From Lifestyle, page 50, issue no. 369, May 26, 2008
Translated by Ren Yujie
Original article: [Chinese]
Shortly after the Sichuan earthquake, writer Ran Yunfei penned an open letter of invitation to grassroots organization urging them to take part in relief work. Dozens resonded, including several NGOs in Beijing that launched a joint campaign to engage in quake relief work.
Meanwhile, an astounding number of online groups briskly organized teams to head to the front lines of the disaster area.
Not ten hours after the earthquake, Luo Yonghao, founder of the popular Bullog blog network, was working with friends on ways to collect donations for the disaster area though the internet.
A day after the earthquake struck, an internet post entitled, "Bullog Bloggers Sichuan Donation Scheme" appeared on the site's homepage. With celebrities such as best-selling author Han Han, current affairs commentator Lian Yue, and CCTV director Chen Xiaoqing were listed as sponsors.
The call for support was reposted by many other major websites too, including the book-sharing and reading community network Douban and search engine Baidu's blogs.
One of the organizers, Jing Yan said: "Some remote villages in the disaster area are beyond the reach of relief work.... Our work has been to send materials to those remote regions as fast as possible."
At that time, the Douban homepage featured notices to "pay attention to the Sichuan earthquake action group @ Douban". The wesbsite's staff organized discussions about the quake together.At one point the group "Wenchuan needs your help" had nearly 20 thousand participants.
Douban also provided groups' links for donating money, materials, blood, and other items.
One group, founded in May 14, focused on children's issues in the quake's aftermath. The founder, who signed his name as "Sima of Changsha", said his inspiration came from reading several books about the Tangshan earthquake and learning of the orphans it created.
Major organizers who took charge of this group's planning, materials colleting, publishing and liaison work knew each other from Douban.
The group kept up continuous updates on the group's work and resources. Another section allowed users to post translations of material in foreign languages about psychological aid.
On the effectiveness of their efforts, Sima said: "Our actions can be effective if taken together. For instance, we can help spread basic information about psychology. If eight hundred members each could spread this knowledge to ten people, that would be eight thousand, and if they spread it, then eighty thousand people. That is just astounding."
By the third week of May, they had finished and provided their first set of materials on the website. By the time this report went to press, there were about two hundred volunteers signed up, including fifty people with professional psychological training, most of whom had studied overseas and had clinical experiences.
