We’ve received a message from the principal of Chiao Hsin Chinese Language School, who donated the money SQR recently used to purchase textbooks and other goodies for a village school in Qingchuan.
Principal Wang said, “seeing the photos of the cute children’s faces brimming over with happiness moved them all deeply. American children really are very fortunate.”
The long-standing partnership between SQR and The Library Project continued last month, as reported by SQR’s Development Coordinator, Li Jiehao.
In the week beginning October 19th, The Library Project’s China Regional Director Jenny Wang and Donation Team Leader Jocelyn Jia, together with two Swedish volunteers — Jennifer and Tarlan — and myself, visited rural village schools around Baoxing County, 130km west of Chengdu.
During this five-day trip, 14 village primary school libraries were established in the following villages:
Baoxing Villages visited by SQR and The Library Project in October 2009.
Download this map to Google Earth.
- Wulong Fengshou Village School
- Shengli Village No.1 School
- Shengli Village No.4 School
- Tuanjie Village School
- Modaoxi Village School
- Dayu Village School
- Heping Village School
- Leile Village School (in Qiaoqi Zangzu Town)
- Kari Village School
- Kari Fengshou Village School
- Jiala Village Qinglong School
- Zegen Village Jiajin School
- Zegen Village School
- Yaoji School
Like a lot of village schools in earthquake zone, these schools were all damaged to some degree, but fortunately none of the students and teachers of these schools was injured during the quake. Well over a year after the quake, the village children have moved back into newly-reinforced classrooms.
These village schools generally comprise one class for each grade from Grade One to Three, each class having around 40 students. Three to four teachers are responsible for the teaching, school management and maintenance. Due to the lack of the educational funding, these schools are usually suffering from extremely poor teaching and general facilities (see the similar conditions of a village school in Qingchuan County).
SQR helped The Library Project to identify the 14 schools listed above, and were there to help the schools to improve both the students’ extracurricular study, as well as teachers’ resources, by bringing them around 300 books and other reading material suitable for each age group with which to establish a lending library.
The members of The Library Project also trained the teachers in some basic librarian skills, and explained how the provided books could be best used in daily education. Jenny Wang said that these suggestions definitely help schools to maintain the usage of the books themselves and to make the most of every single donation.
As well as immediately seeing the benefits that The Library Project brings to these village schools, I was able to use the skills I learned from observing Jenny and the team when I visited Yanyan Village School a few weeks later.
Well done to Jenny, Jocelyn, Jennifer, Tarlan and The Library Project as a whole for keeping up the good work. We look forward to working with you again in the near future.
The SQR team took a long, bumpy ride to the north-east of Sichuan at the beginning of this week to deliver more than sixty backpacks, crammed with textbooks and other goodies, for the schoolchildren of Yanyan Village, deep in Qingchuan County. The school is currently being run by volunteers, coping with little or no resources, in a building that is no more than bamboo boards on a dirt floor, with no electricity.
Although for much of the way there the winding mountain roads were — at best — uneven dirt and stones, and in places ankle-deep in mud, our skilful driver Mr Tang got us the four-hundred kilometres there in about seven hours. We crossed two rivers and there was only one occasion where we had to get out and push the van out of an uncooperative muddy hole.
On the way back we were rather less fortunate. Not only did we have to wait more than three hours while an on-coming truck that was stuck in the middle of the road freed itself (with a bit of teamwork from all the other drivers that were waiting to pass), but we then got stuck ourselves in virtually the same spot — and all other help had chugged away up the mountain. By the time we had pushed and skidded our way out of this and several other points along this particularly bad stretch of road, it had taken six hours to travel a distance that had earlier taken about an hour, and it took another six and a half hours to complete the rest of the journey back to Chengdu, our shoes and clothes caked in mud.
It’s the unpredictable nature of these roads that makes daily trips to a central school in the nearby town of Qima so infeasible. For this reason — together with the village school’s current lack of educational resources — many schoolchildren are not currently attending classes at all. The central school is too hard to get to (or too much to afford boarding or renting closer to town), and the village school does not have the means to provide a decent education. (For more information on why village schools in Qingchuan are so lacking, see our earlier posting.)
