By Anna Gibson | Chief Development Officer
Immediately following the May 12th earthquake, ActionAid went to work in the largely-unserved but hard-hit rural communities. Our teams were in remote villages around Sichuan – two days travel in many cases - and relief work was underway by May 15th. There were no local aid organizations to work through so ActionAid staff assessed the situation and began distributing relief materials on their own. Volunteers from Chegndu City were recruited to help drive the supplies over the already rough and now earthquake damaged roads.
By June 1, ActionAid provided relief materials to more than 17,000 people living in Cifeng and Longermenshan townships in Pengzhou country and in camps in Nanba township in Pingwu county, two of the hardest hit areas in the earthquake zone. In addition to providing tents to be used as schools and books, we also provided medical supplies to the Nanba relief camp – the only medical service available to local survivors – reaching 2,000 people.
ActionAid also supported six child sponsorship communities in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces participating with temporary shelters, relief materials and training on how to cope and rebuild in the aftermath of the earthquake. Our efforts in these communities provided relief supplies to 6,500 people. In Lueyang, Shaanxi province, we provided 109 families with tents and food. In Ninggiang, also of Shaanxi Provinec, we provided tents to serve as classrooms for 10 local elementary and middle schools. In Gansu province, we provided temporary shelters and cooking items to 93 villagers in Hui County.
While providing this direct, on-the-ground assistance, ActionAid sent our best responders to China to help with long-term recovery planning and coordination. We also initiated a dialogue with the Poverty Alleviation Department of the Chinese government about planning long-term recovery work.
Our child sponsorship communities immediately shifted the focus of their work to providing psychosocial care to school children and providing tents, books and supplies so that the schools could reopen. Our team also organized activities for International Children’s Day – a holiday equivalent in importance and anticipation to Christmas here in the US.
Our Ongoing Work in the Earthquake Zone
After the initial relief work was finished, ActionAid would up our work in the far-flung communities due to lack of local partners, lack of resources and tightened control by the Chinese government. We chose to focus our long-term rehabilitation work in Ninggiang, Shaanxi Province where we have a deep, sustaining presence. Our hope is to establish a model to provide insights and guidance for rehabilitation work across the country. Capacity-building for government officials is a key element of this strategy. Other activities include:
-- In late 2008, ActionAid helped 46 families in Ninggiang, Shaanxi Province to rebuild their homes. We will help another 50 families rebuild in the first six months of 2009. -- ActionAid will provide micro-grants to farmers to replant and rehabilitate earthquake-affected crops throughout the Spring 2009 sowing season. -- Following on a similar visit to Bangladesh, a team of Chinese government officials will visit India to meet with government aid officials, NGO representatives and ActionAid India staff to learn about what has worked in disaster response and to see work modeled at ongoing recovery efforts in India. A training video will be made to be shared more broadly across provincial governments in China. This trip will take place as soon as the relationship between the governments allows.
The rehabilitation process in the region will take years. With limited resources, it is important that ActionAid focus our efforts on identifying innovative, replicable approaches that can be sustained locally. Between the work rebuilding houses, the capacity building with the government and the restoration of livelihoods for farmers, ActionAid aims to influence how the rehabilitation work by national and local governments happens and to increase the voice and participation of their citizens in these efforts.
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