax: 212-868-4566