Posts Tagged ‘Wenchuan’
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
Australian group re-building of the three business schools in the Sichuan earthquake damage
A school that was badly damaged in the 2008 WenChuan earthquake re-opened today (4th June 2009) in MianYang in SiChuan Province. The reconstruction project is supported by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, the Blue Scope Steel Group and the Australian Allens Arthur Robinson attorney affairs office.
ANZ Bank said that the three Australian companies are cooperating with the government of Mianyang city Sichuan Province, to reconstruct the teaching building of the YangJia school in the city which contains six new classrooms for 300 students.
The new teaching building was named an “ANZ Bank Building”. Designed for resisting earthquakes of up to 8 on the Richter scale, the building ulilizes high-quality, recyclable building materials, including steel made in Australia.
The school buildings are financed by the Australia-New Zealand Bank Group. BlueScope Steel Group is responsible for the provision of building materials and construction supervision while Allens Arthur Robinson attorney affairs office provides free legal services. The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group will also fund the school’s desks and chairs, and donate stationery to students.
The Chief Executive Officer of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, ZhaoMing Gao, said that ANZ Bank and China are involved in a long-term cooperative relationship. The Yang Middle School reconstruction project provides the opportunity to ANZ Bank “to make some permanent changes in” severely dameaged region in the earthquake.
Tags:Allens Arthur Robinson, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Blue Scope, Mianyang, Wenchuan
Posted in Disaster / risk management, Education, Facilities reconstruction, Investment, Official news source | No Comments »
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
On 14th May 2009, SQR volunteers visited villages in the Wenchuan area.
Villagers setting up tents for the migrant workers they hired
The students in town were relocated to Luzhou and Chengdu, their new school will be put to use in September.
Caopo Central Primary School under construction
Matou Village and Longtan Village can be said to be better off than Lianghe. Using old Chinese wooden house structures, most houses in the village remained standing through the earthquake. There is a big mushroom-shaped plastic-covered greenhouse in Matou, and two white marble quarries in Longtan. As told by a villager of Longtan, if the road remains accessible, they won’t have to worry about buying rice or other things regarding to their basic needs. But again, they were also told not to grow too much.
On the way to Longtan Village; the houses downhill belong to Lianghe Village
Yang Kai yin, a 60-year-old resident of Longtan Village
She has four children: two sons work in Xichang, one son and a daughter stay at home, farming. Her house sustained itself in the earthquake, as did many houses in the village. After reinforcement, the house is now habitable. Though she owns a fairly large field and grow plenty of vegetables, it still concerns her that it is possible that she gets nothing back from it. “They say the village (government) is going to repair that road, and then I can’t get these vegetables and my goats out and sell.” Of the rice that government supplied her, she said, “we don’t have much left. What we have can sustain us through May to Mid-June. Then we’ll have to use a micro-loan to buy rice in town.”
Ni Qiulan, who lives in the same village, is in a similar situation
To repair the house, Ni’s family spent 20-30 thousand RMB, which is almost all the money they got from the government and micro-credit. Ni’s 3 grandchildren now go to school in Luzhou and Chengdu. Although the government takes care of the tuition fees and basic living expenses, “they still need some allowance, you know, when they go out with friends. Things in Chengdu are really expensive,” she said. This family hasn’t bought any rice since the earthquake. The rice provided by the government, “is not enough if you use rice for every meal. We cook corn and rice together so that it lasts longer.” At the time of writing they have about 25kg rice left, and Ni thinks it can support them until mid-June.
One problem for Longtan villagers is traffic. The hill motorway connecting Matou and Longtan is often damaged by rain and landslides, especially in the rainy season. We were told that this road has been repaired twice since it first opened after the earthquake, and the residents have to walk 2 hours to get to Lianghe to buy groceries if they can’t hitchhike.
Liu Sixiu (pink backpack) chatting with Lianghe villagers on her 2-hour walk back to Longtan
Collapsed Middle School at the memorial site of Yingxiu
The collapsed Middle School in Yingxiu, the township at the epicentre of the quake, has been turned into a 5.12 memorial. Nearly every building in Ying Xiu was destroyed and only 3,800 of the 16,000 residents survived, according to official figures.
