Rotaract Club of Tai Po had a meaningful Christmas
service in 2008. By joining a group of enthusiastic Rotarians from
our Mother Club, the Rotary Club of Tai Po, seven of us embarked our
first visit to the victims of the earthquake in Sichuan in last December.
The trip was part of the service of the Stand Tall Project, which
is sponsored by our Mother Club and consisted of volunteer medical
professionals and Rotarians as committees. It aimed at providing medical
advice and rehabilitation service to the amputees injured from the
fatal earthquake.
During the visit, we held a Christmas party
to share the festival joy with the amputees in the Chengdu Provincial
Hospital. Apart from playing games and singing Christmas songs, one
of us put on the Santa Claus costume and presented gifts to the participants,
who were mainly children. The big smile on their faces showed that
they had a lot of fun, some of them said they had never received a
gift from Santa Claus before. With the sponsorship by our Mother Club,
we helped distributing some blankets and stationery to every patients
from ward to ward. We also took time in talking with them to learn
their rehabilitation progress as well as expressing our sincere support
to them. Before our return to home on the last day, one of the injured
girl brought us to her temporary home which was built at a suburb
right next to a destroyed area. We were amazed by how quick the response
was taken by the government in rebuilding the estates and how organized
it was in managing and settling the affected people.
It was a fruitful trip that we all had gained
a much better idea of the actual situation of the victims. We hope
to spread the information we have gathered from this trip to other
Clubs as well as the people around us so that we can unite our power
to better service these people in need in the future.
To learn more about the Stand Tall, you may
visit http://www.standtallchina.org/.
