Rescue & Aid

Yushu orphans arrive in capital for counseling

By Chen Jia (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-22 08:14

Yushu orphans arrive in capital for counseling
Children aged between 9 and 17 from an orphanage in quake-hit Yushu arrive in Beijing on Tuesday afternoon for psychological treatment. [WANG GUIBIN / FOR CHINA DAILY]

BEIJING -- The first group of children from an orphanage in quake-hit Yushu of Northwest China's Qinghai province has arrived in Beijing for psychological treatment that will last three months.

The group of 15 orphans, aged between 9 and 17, along with two Tibetan teachers, are all physically well, Sun Leina of China Charities Aid Foundation for Children told China Daily on Wednesday.

"They smiled and spoke a bit when I received them at the Beijing West Railway Station on Tuesday afternoon," she said.

Before leaving the station, the children said together in simple Mandarin, "Thank you all. Thank you Beijing. Thank you Beijingers," local media reported.

Wei Jiuming, chairman of the foundation, was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying that the children will receive thorough health checkups before psychological consultations. Some other classes may also be arranged for them.

The Tse Reh Orphanage was home to 30 parentless children when the 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Yushu destroyed the structure. Fortunately, none of the children were injured.

Half of the children, who had relatives, were taken to safe shelters, but 15 remained around the rubble, facing aftershocks and night temperatures as low as -3 C.

Thanks to volunteers from the China Charities Aid Foundation for Children, the 15 children were taken to Xining, the provincial capital of Qinghai, on Friday.

Angelmom, a branch organization under the foundation that helps disadvantaged children, offered to take these children to Beijing.

A series of studies about the psychological treatment of quake survivors of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake have found that psychological wounds from a disaster can prove far more serious for children than adults.

A research report issued last year revealed an acute impact of the Wenchuan quake on the brain function of survivors, which also posed a risk to their mental health.

The research, carried out by the West China Hospital affiliated with Sichuan University in collaboration with colleagues from King's College London and University of Illinois, suggests children seem more vulnerable to psychological disorders than anyone else.

Children's psychology and way of thinking are not mature, according to the research.

For example, more than 60 percent of the child patients who survived the Wenchuan quake have since lived in a state of constant apprehension, according to earlier statistics from the Chengdu Children's Hospital.