It has taken a whole year to excavate the enormous piles of rubble that covered the valley where the town is located. The survivors, who are all now in prefabricated housing, hope that work will soon start on their new homes. Local government officials predict that Ying Xiu will become a big tourist attraction for Chinese who want to remember the May 12 disaster and visit the key sites.
The Remains of Yingxiu Middle School
Tags:Caopu, Caopu Central Primary School, Chengdu, food, hunger, Lianghe, Longtan village, Luzhou, Matou village, remains, rubble, school, students, subsidy, volunteers, Wenchuan, Yingxiu
Posted in Construction and infrastructure, Living conditions, SQR Activities | No Comments »
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
Danwei.org article on the Afterquake track, ‘Sala’
From the Afterquake music project, the traditional Qiang minority song “Sala”. More about this video and Afterquake below.
One year after the May 2008 Sichuan Earthquake in China, the Afterquake music project has created music with quake survivors to raise money and awareness for the ongoing reconstruction.
This song is a traditional Qiang minority song called “Sala”, but all the kids in Wenchuan seem to know it whether they are Han, Qiang or from another ethnic group. They also all seem to know the dance. The kids called it a guo zhuang (锅庄) song which means that you dance around a fire while singing it.
The vocals are by the girl in the video named Luo Shuang (罗霜), a 14-year-old first year middle school student from Wenchuan County. She is Han ethnicity. Her mother appears at the end of the video, on the site where they are rebuilding their house, which was destroyed in the earthquake. The accompanying music was produced by Abigail Washburn and Dave Liang, of the Shanghai Restoration Project. The video was shot and edited by Luke Mines.
To hear more of the music, see pictures from the project and to learn more about how to support Sichuan Quake Relief visit afterquakemusic.com, or support SQR by getting the tracks on iTunes or Amazon.
Proceeds from the music help to provide much needed quake relief to the 5 million who lost homes in the earthquake through the work of Sichuan Quake Relief.
Tags:Abigail Washburn, Afterquake, earthquake, Luke Mines, music, Sexy Beijing, video, Wenchuan
Posted in Arts, Civil society, Media, SQR | 2 Comments »
Saturday, April 25th, 2009
Students from Sichuan quake epicentre to return for new terms
More than 10,000 students forced to study elsewhere will return to newly-built schools in their hometown, Wenchuan County, the epicentre of the massive earthquake last May in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, local officials said Sunday.
Ninety-five percent of the school reconstruction in Wenchuan is expected to be finished before September 1 when the new term begins, said Hu Zheng’an, Wenchuan Education Bureau head.
Students of four primary schools continued their education in prefabricated houses in Wenchuan, while most of the nearly 16,000 students across the county moved to other cities or provinces after the 8.0-magnitude earthquake which left more than 87,000 people dead or missing and millions homeless.
The county made a fresh new program of the school building with more than 2.2 billion yuan budgeted. As one of the first to start reconstruction, the Sanjiang Primary School will resume classes for all the 360 pupils on May 12, the first anniversary of the earthquake, Hu said.
Currently, more than 300 workers are working in the construction site of a primary school around the clock in Yanmen Township.
“Construction of a school covering more than 10,000 square meters normally takes a year, but we plan to finish it within six months so that students can come back to school earlier,” said Huang Guangcan, the project manager. “We must strengthen supervision to ensure the quality of the project.”
Tags:prefabricated, reconstruction, return, Sanjiang Primary School, student, students return, Wenchuan, Wenchuan Education Bureau, Yanmen township
Posted in Construction and infrastructure, Education, Facilities reconstruction, Home rebuilding, Infrastructure, Official news source | No Comments »
Monday, April 6th, 2009
Rebuilding of school destroyed in Sichuan quake to start on 1st anniversary
www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-01 14:56:36
Special Report: Reconstruction After Earthquake
MIANYANG, Sichuan, April 1 (Xinhua) — The reconstruction of Beichuan Middle School, one of the schools that sustained the most damage in last year’s earthquake in China’s southwestern Sichuan Province, will start May 12, the first anniversary of the earthquake, officials said Wednesday.
