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Half the Sky Foundation » Blog Archive » As life returns to normal... « Love Can Melt the Ice – A story for you from China At last, it’s Spring! - the news at Half the Sky » As life returns to normal… February 23rd, 2008 On behalf of many, many thousands of children who remained safe and warm through China’s toughest winter storms in 50 years, THANK YOU! The weather has warmed considerably. On Wednesday, all power was finally restored. Director Liu of the Yihuang County SWI in Jiangxi province called us on Friday. He said that Yihuang was the last place in China to have light again. Thanks to you, the orphanage was able to buy a generator which produced just enough power to light the children’s building. Although one of their buildings was severely damaged by snow and the staff had to fetch well water from the countryside for many days, no one was hurt and all 63 children stayed well. The director called to make sure we all knew how grateful he is for aid from the Little Mouse Emergency Fund. Our staff in Beijing has had conversations like this one all week long as we made arrangements to wire reimbursement for locally purchased goods to 98 different welfare institutions. Today we are pleased to announce the end of this extraordinary relief effort. From all over the world, this community has raised almost 5 Million Yuan RMB (US$700,000) to protect the children! Approximately 3 Million is going directly to those institutions which suffered through this disaster. The remaining funds will be used to help all children’s welfare institutions establish a store of emergency provisions so that this never happens again. 100% of the funds donated to the Little Mouse Emergency Fund are dedicated to this purpose. On Wednesday we will meet with Vice-Minister of Civil Affairs, Dou YouPei to make a ceremonial presentation of the proceeds of the Little Mouse Emergency Fund to China’s orphaned children, and to discuss a plan for disaster preparation in the ...