|
Linfen, China
Population:
4 Million
Worst Feature:
Coal Dust
Best Feature:
Hey its great to be number 1 in anything and Linfen has been
named the “World’s Most Polluted” City.
Linfen, China has been declared by several authorities as the “Dirtiest City
in the World” and the “Most Polluted Place” on the planet.
A recent trip by
a CNN reporter there to verify these claims was cut abruptly short as he had
to leave due to respiratory distress, burning eyes and chest pains, after
being in the city for only one day.
Home to Iron Foundries, Coal Mines,
Smelting plants and other offensive factories, the smog and coal dust is so
thick in the air, the sources of the foul stench and sulfurous pollution are
often obscured by the smoke they belch.
One resident said “we only see the
sun a few days a year, the color of our city is black.” Cases of bronchitis,
pneumonia and lung cancer are rampant.
The streets are so covered in black
dust and residue that people leave foot prints where they walk.
|
|
Help children in China with SOS Children
China is the world's most populous country, with a
continuous culture stretching back nearly 4,000 years. Many of the elements
that make up the foundation of the modern world originated in China,
including paper, gunpowder, credit banking, the compass and paper money.
After stagnating for two decades under the rigid authoritarianism of early
Communist rule, China has emerged in recent years as one of the world's
leading powers, its influence growing in the economic rather than military
sphere.
Our charity has been active in China since 1986 when the first SOS
Children's community was built in Tianjin (also known as Tientsin), a large
city about 100 km south east of Beijing. There are now nine SOS Children
communities in China, which between them are home to over 1000 children.
SOS Children Tianjin is on the outskirts of the city,
in Hedong, and has twenty family houses and a youth house for the older
children. It also has a nursery for children from the village and the
neighbourhood. Children from Tianjin attend local schools, and there are
excellent medical facilities nearby.
SOS Children Yantai is in the northern province of Shandong. Yantai is an
attractive and relatively prosperous coastal town, and the SOS Children's
Village with its fifteen family houses, a youth house and a nursery is in
the district of Fushan, about 15 km from the airport. Yantai is also home to
an SOS Secondary School which is the largest SOS Children's Villages
educational project in the world with capacity for over 2500 pupils, and is
ranked among the best schools in the country.
SOS Children Qiqihar opened in 1992. The industrial town of Qiqihar is in
northern China in Manchuria, in the province of Heilongjiang. It is an
important economic and cultural centre with a population of around 5.5
million. The village is on the River Nen in the western part of the town, an
area with a well developed infrastructure, with plenty of schools, hospitals
and other public services. As well as the fifteen family houses which are
home to over 100 children, it has a youth house and a nursery. An SOS
vocational training centre was opened in 1996 teaching computer science,
office skills, tailoring and industrial arts to around 500 young people,
with dormitory facilities for 250.
SOS Children
|