The new school, mostly funded by donations from Chinese all over the world, will be built in Beichuan’s new county seat, said Liu Qi, an official with the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), which was in charge of aiding the rebuilding.
Officials will choose a design from submissions by leading universities including Tsinghua and Tongji as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Hong Kong University, he said.
More than 1,300 of the school’s 2,900 students and teachers were killed or left missing in the rubble of the collapsed buildings in the Wenchuan 8.0-magnitude earthquake. Surviving students have attended classes in temporary pre-fab structures since shortly after the disaster.
Overseas Chinese have donated nearly 200 million yuan (29 million U.S. dollars) since August when the donation campaign began, Liu said.
The new school will cover about 13 hectares and is expected to enroll more than 5,000 students.
An ACFROC official arrived in Sichuan Tuesday and will work with the local government on construction, he said.
The reconstruction of Beichuan County, one of the worst-hit areas in the quake, began in February. The new seat is between Yong’an Township and Anchang Township, about 23 km from the former county seat.
Tags:All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), Anchang, Beichuan Middle School, Hong Kong University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mianyang, pre-fab, rubble, school, Tsinghua University and Tongji University, Wenchuan, Yong'an
Posted in Civil society, Construction and infrastructure, Donation, Education, Facilities reconstruction, Investment, Official news source | No Comments »
Monday, April 6th, 2009
China’s quake-hit Sichuan aims to finish most rebuilding by 2010
www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-03 10:57:58
Special Report: Reconstruction After Earthquake
CHENGDU, April 3 (Xinhua) — Southwest China’s Sichuan Province said it would accelerate post-quake rebuilding in an effort to finish most of the work by September 2010, a year ahead of schedule.
The goal is to complete 85 percent of the reconstruction projects and ensure “housing and employment for each family,” according to a provincial meeting for accelerating reconstruction held Thursday.
The completion targets cover more than 90 percent of transport projects, 98 percent of power grids and 99 percent of public service projects such as medical care.
The meeting said 85 percent of the rebuilding work in worst-hit areas, and all work except for some major projects in less-affected areas, would be completed by September 2010.
Reconstruction of rural housing will be completed at the end of this year, with that in townships and cities to be finished before May 2010.
Students who now attend classes in temporary building are to be back in permanent structures by next spring.
The magnitude-8.0 quake that hit southwest China, centered in Wenchuan, Sichuan, on May 12 last year, killed more than 69,000 people. It also left nearly 18,000 missing, more than 374,000 injured and millions homeless.
The Sichuan government estimated post-quake rebuilding will cost about 1.6 trillion yuan (235 billion U.S. dollars)
Tags:Chengdu, Employment, housing, power grid, Sichuan, students, Transport, Wenchuan
Posted in Construction and infrastructure, Employment, Facilities reconstruction, Governance and social policy, Home rebuilding, Infrastructure, Investment, Living conditions, Local government, Official news source, Transport | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
地震一年后 都江堰到映秀只要一刻钟
2009-02-28 来源:四川在线
According to the Sichuan Freeway System Working Conference held on 27th Feb 2009, the Du-Ying (Dujiangyan to Yingxiu) Freeway will be open to traffic on 12th May this year, when it should take only 15 minutes to commute between Dujiangyan and Yingxiu. Also on 12th May, the construction of the Yingxiu-Wenchuan Freeway will begin.
The 52km Ying-Wen Freeway begins at the terminal of Du-Ying, and ends at South Wenchuan, joining the No.213 National Highway.
Meanwhile, conversion of exits was also brought up at the conference. “Such as Guang’an Dong Zhan (the east toll gate of Guang’an Exit) it has only 6 driveways, 2 entrance points and 4 exits. It is gridlock when the toll station gets crowded.” According to officials in charge, at a few toll stations the original exits will be widened and new ones will be added, if necessary, to reduce traffic congestion.
