(Translation to follow…)
London Huayu reporter Peter contacted DORS, as small NGO working to improve livelihoods in Hanyuan, Sichuan Province. Hanyuan is based about 270km from Wenchuan, but was still seriously affected. Peter wanted to know how other areas of Sichuan and China outside of the media focus were affected and what kind of help they were receiving.
Guo Yumei from DoRS first said, “The answers to your your questions will probably become more clear over the next few days. Recently some aid has reached us. Soon after the quake the government began delivering mantou and water on a regular basis all over the city, using what are probably supplies from the neighboring town of Jiuxiang, which wasn’t hit much at all. One of the village markets is closed, but the biggest one is now open and still full of vegetables, at least in the morning. Many baozi shops have closed, but most people are selling things at correct prices or less than that after the quake, we only ran into one case of hiked prices. One shopowner in the New Section of the city began selling meals at large discounts or for free after the quake, and tons of people are dying to help as volunteers. Friends are reluctant to sell things to friends now, and many, many things are suddenly shared, such as our office sink and toilet which now serve everyone living in our courtyard (they help clean it too!).”
Q. How are relief efforts reaching other places like Hanyuan? Hanyuan must be typical of many small towns in Sichuan, who are badly affected but out of the media focus.
A. the towns that were hardest hit were the first focus of the relief effort, but now a large supply of at least 1,000 tents, I believe, has reached Hanyuan and are being set up in the New Section of the city–blue utilitarian one-family tents with “government emergency relief” emblazoned on them. They are extremely hot during sunny days, but it is ok for people to live temporary.
Because the roads to Hanyuan from Ya’an and Chengdu and the railway line from Chengdu have not been affected, we are able to get supplies in of most things we usually use, although many shops are closed due to structural damage to the buildings that house them. Some banks opened again today–most significantly for DORS, meaning that we can receive outside people’s donations, and for families, now they can use their savings to survive.
Q. How are people coping? What provision is being organised for the homeless? What strategies are being adopted by those who receive less help?
A. About coping, some people are continuing work as normal, especially food sellers; some work differently, such as the county central government workers, several of whom are working from desks under a tarp outside their building (at least those designated to receive things related to the relief effort and coordinate volunteers), and employees of the Ping An Insurance company affiliated with the Civil Administration Bureau, who set up a stand in the New Section accepting donations, giving them to the Civil Administration Bureau and giving some relief supplies to their clients, and DORS, which is on a totally flexible schedule and here and there outside the office or on the phone/internet. But for most people, aside from last-year high school students who have their exam for testing into college coming up in about half a month and are attending classes again on Monday in buildings classified as too dangerous to use, there is a lot of time for simply sitting under tarps, watching the news on laptops, TV or by word of mouth, moving essentials and sometimes furniture from dangerous buildings to safer places, watching out for aftershocks, being glad we don’t live in Wenchuan and and wishing there were more volunteer opportunities to aid in the relief effort.
Like in any disaster or poverty-relief situation, there are plenty of people who accept aid they don’t really need, or ask or demand for aid they don’t need. But there are also people who need and don’t ask. So this is a major challenge for DORS, trying to find the people who need and won’t ask–especially because the government seems to be doing a fine job distributing aid to those who ask for it, with what they have at any given moment.
Q. What about small villages way off the beaten track? Are they completely cut off? Is there any communication or help? How will the earthquake impact on the very poor – eg those who may have lost the main earner / worker in their household – how will planting, etc be organised?
A.As of this morning (the 17th) we could finally contact our project villages. Lately the government is really encouraging us to do more work there. At the moment they are doing better than the city, for many reasons: The buildings aren’t as tall, food is immediately available on the farm, most of the villagers were in the fields or otherwise outside at the time of the earthquake, and in village hamlets people are about all related or friends, so those whose houses are unliveable have places to go. Only two places in our villages requested tents. But in the long-term, the costs of repairing or rebuilding damaged or collapsed houses will be prohibitive for the villagers, unlike richer city folks with savings and possibly insurance payments for their lost property. For villages outside Hanyuan and nearer the epicenter, where more people have died (only three died in Hanyuan villages), the problem of having lost a laborer/major wage earner will be more severe.
