Mianyang, China ? Donated vans came from another Chinese province. American students arranged extra warehouse space for donated food, water and medicine. A Canadian couple offered free medical expertise.

Linking them all is Heart to Heart International, an Olathe, Kan.-based humanitarian group that is putting foreign volunteers and Chinese together to get help to survivors of China’s worst earthquake in decades.

“We pay our own way to come here and help. People say, ‘Why do you do that?’ I say to the Chinese: ‘One day we’ll have this need. We will need to have the world help us,”‘ said Dr. Gary Morsch, founder of Heart to Heart.

Largely powered by volunteers, the disaster-aid group is a rarity in China, which has long been suspicious of nongovernmental organizations and foreign influences.

China initially refused all offers to have foreign aid workers involved in disaster relief, saying it would accept emergency supplies but didn’t have the capacity to accommodate foreign aid teams.

But the horrifying devastation across a wide swath of central Sichuan province quickly convinced Beijing it needed specialized help.

Search and rescue teams from Japan, Russia, Singapore and South Korea were allowed in, fanning out to extract survivors, and increasingly bodies, from unstable mounds of rubble. But China inexplicably refused entry to teams from Britain, Australia and several other nations.

Still, China’s ability to respond using its own resources and manpower has been impressive, Morsch said.

“I think the response here has been as great and quick and fast as anywhere I’ve seen,” he said.

Heart to Heart’s unusual access is due to its long-standing presence in Chengdu, where it set up offices 11 years ago to work a variety of projects, including specialized medical training and disaster management.

Partnering with local Chinese groups and the provincial health bureau, the group slowly built up the trust that has allowed it to work unhampered during the earthquake crisis.

In the last week, an average of 100 volunteers a day has streamed through the group’s main Chengdu office, some dropping off carloads of supplies, others offering to be part of relief teams. About half are foreigners, including Americans, Koreans and Germans, and the rest are Chinese.

“We live here in Mianyang,” said one volunteer, Aaron Cyboron, 27, of Norfolk, Neb., who has been studying Chinese at a local university for three years. “When the quake happened, we were desperately looking for ways to help.”