The images of a poor farmer who brought his dead wife home after the Sichuan earthquake in May moved many in China.
|
|
|
Wu Jiafang retrieved his wife's body from under debris and broght her home on his motorbike. |
Now, Wu Jiafang, 44, is about to get a new home donated by a company whose executives saw his story.
Wu, retrieved his wife's body from under debris, dressed her in her favorite rose-colored coat, tied her arms around his waist and drove her home on his motorbike on May 14, two days after the 8.0-magnitude earthquake in southwest China.
Wu's house was damaged and he has been living in a tent in the yard with his 21-year-old son. But winter has come, and in about three weeks he'll have a new 90 sq m home, built by a company based in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
"We saw Wu's story in the news and we made a decision," said Li Qunge, head of the technical center of Best House (Xinjiang) Housing Technology Development Co. Ltd.
"The company is providing the main materials worth 100,000 yuan (14,600 U.S. dollars), while my colleagues and I will pay for the rest," said Li who is helping the reconstruction effort in the quake-devastated cities of Dujiangyan and Mianzhu.
"The new house will be built of steel, weighing just one-fifth of those built with bricks. It can withstand typhoons and 9-magnitude earthquakes."
Construction has started and is expected to be completed in 20 days.
"I am just a construction worker. I really thank them for building such a good house," said Wu, who called Li and his colleagues "Xinjiang brothers".
(Xinhua News Agency December 16, 2008)