By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-28 08:02

DEYANG, Sichuan -- Yin Xianjin is a qualified lawyer but the earthquake has turned him into a missionary for children.

His mission is to organize and deliver aid to the survivors. And his friends in Beijing have entrusted him with the mission: Make children happy.

Yin has lost dozens of friends and acquaintances and his house in the quake and knows the local conditions very well. So he got in touch with his Beijing friends online, and sought their help for the victims. They sent him money and decided on a "wish list" after discussing it with him.

Yin Xiaojin hands out bags of milk powder to earthquake victims in a village in Deyang, Sichuan province. [China Daily]

"Children's Day (June 1) is round the corner, and my friends in Beijing want the kids in the quake-hit areas to spend it nicely," says Yin. That can help them overcome the trauma.

The elderly, too, are badly in need of such occasions, he says. And to help some of them, he is carrying milk powder, medicines and other daily necessities in his car.

His friends' group sent a representative, Pu Yu, to Deyang too. Pu helps the 34-year-old Yin to deliver the items that they send. The two have spent the whole of Tuesday morning buying the items on the long list, which went into Yin's car later.

The Deyang native started his relief work on May 12, even though his own apartment had been razed.

"I'm thinking of lending my entire life to voluntary work and help rebuild my hometown," he says.

One of the first children to get Yin's surprise gift is three-year-old Du Shaoting, who lives with her mother in a makeshift house in the ruined Hanwang town. Du got bags of milk powder, a cup and mosquito and fly repellents.

She smiles in her mother's arms, and it seems she doesn't know that her father was killed in the quake. "We needed the milk powder desperately and we didn't have the money to buy it," says Yan Qing, little Du's mother.

The mosquito and fly repellent is very useful as insects have become a nuisance and can spread disease in such times, Yan says. "In fact, they have already spread diseases among the elderly in our village."

Just a few kilometers from where Du sits in the comfort of her mother's lap, the Jiulong Primary School lies in ruins. The school building collapsed on May 12, killing most of the students.

"The dead kids have asked me to do something for those who are still alive," says Yin, tears rolling down his cheeks.

Sounds of children crying under the debris could be heard even on the next day, but "we didn't have cranes to remove the debris" and save them.

About 20 km west of Deyang lie the rubble of collapsed houses and factories.

More than two weeks after the quake that claimed more than 15,000 lives in the city, most of the survivors have moved into the tents.

"I know my hometown well and we will try to reach our aid to the blind spots," says Yin. "Remote villages, those far away from the main road are our targets."