昨日，川高系统工作会传出消息，在地震中遭遇重创的都江堰至映秀高速公路将于今年5月12日通车。届时，从都江堰到映秀只要15分钟。同一天，映秀至汶川高速公路将开工建设。
新建的映汶高速起于都江堰至映秀高速公路止点，止于汶川县南侧，接国道213线。路线全长约52公里。
由于收费站路口车道太少，导致路口拥堵的问题已发生在许多高速公路上。昨日，相关负责人称，今年将加宽改造车流量大、易拥堵的道口。“比如广安东站，只有6车道，2进4出无法满足车流通行。”该负责人说，还有遂回路回马出口，成雅高速新津收费站等。
Google translation of Xinhua’s article on this story
Tags:conference, Dujiangyan, Duying, freeway, Guang'an Dong Zhan, highway, Wenchuan, Yingxiu
Posted in Construction and infrastructure, Infrastructure, Official news source | No Comments »
Friday, February 27th, 2009
Quake roads “all now reopened”
Xinhua 2009-01-06 09:08:07
Standing beside the flowing Minjiang River, Li Linxian made his New Year’s wish: finishing his hardest-ever mission as soon as possible.
As a construction worker with the Sichuan Road & Bridge Group (SRBG), Li and his 44 workmates have been working on the road between Dujiangyan and Wenchuan, the epicenter of the May earthquake, for nearly eight months.
“We have never left the road since the third day after the massive quake destroyed it,” Li said, noting this has been the most challenging mission in his roughly two-decade long career.
Yesterday, construction workers in Sichuan’s quake-hit regions got the best reward, as the provincial government announced that all the roads destroyed by the May earthquake have reopened.
The 12-km-long road that links the village of Zhitai, is located about 15 km north of the epicenter in Wenchuan county, to the No 317 national highway has been reopened, the provincial government said on its website.
That means all the 2,384 affected roads in the province have resumed operation, it said.
According to media reports, the massive quake has affected or destroyed 22,000 km of roads in Sichuan.
The government also said it will continue focusing on road maintenance in the future.
Known as the eastern route, the 82-km road between Dujiangyan and Wenchuan was almost totally destroyed by the quake and subsequent landslides. The 710-km western route via Ya’an, which provided access for rescue and medical teams, suffered less damage.
“The detour is eight times longer than the eastern route,” Li said.
Working alongside the Minjiang River, the team has been constantly hampered by heavy rains and aftershocks, which on May 14 – the first day they got there – “happened almost once a minute”, he said.
More than 3,000 workers from SRBG have led the way in rebuilding the province’s shattered road network after the quake. Thanks to their hard work, the road between Dujiangyan and Wenchuan was clearly and finally reopened in early September.
Since then, Li’s team started the maintenance work.
Currently, they are on their last task in the whole mission: rebuilding an 84-m-long bridge linking a protruded rock and a village in which the team is now based. Without a bridge, vehicles will have to detour by encircling the steep rock in a valley of the Minjiang River.
“We hoped to finish the bridge before the Chinese New Year, but we know it is impossible now,” Li said, blaming the delays on the forbidding terrain.
Their construction site is located in the village of Suopo, about 30 km to the south of Wenchuan County.
“Suopo” means “sliding slope” in the Sichuan dialect, and Li’s team has been at constant risk from falling rocks, aftershocks and landslides, since they got there in mid-September.
Each night before they go to bed, the workers park large machinery just out of their temporary shelter to block the falling rocks.
“Local people call the mountain Guizhaoshou (鬼招手devil’s greeting),” Li said.
“Many times when we woke up, we found machinery that had been broken by fallen rocks.”
There is a risk even when it is deep in winter – not a rainy season, he said, as winds set off rock falls.
But work still goes on, Li added. Following his fingers, workers were busy at the foot of the “devil’s greeting”.
