OCBC helps rebuilds quake-hit school

Mianzhu (Sichuan) - Twelve-year-old Ren Yuanxue's eyes lit up as she reached into her new school bag and saw the goodies inside.

She pulled out a set of colour pencils, a cloth pencil case, drawing books and other brand-new stationery items for school use.

'I've never had such nice things for school before,' said the shy, soft-spoken girl who is a Primary 6 pupil at Shi He Primary School in quake-hit Mianzhu, a city in southwest Sichuan province.

Around her, her classmates were less restrained, shrieking with delight over their gift-filled backpacks, delivered personally to them yesterday by a group of 20 employees and customers from OCBC Bank China's Chengdu branch.

Almost a year since the May 12 Sichuan earthquake, some volunteers and donors who contributed to the province's rebuilding effort in the immediate aftermath are returning to quake-battered areas to show survivors that they have not been forgotten.

The magnitude-8 quake killed more than 88,000 people in Sichuan and neighbouring provinces, and left millions homeless.

Hundreds of schools and hospitals were also destroyed.

The new school bags were not the only keepsake for Shi He's 350 kindergarten and primary school pupils.

Staff also handed out 500 handmade cards made by OCBC Bank employees in Singapore and Malaysia, bearing words of encouragement for the children and, above all, the message 'we still care'.

'We hope that our gesture, small though it may be, will inspire the students to continue to work hard to pursue their academic dreams,' said Mr Tan Peng Kok, general manager of OCBC Bank China's Chengdu branch.

The bank is one of many companies and organisations from Singapore that have responded to the quake tragedy through donations and by taking on rebuilding projects for schools, civic buildings and homes throughout the disaster zone.

OCBC and its employees donated 1.16 million yuan (S$256,000) to rebuild Shi He Primary School, which was badly damaged by the quake.

The school's pupils, aged between three and 12, and 18 teachers escaped unscathed.

After three months of classes in hot, stuffy tents, the children moved into their new, spacious two- storey school building last October.

To build a new school for the children, OCBC partnered a Shanghai construction company specialising in Japanese construction methods, using building material imported from Japan.

The new school building is now able to withstand quakes of magnitude-8 and above, said its principal, Mr Xu Taoming, 54.