RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
At the end of a tragic week in China, the images that stay in one's mind are those of school children - small bodies laid out on makeshift stretchers or in the arms of their grieving parents. That so many schools collapsed in last Monday's earthquake is generating enormous anger there. China's government has just released a tally, nearly seven thousand school rooms were destroyed. We spoke to an organization in the San Francisco Bay area, which is still waiting on news of schools it supports. Helen Yang is with the Shin Shin Foundation.
Ms. HELEN YANG (Shin Shin Education Foundation): We have 31 schools in Sichuan Province, all of them in rural area. We have been able to contact 12 of the 31, but we're worried about the other 19. We're still trying.
We found that there is one school actually in the epicenter, and there are schools in adjacent counties and very heavy damaged. We have not been able to get hold of them.
MONTAGNE: The Shin Shin Foundation was started 10 years ago by elderly Chinese Americans who wanted to fund elementary schools in remote areas. The foundation is named for an old Chinese motto: a group effort will bring prosperity.
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