In order to finish the bridge, the whole team works for 24 hours a day and on two shifts.
“Now we hope a new bridge will be here after the Chinese New Year, allowing vehicles passing by to get further away from the devil’s greetings,” Li said.
Tags:317 national highway, aftershock, Dujiangyan, Guizhaoshou, landslide, Minjiang River, Sichuan Road and Bridge Group, SRBG, Suopo, Wenchuan, Zhitai
Posted in Facilities reconstruction, Infrastructure, Official news source, Transport | No Comments »
Monday, January 19th, 2009
2008年12月25日20:21 新华网
http://news.sohu.com/20081225/n261426445.shtml
BEIJING, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) — The deadly 8.0-magnitude earthquake that jolted southwestern China’s Sichuan province in May damaged close to 14,000 schools in 159 counties in the province, a senior official said on Thursday.
Lu Yongxiang, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, revealed the numbers during a briefing to the law-making body on the enforcement of the Law on Compulsory Education.
The 8.0-magnitude quake centered in Sichuan’s Wenchuan County left more than 69,000 people dead, 374,000 injured, 18,000 missing and millions homeless.
He did not disclose the casualties of students in the earthquake.
Many of the school buildings in the quake-affected areas needed to be rebuilt, Lu said, adding that many schools in the central and the western part of the country were still in poor condition.
He noted that after the earthquake, many school buildings in neighboring Gansu province were severely damaged, but their rebuilding were not covered in the government’s post-quake rebuilding budget.
According to Lu, 2.5 percent of China’s primary and middle school buildings were in poor conditions in 2007. More than 90 percent of those “risky” school buildings were located in the country’s rural areas.
Twenty percent of the primary school buildings and 11 percent of the middle school buildings were “risky” in southwestern Yunnan province as in 2007, he said, citing figures from the Ministry of Education.
Fire risks, traffic safety and hygiene also posed threats to many primary and middle schools in the country due to lack of safety education, Lu added.
Lu urged authorities to add reinforcement measures to all school buildings in the quake-hit areas and to conduct a comprehensive safety check on all primary and middle schools in the rural areas across the country.
Local governments should renovate all school buildings to meet anti-quake criteria “at a proper time”, Lu suggested.
He also urged for central and local governments to grant more funds to help middle and primary schools– especially those in the central and western rural areas — renovate their school buildings and raise safety education among students and teachers.
China had already stipulated in July this year that school facilities must observe higher quake-proof standards than common buildings in the same area.
新华网北京12月25日电 （记者周婷玉、陈菲）全国人大常委会副委员长路甬祥25日向全国人大常委会作义务教育法执法检查报告时说，这次汶川特大地震对灾区学校造成严重破坏，相当部分校舍需要重建。据四川省统计，共有159个县近1．4万所学校受灾，其中义务教育学校和完全中学占91％。
他还指出，目前中西部地区农村学校的危房比例仍然较高。据教育部反映，2007年，全国普通中小学危房面积占普通中小学校舍面积总数的2．48％，其中90％分布在中西部地区农村。云南省小学、初中危房比例最高，分别达到20％和11％。甘肃省甘南受灾地区学校校舍受损也很严重，其中不少校舍没有列入国家资助的灾区中小学校舍维修加固资金项目，而地方财政困难，难以进行修缮。另外，一些学校的安全教育还没有落实，在消防、交通、卫生等方面也存在着安全隐患。
路甬祥介绍，新义务教育法实施后，各级政府部门在严格学校选址规划、完善校舍设计和编制建设标准、提高校舍维修改造资金测算标准、严格学校安全监管、维护学校周边秩序等方面加强了工作。2008年7月实施的《建筑工程抗震设防分类标准》，提高了学校建筑的抗震设防标准，要求比当地一般建筑抗震设防烈度提高一度，这将对保障校舍安全具有促进作用。
为进一步加强学校安全建设，执法检查报告建议，加快全面排查农村中小学校舍安全情况的进度，当前特别要做好受汶川特大地震影响的地区校舍的维修加固工作。同时，各地政府对未达到抗震要求的所有校舍，应适时制定规划予以改造，使之逐步达到防震标准。
报告中还建议，应适当提高农村中小学校舍维修改造经费补助标准，中央财政应重点对中西部地区农村中小学校舍抗震加固工作加大支持力度；应当进一步健全学校安全管理制度，完善处置突发事件应急机制，定期开展安全教育和应急演练活动，不断提高广大师生的自我保护意识与防范危害的能力。
Tags:budget, building, county, fire, Law on Compulsory Education, NPC, primary school, quake-proof, reinforce, renovate, safety, school, Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Wenchuan
Posted in Construction and infrastructure, Education, Facilities reconstruction, Governance and social policy, Local government, Media, National government | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Kieran Fitzgerald was in the Wenchuan area on 31st December 2008. He took these photos. The damage which show the power of the earthquake, with massive landslides and broken bridges.
