Sunday

She Hongyu

A story of father and son

Father: He drove 38 hours day and night to Tangshan when the devastating earthquake occurred in 1976. At that time, the father, named Zheng Fanxiu, was 27 years old.

Son: He flew to quake-hit zone on May 15 immidiately after returning from a project monitoring trip to Yunnan Province. Now, he is distributing relief supplies from village to villags in Wenchuan, one of the most serioulys devastated quake-hit areas in Sichuan. His name is Zhengye, the son of Mr Zheng Fanxiu. He happens to be 27 this year.

When receiving a call from the General Secretary of the Amity Foundation, Zhengye just returned home from a project monitoring trip to Yunnan Province. He bid goodbye to his wife, who is eight month in her pregnancy, and set off to Wenchuan on May 15, the third day after the massive earthquake.

From May 15 to now, the Amity’s relief team set feet in Mianyang, Beichuan, Mianzhu and Shifang, the most serious quake-hit areas, and distributed relief materials to over 10,000 people. During this time, when they arrived at one village, they would get in contact with the Local Relief Effort Headquarters and aquire the information about the villages which were seriously affected by the quake. Then, they would go to the villages to do needs assessment before purchasing and allocating the relief materials. On May 16, Zhengye bought 300 sheets of colorful strip waterproof cloth in Chengdu. It was very difficult to find the cloth due to the shortage of supply and the excessive demand. At last, he felt a bit comfortable because the cloth would provide 1,200 temporary living shelters for victims.

On May 18, he went to the Beichuan County. He said he could hardly express his feelings on what he had seen. The whole county was like a battle field just being assaulted, filled with collapsed buildings, roads, bridges and rubbles. Amid the debris, one could see some little red flags which represented the signs of the life existing. However, looking around the whole county, he could only find four flags.

In face of the threat from the collasping dam, landslide and epidemics, Zheng and his fellow colleagues do believe that they should stand with victims hand in hand, should by shoulder to overcome the disaster. And their efforts was nicely recognized and paid back from the victims. Wherever they went, they got warmly welcome by the natives. On May 20, when they arrived in Penghua, a village in Mianzhu City, the villagers were having their dinner and they asked the Amity staff to eat with them together. During their two-day stays in Mianzhu, they slept in their own tents. The natives come to see them and entertained them with instant noodles and bread to show their appreciations. Although they were suffering sorrows and pains themselves, they were so generous and grateful to what they had, Zhengye said.

There were 609 households in Penghua Village. Over 80% of houses collapsed and the rest became dangerous buildings. Due to the insufficiency of tents, each tent holds 5 families, with 0.8 square meters for each person. Quilts are also in a shortage. The Amity Foundation purchased 1,700 quilts, 6.8 tons of rap oil and 50 tons of rice for them. Zheng said that after the assessment, they found few relief efforts were made in the rural areas, compared with urban areas where relief supplies piles up. That was why we give our attention to those villages neglected by government and other NGOs.

Every night, after one tiring and busy day, Zheng Ye will spare his time to write diaries for the Amity’s website. His wife tracked his way from the internet as he would say he was staying in a much secure area to his wife to lessen her worries. His farther, Zheng Fanxiu, said that his son was just like him as what he did was so needed and meaningful. When the General Secretary of the Amity said to his father that he felt sorry to send his son to the front line, the father said he would forever support his son as it was the time to go.

Dear all,

It is now 12th day after the earthquake hit Sichuan on May 12, 2008. The latest report from Ministry of Social Welfare: death toll: 60,560, missing: 26,221.

News from the front line Social Workers' Team

The team arrived in Mianzhu around 8:00pm on May 22. They settled down on the outskirt of the stadium of Mianzhu where 6000 relocated victims are accommodated. The stadium itself is a half-finished construction and it is actually an open space.

Our team was granted a plot down the slop from the stadium. As it rained yesterday and today, the ground was wet and the tents are easily flooded. The team had to dig ditches around the tents.The local Coordination Office of Earthquake Relief lent the team a larger tent for the group work of counseling.

Yesterday, May 23, the team was divided into smaller groups and conducted need assessment. The team wanted to know what have been done by other volunteers? What do people need? What can we do differently to avoid duplication. This morning, the preliminary work strategies have been outlined as follows:
1. The first group, consisting of 3 voluntary professors start will with children. They are setting up a spoken English training course for young children with lots of games and interactive activities. The idea is to attract children and establish closer relationship with them. During the group work, cases needing special attention will rise. More counseling work will be focused on that particular group of children;

2. The second team consisting of the rest 6 people will focus on assessment of the need of the elderly and the rehabilitation of the community.

The living and accommodating conditions are quite harsh in Mianzhu. We are deeply moved that volunteers from all over China are extending help to each other. Our group was kindly lent a much larger tent by volunteers from Southwest University of Finance and therefore did not sleep in ! water la st night. Our greatest appreciations and gratitude to them.