TAGAJO, Miyagi Prefecture--Survivors of the Great Sichuan Earthquake in 2008 will never forget the support they received from Japanese.
TAGAJO, Miyagi Prefecture--Survivors of the Great Sichuan Earthquake in 2008 will never forget the support they received from Japanese.
Students in Sichuan province who benefited from that help decided to pay it forward--they raised about 170,000 yen ($2,070), which they have donated through a Japanese volunteer organization.
The money, along with a thousand paper cranes, was handed May 23 to Teizan High School in Tagajo, Miyagi Prefecture, which was hard hit in the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11.
Teizan High School students said they were grateful and encouraged to receive support from overseas students who had gone through similar difficulties.
At Teizan High School, one of its 480 students died and another went missing in the quake and tsunami. Many still have to travel long distances to school.
The Chinese Volunteer Network chose Teizan High School as a recipient because it offers Chinese classes.
Yoshiaki Hata, representative of the volunteer organization, handed 240,000 yen to student council members on behalf of the Chinese donors.
Of the total, 170,000 yen was collected by students at Mianzhu Senior High School, which is located near the epicenter of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake that struck May 12, 2008.
Hata also presented the students with handwritten messages, which included "Ganbare!" "Jia you!" and "Hang in there!" in Japanese, Chinese and English.