This is one reason why the last SQR delivery trip took 5 days.
Landslide
Broken bridge
Landslide
Huge chunk of rocky mountain that fell off during the quake.
For more photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/sichuanquakerelief/
Tags:bridge, landslide, photo, Wenchuan
Posted in Environment, Infrastructure, Transport, Winter | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
For more photos click here. or go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/sichuanquakerelief
Five SQR volunteers returned safely to Chengdu last night (Jan 5, 2008) after an arduous five-day journey delivering bedding, warm clothing, hot water bottles, and basic food items to remote areas around Yuli in Wenchuan.
There are still frequent landslides in the area, and many of the roads are covered with snow and ice. These villages are extremely remote and so are still in dire need of even the most basic necessities. With many roads impassable for the winter, it is difficult to get basic supplies up into the region. The crew had to deliver many of the items to households on foot. We are planning to return to the region in the coming days to deliver similar supplies to surrounding areas.
This delivery was jointly funded by Springtime AB (www.springtime.nu) and Beijing Charity Dinners Club. Many thanks to them for their very generous support.
The transportation costs were covered by the local government.
These villages are extremely remote and so are still in dire need of even the most basic necessities.
We are planning to return to the region in the coming days to deliver similar supplies to surrounding areas.
For more photos click here. or go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/sichuanquakerelief
Tags:basic necessities, bedding, clothing, food, ice, landslide, remote area, snow, SQR, Wenchuan, Yuli
Posted in Donation, Local government, Relief, SQR, SQR Activities, Winter | No Comments »
Monday, January 5th, 2009
Translated from the original Chinese:
The No.3 generator group of the Yin Xiu Wan Power Plant, Wei Chuan, restarted its work on 19th December after 6 months and 3 days of reconstruction. The No.1 and No.2 generator group will be on working by June 2009. This will certainly make a huge difference for people in Aba Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, especially those in Wenchuan, through this bitter winter.
Tags:Aba Tibetan, cold, electricity, power plant, Qiang, reopen, Wenchuan, Yingxiu
Posted in Ethnic minorities, Facilities reconstruction | No Comments »
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
CHENGDU, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) — Sichuan Province will seek investment worth 9.4 billion yuan (1.4 billion U.S. dollars) to save the threatened culture of the Qiang people, local authorities said.
A total of 7.9 billion yuan would be used to assist the Qiang culture protection and tourism in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture and Mianyang City where most of the Qiang people lived.
Part of the 9.4 billion yuan fund will be used to build an education centre to preserve documents and where Qiang cultural masters would have a larger stage to pass on traditions and festivals of their people. Sichuan will restore and build the cultural facilities, villages, ancient castles and gardens featuring the Qiang ethnic culture. The fund would also go to the exploration and development of the skills of tailoring, the arts and cooking, according to the handbook.
