Red ribbon to deliver love

In quake-hit areas, many volunteers wear a red ribbon at their wrists. They are well organized, assembling in front of disaster-relief headquarters and awaiting orders.

At blood donor centers, students line up in a long queue, waiting to donate their blood. At the central hospital in Mianyang City, university students carry wounded persons with stretchers, girls help tidy up clothing and feed the injured, while other pupils count and register relief materials.

At Jiuzhou Gym where thousands of victims are temporarily resettled, volunteers are organizing clothes for victims from a mountain of relief clothes. Some of them have worked for two days straight; they're exhausted.

Eating is a big problem in resettlement points. At a resettlement point during lunchtime volunteers distribute meals to victims. Every victim receives some soup and two dishes, including one vegetable and one meat, hot rice and buns. But the volunteers themselves eat only cold buns, bread and mineral water.

The youngest volunteer in Jiuzhou Gym is no more than 4 years old. Everyday, his mother takes him to the gym to distribute gifts to other children. He has a tough time walking through the crowd but everyone is touched by the toddler's behavior.

In quake-hit areas, volunteers appear wherever they are needed. They have a common objective: to devote themselves to relief work to help those who suffer.

(China.org.cn by Wang Wei and Xiang Bin, May 27, 2008)