Going the extra mile for Yushu children

Beijing, June 25 2010 - This Sunday, 27 June, 53-year-old American Michael Dee will embark on a 250 kilometer (155 mile) seven day race through the gruelling heat of the Gobi Desert to focus attention and raise funds for children affected by the recent  7.1 earthquake Yushu County in Qinghai Province, China. Here are Michael Dee's own words about how he is going "the extra mile" for children.

I'm often asked 'why?' which is a fair question. While I'll explain in more detail below, one of my goals is to team up with UNICEF to help build pre-fab schools in a remote county in China where virtually all their schools were damaged beyond repair by a recent earthquake.

In Chengduo the funds will build 15 prefab classrooms with heaters, six classrooms each for two boarding schools (one of which is an orphanage) and three classrooms for a kindergarten. Each prefab structure can school up to 60 students. Chengduo is on a 4,600 meter (about 15,000 ft) plateau where winter lasts for 8 months starting from September. During the cold season, Chengduo County experiences frequent snowstorms and temperatures can drop to as low as minus 43 degrees Celsius, with gale force 7 winds. Hence the urgent need by Unicef for heated prefab structures which are essential to enable the most vulnerable and needy children in the earthquake zone to resume school in a safe environment.

In addition to the structures UNICEF also provides the following:

• 'School-in-a-box' to local schools which includes sports kits, teaching kits, students kits, library (both Tibetan and Chinese language) kits.
• Support equipment to schools such as kitchen equipment, cookers, and heaters.
• Winter clothes and boots to students.
• Early childhood development kits to local kindergartens.
• Hygiene kits as well. An assessment team will be sent to assess water, sanitation and hygiene needs for the transitional period.
• Medical equipment to local health bureaus to support Mother and Child Hospitals.
• Micronutrient food supplements to children age 6-36 months.

Besides supplies, UNICEF provides training to local counterparts such as teacher development training, health staff training.

The area of the Gobi I will be racing in is known as 'the oven' as the temperature is forecast to reach 50 Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) and the terrain is nothing short of diabolical. However it won't even come close to what the children of Chengduo have to endure just to go to school. I was particularly touched by this situation due to the Orphanage involved and the remoteness of the location. I am particularly interested in this project because of its remote location, its benefit to children, especially orphans, and the involvement of UNICEF, which is a world class operation and a personal favourite.

For an overview of the situation you can access this video from UNICEF on one of their recent visits to Chengduo:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTc3NzE5MDg4.html

I want to thank CapitaLand for their leadership in sponsoring this initiative and in encouraging others to join the effort.

Donations should be made directly to UNICEF and marked 'Gobi March Fund' 

Donation instructions are below:
http://www.supportunicefchina.org/donation_e.html

Or You can follow UNICEF China's Sina Twitter blog (in Chinese)
http://t.sina.com.cn/unicefchina