• A devastating earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter Scale ripped through the northeastern regions of Sichuan Province in northwestern China on Monday, 12 May 2008 at 2:30pm. It was a normal working and school day shortly after lunch.

• Villages, towns and communities were destroyed and millions of people suffered within a short span of 90 seconds.

• It is considered the worse natural disaster to have struck the People’s Republic of China. Over 80,000 people are reported dead with 200,000 still missing.

• Entire families lost and as a consequence of the ‘One-Child Policy’ many parents lost their only child. Many children have become orphans. Many people are left alone. Family and relatives were wiped out completely.

• Communities and villages have lost their only support mechanism. Infrastructure completely destroyed.

• Many of the children died in schools and traumatized parents are accusing sub-standard building standards as partly to blame. School teachers also perished.