Tom Mitchell reports in the Financial Times:
The emergency teams that converged on Dujiangyan, one of the cities worst hit by this month’s devastating Sichuan earthquake, were joined by a small caravan from the Chengdu Catholic Youth Fellowship.
“We wanted to see the real situation so we could know how to help,” said Sun Chaolun, a college student and founder of the 200-member group. “There were a lot of people who needed help, but we didn’t know where they were.”
Communicating through their blog, Jesus4Chengdu, about 20 members of Mr Sun’s fellowship loaded cars with food and water and left Chengdu, the provincial capital, for Dujiangyan where, as of the weekend, the official death toll stood at 3,075. There, they distributed aid and helped to rescue survivors from the rubble.
An outpouring of volunteer assistance has been one of the most notable features of the emergency operations, as individuals and small groups such as Mr Sun’s fellowship seek to graft their efforts on to government and military relief work.