In an attempt to both raise awareness and address this problem, SQR decided to use a generous donation from Chiao Hsin Chinese Language School in California, USA, to purchase a selection of the required textbooks for the sixty children we had been told were not currently attending the central school. Packed neatly alongside the textbooks, inside a brand new backpack, each child also received:
We also donated a CD player and teaching materials (chalk; books with ideas for lessons) to the school, and received a promise from the head of the village that students from nearby villages who were not present on the day would be given their backpacks as soon as possible.
And as well as the brand new books, on behalf of Sichuan Normal Junior School we also donated two large boxes of used, good condition textbooks covering a wide range of subjects including art, mathematics, English and music.
As you can see from the selection of photos below, the trip was a great success and was well worth every bone-juddering, shoe-ruining moment of the journey.
A huge thank you to both Sichuan Normal Junior School and Chiao Hsin Chinese Language School for their donations, and to Jane from Chengdoo Magazine for liasing with Chiao Hsin. These contributions enabled us to not only bring essential supplies to a remote village school, but deliver a message to the people living there that organisations such as SQR have not forgotten about them.
Donate to SQR to help fund more of these important trips.
Two fund-raising sporting events took place in Chengdu last month, both in aid of raising money for SQR.
First on the calendar was the Tianfu Community Cup First Chengdu Charity Tennis Tournament, organised by Dan Garvey, taking place at the Hi-Tech Tennis Centre on October 17th. Entrants were asked to pay a minimum registration fee of 100RMB, but many of the competitors generously donated more than that.
The eventual winners were Liu Yong, taking first place in the singles competition, and doubles champions Ping Xing and Du Biqiang. The grand total raised was 8,380 RMB — a fantastic achievement for the first such event of its kind in Chengdu, and we thank Dan, the sponsors, the players and the team of tireless volunteers for making it such a success.
Just over a week later saw the third annual ABE Charity Cup, a football (in the soccer sense of the word) tournament organised by the American, British and European Chambers of Commerce. Member companies sponsored teams in a series of knock-out seven-a-side games that resulted in a handsome cup for the overall winners, as well as a plate for the winners of a match between the losing semi-finalists. When the final whistles blew, British Chamber chairperson Zhao Yong’s “The Great Company” lofted the cup as this year’s champions, with Chengdu-based manufacturing company CMMC proudly heading back to the office with the plate.
In all 16 teams took part and the organisers did a marvellous job arranging matches and ushering teams to finish the event bang on schedule. Local media from both Sichuan and Chengdu TV channels were present and we were pleased to see the event appear as SCTV4′s “And finally…” feel-good story on the evening news.
The event raised more than 30,000 RMB for SQR, which — together with the money from the tennis tournament — will be put towards the Guangji Kindergarten & Community Centre project.
Events like these not only raise much-needed funds for SQR to continue with its work, but also ensure that the issues facing victims of the earthquake remain firmly in the public eye, and we deeply thank everyone again for their continued support.
We’ve got a several SQR-related events happening in October for the more physically-active among you.
For more details on all of these great days out, head over to our Events page.
12th May 2009 sees the release of the EP Afterquake.
The collaboration was inspired in 2008 through Abigail’s volunteer work for Sichuan Quake Relief where she performed in ‘relocation schools’ with kids from pre-school to high school — most of whom were relocated from mountain villages to schools in new locations far from their families.
The team included:
The project started only a month or so ago and is being completed at lightning speed. It was amazing to witness the creative team’s commitment and energy, and Chengdu Bookwormers were treated to a first listen to the material, presented by Abigail and Dave just a few weeks ago.
The EP Afterquake will be for sale on Amazon (physical copies with international shipping), and Hinote will be handling digital distribution throughout mainland China and Taiwan. Everywhere else in the world it will be available through the soon-to-be finished Afterquake website (physical copies) and digitally on i-Tunes. A generous portion of sales revenues will be donated to Sichuan Quake Relief. The EP will also be on sale at the Chengdu Bookworm.
More about Afterquake and the people behind it:
The official Afterquake press release is as follows:
Abigail Washburn & The Shanghai Restoration Project Honour the One-Year Anniversary Of The Sichuan Earthquakes
Folk/Electronica Collaboration Melds Post-Earthquake Soundscapes With the Voices Of Relocated School Children and Their Faraway Families For Benefit Album ‘Afterquake’National Multi-Media Museum Exhibition Planned For 2009 & 2010
Digital & Limited Edition EP CD Available May 12th 2009
Portion Of All Proceeds To Benefit Sichuan Quake Relief
In honour of the one-year anniversary of the Sichuan Earthquakes, two pioneers in entirely different genres — folk and electronica — have merged to increase knowledge and understanding of the continuing aftermath of the earthquake. More than 88,000 have died, with upwards of 5 million left homeless or relocated. A portion of the proceeds from this EP will benefit the Sichuan Quake Relief organization.
