China is facing many problems in recovering from Saturday’s magnitude 6.6 earthquake in Sichuan Province.  Landslides and aftershocks are thwarting rescue efforts.  And the Chinese Red Cross is not getting the donations that it once did.

NON-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are seeing an uptick in donations.  The state-run Red Cross Society Of China announced receiving only about $10 million in donations for earthquake relief.  But the private NGO Sina Microcharities collected more than $13 million.

The disparity is because of a scandal in the state-run Red Cross Society Of China in 2011.  A 20-year old woman named Guo Meimei identified herself as the “commercial general manager” at the Red Cross on her Internet blog.  And she uploaded boastful photographs of herself online posing next to Italian sports cars, hoarding Hermes handbags, and flying in business-class cabins.  The scandal exploded across China’s microblog world, with newly affluent Chinese wondering where their donations were going.

Clogged roads and debris are blocking rescuers as make their way on foot into the mountainous southwest quake zone.  Tents cities are sprouting up for the 17 thousand families forced out of their damaged homes, but not nearly fast enough.  The local Communist Party Secretary says 12 thousand more tents are needed.

“We're finding in the communities that there are shortages of water, there's shortages of food, tents, plastic sheeting,” said Pia MacRae of the NGO “Save the Children”.

"And then for the severely affected families, they're going to be needing obviously household kits to be able to start cooking, et cetera," she added.

The quake and its aftershocks left 188 people dead and thousands injured.