The Qiang people, with a history of at least 3,000 years, were famous for their unique language, customs, arts and religious beliefs. They were also known for the stone castles they live in, often three or four stories tall. It has a population of 300,000 people, 80 percent of whom are in quake-hit areas of Maoxian, Wenchuan, and Beichuan counties. The culture of the Qiang nationality suffered a near fatal blow from the earthquake on May 12. All the houses in Luobo village, the most ancient Qiang village of Wenchuan County, were toppled. The same tragedy also befell hundreds of typical Qiang houses, buildings and bridges in Beichuan, Maoxian, Lixian counties. More than 30,000 Qiang people died in the quake, 40 of whom were cultural masters and experts.
Tags:Arts, Beichuan, cooking, culture, documents, education, ethnic, handbook, language, Lixian, Luobo, Maoxian, Mianyang, minority, Qiang, skills, tailor, tourism, Wenchuan
Posted in Arts, Ethnic minorities, Local government, National government | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
About 220 secondary school students from Qipangou in Wenchuan have been relocated to Chengdu and will spend at least the next 18 months in the provincial capital separated from their parents while their hometown is being rebuilt.
The students, most of whom are from the Qiang ethnic minority, are aged between 12 and 15. They have 22 teachers and administrative staff who look after them. The parents are either back in Wenchuan rebuilding homes, or have moved to the coastal cities to look for work.
Because of an insufficient supply of teachers, classes often have more than 50 students. The education fees are covered by the Wenchuan government but the students generally need about 600 RMB a month for food and basic living expenses. There is a government subsidy of 300 RMB for this and the rest comes from family members, if they have it to spare.
Sichuan Quake Relief Projects for the Qipangou Students
Basic warm winter clothing
The children do not have sufficient winter clothing. We aim to supply each child with at least two sets of long johns (winter undergarments). Other warm clothing would be put to good use to here.
One set costs 25rmb. 220 x 50rmb is 11,000 RMB.
Minimum target for winter clothing project: 11,000 RMB.
Library Books
They have a small library in place but they need more books.
500 children’s books: 3,500 RMB.
Weekend support projects
Separated from their family, the children are stuck in the Chengdu school at the weekends and have very little by the way of leisure activities to break their study routine. As the teachers have to mind them all the time, they haven’t been able to take a day off since the earthquake.
SQR and members of the local community plan to organise day trips, sports days, and fun informal educational projects for groups of these children. If your company or school would like to help cover some of the costs of these weekend activities, please email us at peter@sichuan-quake-relief.org.
Costs involved would be small, generally covering expenses like bus travel, lunch, fun educational projects, and entrance tickets into places they would like to visit, such as the Panda Base, the Moon Bear centre, cinemas, parks etc. Please also get in touch if you’d like to help arrange these activities.
Tags:children, Qiang, Qipangou, reconstruction, student, Wenchuan
Posted in Construction and infrastructure, Education, SQR Activities | No Comments »
Thursday, July 31st, 2008
Update sent by Lucy to SQR volunteers at end of July 2008. The second part of the post features an email sent 14th July to SQR volunteers.
With the help of three volunteers we were able to almost finish our NGO Newsletter (right now Bingbing is translating all the English info texts about the different NGOs). We’ll hope to send out the first edition of the newsletter this weekend.
Also we got several huge maps of the quake area as a goodbye present from their NGO, those will be very useful for the next NGO meeting.
The Library Project picked two schools of the schools SQR recommended, for their libraries (one is in Qingchuan and one in Tumenzhen).
SQR was invited to take part in the reconstruction mission of the British Chamber of Commerce and attend meetings with Sichuan, Chengdu, Mianzhu, Qingchuan, Wenchuan, Dujiangyan and Mianyang government (mayors and the like). It was definitely interesting information about future government plans (also to pass onto other NGOs) and a lot of business-card swapping. Also I met two managers who might be interested in donating some money to SQR (nothing sure yet).
Today I met with a Dutch lady who has collected over 30,000 RMB and wants help to spend it in the earthquake area, so I’m working on a plan how to split up that kind of money and use it for the tent schools we work with. The only condition she had was that she could tag along when we deliver the supplies and take pictures.