Afterquake is a collection of raw, remixed field recordings of post-earthquake soundscapes as well as performances by relocated children and their faraway parents captured and produced by Abigail Washburn and Shanghai Restoration Project creator Dave Liang, in cooperation with Sichuan Quake Relief. Currently in the Chinese countryside, they will complete the entire record start to finish in two weeks’ time.
The collaboration was inspired in 2008 through Abigail’s volunteer work for Sichuan Quake Relief where she performed in ‘relocation schools’ with kids from pre-school to high school – most of whom were relocated from mountain villages to schools in new locations far from their families.“The children and teachers expressed intense grief at the loss of home and family,” says Washburn, a former Sichuan resident featured in Newsweek for her “weirdly wonderful” blend of Chinese culture and American-roots music. “I wanted to return and record their stories and songs in their own voices.”
A kindred spirit was found in collaborator Dave Liang, whose Shanghai Restoration Project combines the sounds of traditional Chinese instruments with hip-hop and electronica. His project has been featured on NPR, KCRW, KEXP and the Beijing Olympics.
Despite the tragic nature of the events inspiring this record, the sounds of the children captured by Liang and Washburn are encouraging and uplifting: playground noises – ping pong, basketball, jacks, handclapping games – are melded into a danceable rhythm; a 7th grade student performs a traditional Qiang minority dance song for her classmates; Tibetan sisters recite a bedtime prayer their mom used to sing to them; a relocated boy sings a ballad about missing his mom over the sounds of his parents rebuilding their house.
Afterquake will be available May 12th 2009 as a digital EP and limited edition CD, exactly one year to the day of the earthquakes.
shanghairestorationproject.com // abigailwashburn.com // www.afterquakemusic.com
For more information contact: Carla Parisi at Kid Logic, kidlogic@nj.rr.com or +1 973-563-0204
Through the principal of a Kindergarten in Guangji (close to LuoShui) that Sichuan Quake Relief is rebuilding, SQR met a little girl today who has been diagnosed with Leukemia ten days ago. Her name is Yan Daiyu and she is seven years old. Her parents brought her to Renmin Hospital in Mianzhu were she was diagnosed with leukemia. After a couple of days the Yan Daiyu had to leave the hospital, since her parents could not even afford to pay the 20.000 RMB the hospital asked for the first diagnosis and treatment.
The house the parents, grandparents and Yan Daiyu used to live in was completely destroyed during the quake, now the whole family lives in a small shed they built themselves. Both parents have lost their job and cannot afford to rebuild the house or pay for their daughter’s treatment. The father said he didn’t care about rebuilding the house he just wants his daughter to get treatment and would do anything to make that possible.
When we met the family they hadn’t properly eaten in three days and were desperate for help. Neither media nor government has been able or interested to help so far. We left the family with 3000 RMB so they could buy food, but aren’t able to fund the treatment or rebuilding. We are getting will meet with doctors from HuaXi hospital tomorrow to talk about Yan Daiyu’s situation, cost etc.
To stand an actual chance Yan Daiyu would have to start treatment in HuaXi Hospital in Chengdu as soon as possible. The total cost of this would be around 500.000 RMB.
If anybody has questions or knows any company, individual or NGO that would be interested in funding the treatment please contact us as soon as possible. Also, please forward this information and spread the news about Yan Daiyu.
[IMPORTANT NOTE: the title of this story was edited on Monday 23rd March 2009 to reflect the changing estimates of the level of funding required. As the next blog entry illustrates, it is difficult to estimate costs, and experience has shown that initial estimates can be on the low side. SQR will keep updated with the latest estimates of funding required.]
Japan offers $1.35 mln help to China’s quake zone
Xinhua 2009-01-14 19:13:08
Japan will donate ambulances and fund eight projects in Chinese areas affected by the May 12 earthquake.
The assistance is valued at 1.35 million U.S. dollars.
According to an agreement signed Wednesday between China’s Commerce Ministry and the Japanese Embassy in China, Japan will help construct one medical clinic as well as a disease control and prevention building.
In Da’nangou and Xinzhai villages in the Gansu Province, Japan will fund the construction of two primary schools. The timetable for the project was not released.
