Have you tried contacting the Red Cross…?

You can also try contacting the Taiwan-based organization Tzu Chi, which has always welcomed volunteers. I expect they will also have English-speakers if that’s important to you:

http://www.us.tzuchi.org/usa/home.nsf/home/index?OpenDocument

Best of luck, and thank you for doing your part.

I understand of course that right now they need people like licensed medical personnels, psychologists and machinery operators…but as a college student in China, I really want to help.

The girl half stuck in concrete debris taking to the photographer/reportor

Here is an unforgettable scene told by our reporters at the earthquake frontline. A girl’s lower body was stuck in concrete debris for two days waiting for rescue.

When she noticed that a reporter was trying to take a picture of her, she spoke slowly, “brother, please make me look pretty.” We all fall silent with tears in our eyes. We don’t know if she’d be rescued and how long she’s going to live. Perhaps this was already her last words. How should we interpret one’s wish to be pretty when life and death hangs at a blink?

To be pretty was her aspiration for life which we all share at this moment and we all sincerely hope that she’d survive this ordeal and live her life to the fullest. A western philosopher once said that a rose with a fleeting life span is still better than the lifeless but everlasting mountain. Perhaps this is why we stress the priority to save life in the face of this devastating disaster. By saving life we save all beautiful wishes for life as well. Now more people get to know that it is the wish to have a better and pretty life that has inspired generations of Chinese people to keep struggling since the old times.

Yesterday at Dojingyan Number 2 hospital, a doctor and a nurse told the reporter that they all had their sons still buried under the debris; greatly struck by grief they nonetheless insisted on doing their jobs to rescue more lives. To save every boy and girl stuck in debris so that they can realize their pretty dreams have been the very motivation for the PLA soldiers who marched day and night to the earthquake epicenter under extremely dangerous conditions, for the firefighters and policemen who dug out lives from debris with their hands, and for millions of people nationwide flowed to blood donation centers to give part of their lives.

Never give up on saving each and every life which has a beautiful dream attached to it. The greatest comfort we can give to our compatriots who fell in the deadly earthquake is to save more lives and to let every life live to its fullest.

http://tv.sohu.com/20080515/n256885415.shtml

Apparently, he hasn’t slept for the past 3 days and 3 nights.

I just wanted to quickly explain that I’m not the original author, the actual volunteer. I only translated the story from Tianya.

I will however repost your kind comments onto Tianya.

We are asking people like you who are in the situation for help in getting a first person idea of what is going on. We would love to have your story as a part of our participatory news site. You can contribute at the site http://www.nowpublic.com

You can also add your footage/photos and discussion here [http://www.nowpublic.com/world/china-says-earthquake-toll-could-rise-above-50-000]. Feel free to email me if you have any questions at jlam@nowpublic.com

Thank you for your help,

Jessica Lam
The NowPublic editorial team
jlam@nowpublic.com

I applaud your bravery. You state you are a young man…I would suggest you change the adjective to real man. If there were more like you in this world it would be a better world…