Standing together through hard times

When I left Tianjin on July 17th for my hometown Zhengzhou to spend my summer break, I could never have imagined that I was about to face several days and nights of heavy rain, which got heavier and heavier until it became a disaster.

From the Line 5 subway to the Jingguang tunnel, the bad news kept us awake on the lightless nights. While we were physically trying to overcome the difficulties in life such as the lack of drinking water, gas and electricity, we were also suffering a lot mentally. However, the warmth between people soothed our hearts.

When I occasionally received a signal on my cell phone, a stream of greetings and caring messages from relatives, friends and colleagues came in and warmed me. Looking down from upstairs during the day, more and more firefighters and soldiers from various provinces appeared on the street, then I realized that rescue teams were coming in, supplies were coming in, and we were no longer in a hopeless situation. On July 25th, when the high-speed train was available, I went back to Tianjin for work, but Henan, especially the counties and villages around Zhengzhou, were still struggling with the threat of flooding.

Coming to work at the school, I was assigned a special task. Our school had decided to use the money we had raised from various charity events over the past year to donate useful resources for the flood relief in Henan. As an employee from Henan and a victim of the disaster, I was responsible for the coordination of this donation. We contacted the local officials in Muye District, Xinxiang, Henan Province, and learned that they were severely affected, with many people trapped and farmland destroyed. They were in urgent need of large diameter pumping machines and disposable tableware. We immediately contacted different factories and then purchased 30 sets of large-diameter sewage pumps and more than 20,000 sets of biodegradable disposable tableware, which were sent to Xinxiang, Henan province on the following day.

The sewage pump manufacturer learned that we were the school donating supplies for Henan province and sold them to us at cost. It is hard to imagine that from receiving the notification of the task, to taking the green channel for financial appropriation, to contacting the local area, selecting the products and placing the order for payment and shipment, all were finished within 24 hours. Now, the supplies have been put into use. As a Henan native and a Wellington employee, I would like to thank everyone in the Wellington community for making this donation a reality. These donations came from various charity events in our school over the past year, such as the charity marathons, Summer Fair, Christmas Bazaar, pupil charity performances, and many other forms of charitable fundraising activities. All pupils, staff, families and friends in the Wellington community have contributed to this donation to Henan. I would like to say a huge thank you to all the Wellington family!

When one person is in difficulty, all hands come to support. A flood has no mercy, but people are loving and caring.  We hope that Wellingtonians have sent some warmth to the people in need through our humble efforts.