The money will also be used to purchase supplies of drinking water, medical equipment and 20 ambulances which will be used in the Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces.
Japan shares the pain of the Chinese in the Wenchuan earthquake and will provide further help for quake reconstruction, said Yuji Miyamoto, Japanese Ambassador to China.
China’s vice minister of Commerce Yi Xiaozhun expressed thanks to the Japanese government for its help.
The Wenchuan 8.0-magnitude earthquake on May 12 left more than 87,000 people dead or missing and millions homeless. The cost was put at more than 845 billion Yuan.
This Revised Emergency and Recovery Appeal seeks CHF 167,102,368 (USD 137.7 million or EUR 110 million) in cash, kind, or services to support the Red Cross Society of China to assist an estimated 200,000 families (up to 1,000,000 people) affected by the earthquake for 31 months.
This revised appeal will address the specific recovery needs based on technical assessments that have been conducted by the Red Cross Society of China with support from the International Federation in the earthquake affected areas. The appeal covers the provision of life-saving relief and substantial recovery and reconstruction programmes to address widespread humanitarian needs in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.
This operation is expected to be implemented over 31 months, and will therefore be completed in December 2010; a final report will be made available by March 2011, three months following the end of the operation.
Appeal history:
This Revised Emergency and Recovery Appeal reflects the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ continued commitment towards assisting the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) in meeting the huge needs of communities affected by the 12 May Sichuan earthquake. It is being revised to enable the RCSC and its partners to focus efforts where needs have been identified based on technical assessments in relief, shelter, water and sanitation, psychosocial support and health services, and livelihoods. It will also enable the RCSC to strengthen its organizational capacity for relief, recovery/reconstruction and disaster risk reduction in the disaster-affected areas.
The plans of action were developed after technical assessments were conducted and are based on realistic expectations of the ability of the RCSC to scale-up the size and complexity of its programming. The processes and activities implemented under this appeal will include the provision of technical assistance to the RCSC and the joint implementation of pilot programmes that RCSC may then consider scaling up with the substantial resources raised in response to their national fundraising campaign. It is clear that the needs in the region are enormous. The only limit of the International Federation’s support will be the funding received and the joint capacity of the RCSC and International Federation to implement the planned activities. There are still limitations on the number of international delegates based in Sichuan, although it has loosened recently.
At the request of the RCSC leadership, the International Federation will continue to play a key role in the coordination of Red Cross Red Crescent Movement-supported activities. An office has been established in Chengdu with technical delegates to cover the major sectors. The recruitment of construction delegates are being planned and they will be in place shortly. The East Asia regional office in Beijing supports the Chengdu office and the RCSC headquarters with mainly strategic planning and communications with partners, and is further supported by the Asia Pacific zone office in Kuala Lumpur.
Many partner national societies have already made contributions to the appeal: American Red Cross, Australian Red Cross/Australian government, Belgian Red Cross/ Belgian government, British Red Cross, Bulgarian Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross/Canadian government, Cook Islands Red Cross, Croatian Red Cross, Czech Red Cross, Danish Red Cross/Danish government, Estonian Red Cross, Finnish Red Cross/Finnish government, German Red Cross, Icelandic Red Cross, Irish Red Cross/ Irish government, Japanese Red Cross/Japanese government, Lithuanian Red Cross, Malaysian Red Crescent, Mauritius Red Crescent, Monaco Red Cross, Netherlands Red Cross/Netherlands government, New Zealand Red Cross/New Zealand government, Norwegian Red Cross, Qatar Red Crescent, Singapore Red Cross, Spanish Red Cross, Swedish Red Cross, Sri Lanka Red Cross, and United Arab Emirates Red Crescent Society, as well as contributions from American, Greek, Italian, Luxembourg, Slovenian and South Africa governments, OPEC Fund for International Development, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and many corporate partners.
The Red Cross Society of China has also received many bi-lateral contributions of funding, including the following: Cambodian Red Cross, French Red Cross, German Red Cross, Republic of Korea Red Cross, Norwegian Red Cross, Pakistan Red Crescent, Spanish Red Cross, Swiss Red Cross, Thai Red Cross, Turkish Red Crescent and Viet Nam Red Cross. These contributions have been added to the various substantial resources raised domestically by the Red Cross Society of China in its national fundraising appeal.
To date, the initial appeal for CHF 96.7 million is 87% covered, with cash and in-kind contributions totalling CHF 84.4 million received to date. Total expenditure from May until the end of October 2008 is CHF 46.5 million.
The International Federation, on behalf of the Red Cross Society of China, would like to thank all partners for their very quick and generous response to this appeal.
Next Duvet Drive target: 1,000 sets for the area in and around Cao Pu Village in Wenchuan.
At 70 RMB for a high-quality set, fundraising target for this project is 70,000 RMB.
I Bought A Shelter have designed a customized emergency relief shelter that can be used for a range of shelter needs. The shelter is freely available for use by any organization seeking spacious and adaptable shelter for the Sichuan earthquake relief effort. Two of the team are in Chengdu, working with Sichuan Quake Relief to put up prototypes of their tents, and then source materials from local suppliers in preparation for larger orders as funding allows.
The tent is an inexpensive and environmentally responsible local “kit” made out of split bamboo poles and a low-tech durable plastic that can be constructed on-site into spacious temporary shelters to house six to twelve people for up to one year. The shelters have many benefits over conventional tents being cheaper, more spacious and better ventilated.
Luke Cardew and Sam Keam were in a positive mood, one sporting a rather fetching wickerwork crash/safety helmet, and both showing a combination of tan and tiredness bestowed by putting up tents in mountainous regions, and then sitting in the open back of 3-tonne trucks as they bounce along the Sichuan track and road network.
When the earthquake struck on May 12th, Luke was travelling through France. A few days later, Sam texted him, saying, “China needs tents,” and the two were very soon together in Shanghai getting the prototype sorted. They have been in Chengdu for a week now, establishing contacts, assessing sites and sourcing materials for their project. The team had spent Sunday putting up their two first in situ tents in Baiguo Village, near Hanwang. From speaking to SQR volunteers and members of other NGOs present, the prototypes had been a success. The first tent took a few hours to assemble, and the second had been put up much more quickly.
SQR blog spoke to Luke and Sam at the Chengdu Bookworm on the evening of Monday 9th June 2008.
Sichuan Quake Relief’s activities have been continuing. For details and pictures of one of the recent visits up north, see Earthquake Zone – Survivors’ Stories, part of a blog by Fiferis.
So, despite the apparent lack of major developments on the web, there has been a great deal of activity. The organisation continues to make a real difference to the lives of the people it has managed to reach, by helping with accommodation, food, water, educational supplies, and hygiene supplies, and just by being part of the huge effort which shows that people in the affected region have not been forgotten, and will continue to receive support.
From the People’s Daily:
The Chengdu expat community is rallying to support locals in relief and recovery efforts to overcome this disaster. Foreigners want to give and want to personally help the victims of this natural disaster in anyway they can. Under the auspices of local expat businesses, appeals have begun for donations.
Peter Goff, in partnership with Chengdu residents and through the cooperation of The Bookworm, is leading one of these appeals. The Bookworm is a bustling expat online community on book and culture-related activity and has branches in Beijing, Chengdu, and in Suzhou of East China’s Jiangsu province.
The Bookworm Chengdu has become a focal point in assisting expat support for quake victims. Smaller groups, such as Heart to Heart and Morning Tears, are also providing food, water, shelter and medicines.
Expat music acts, including the Bossma Band, Mark on the Piano, Proximity Butterfly and Red Water performed to raise funds at a Bookworm event last Thursday. Heart to Heart also gave a short presentation on their current operations in the affected areas. From the successful one night, more than 33,000 yuan ($4,700) was raised in funds from about 100 members of the local expat community to be directly used by local groups in the relief effort.
Further donations, especially cash, are still welcomed by the groups. Much needed items include: non-perishable food, basic medicines, tents, blankets, sleeping bags, stretchers, small power-generators, small water sanitation equipment, and simple housing materials. The local expat community is also committed to helping fellow residents in the medium to longer-term community recovery efforts. This community recovery process is held together by communication of information which enables people to know what is needed, co-ordinate their activities and avoid creating additional problems.
Sichuan expats centered on the activities of The Bookworm are moving forward to helping interpret the information on all current relief operations and exactly where and when people can help to make a difference to those affected by the disastrous earthquake. For more information regarding donations and recovery efforts, contact the Bookworm on (+86) 028 8552-0177.
The author is Australian Youth Ambassador for Development with the Chengdu Urban Rivers Association.
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