I also met with Maki from Sim’s Guesthouse, who is working on a fabulous map of the affected area. She’s going to put the SQR logo (and some other NGOs logos) on the back of the map and also is getting some help from us in proofreading some info text on the affected area for the back of the map.
Last Friday Hong, Beate and Lynda (latter is the author of the “Good Grief” booklet, of which we brought around 1000 to different tent schools) came to Chengdu. SQR had arranged a trip to two tent schools in Jiulong for them. Bingbing took them to the schools in Jiulong, since I was still busy with the reconstruction mission, and Friday I arranged for them to tag along with Rainbow project to Luoshui. Also Mark interviewed Lynda for the SQR blog. As I chatted with Lynda and her friends later we had the idea of possibly doing a fundraising event in the beginning of September, if possible in the Bookworm. The main idea was to let Lynda read her book, get some other people to do a slideshow about the affected area (I could do that or maybe we could get a professional photographer), maybe one of our volunteer teachers to talk about his experience, do some kind of raffles or charity auction, sell lots of our postcards and calendars etc. We could also make it into a welcome back to Chengdu thing (since quite a lot of expats will be coming home or newly arriving)… It’s still a work in progress. Any suggestions and great ideas please mail to me.
Saturday I hope to go to Qingchuan to bring up two foreign volunteers and supplies to a new school and a kindergarten.
Ashley Murray got me in touch with a school in the states who would possibly like to fundraise money for us and since they’d like to get their students involved I suggested they could do some drawings and cards for the kids in the affected area, which the next foreign volunteer teachers could deliver. I’m still waiting to hear back from them.
Next Thursday we’ll have another NGO meeting with the topics healthcare/psychological help/ hygiene. We need one or two volunteers to take minutes and also translators (the translators I can find easily but somebody to take useful minutes might be harder to find) – anybody interested?
Email to SQR volunteers 14th July 2008
We gave Leo 10,000 RMB to buy basic supplies for villages around Yingxiu. He was supposed to go there tomorrow but had to delay his trip due to heavy rainfall, as soon as he goes he’ll give us the receipts for the supplies he bought with our money and will also give me some pictures from his trip.
On Friday last week I went to Tumenzhen with Wenbo, Lydia and two filming guys from Shenzhen (George and Yimin). We delivered a whiteboard, toys and teaching material for several schools and then dropped off Lydia and Wenbo at two schools to stay there as volunteer teachers. Unfortunately Lydia twisted her ankle and so had to come back to Chengdu before she actually got to start classes. She is okay and back in Beijing now.
This Thursday I went to Qingchuan to bring the first couple of hundreds of our “back to school kits” (backpack filled with “good grief booklet”, pencil case, pen, pencil, eraser, pencil sharpener, two notebooks, candy and a small toy) and two foreign teachers (James and George) and one Chinese translator to the Huangpin Primary and Middle school. By the way those schoolkits are sponsored by a Belgian University who I’m in touch with, they generously donated for educational projects. The teachers were extremely grateful for our help and gave us a warm welcome (lots of baijiu included). James will stay in Qingchuan for 2 weeks George for 1. There were no roadblocks and the streets were in pretty good condition but one way takes about 5 hours (yes it was a long day).
On Saturday I brought an American doctor, his two kids and a Chinese counsellor and a box of toys up to one of the tent schools we are in touch with (in Tumenzhen- close to Mianzhu) to stay and teach there for at least one week maybe even two. We had to register at one of the local “tent offices” which unexpectedly only took 5 minutes, the whole trip went well. Wonderfully we didn’t have to pay any driver, since I talked to Leo about how expensive our driver to Qingchuan was and so he hooked us up with a very nice volunteer and his super comfy car, who brought us there for free (even insisted on paying the toll fee) and who made me promise to call him any time we need a free lift to the affected area (I already called him on this today- bet he didn’t expect to hear from me so soon).
Yesterday a volunteer teacher, called Saima, from Beichuan called me and I met with her and another teacher the same day. They are in charge of several tent schools in Beichuan and told me that the kids have literally nothing at the moment, they especially asked for books so I let them fill out the form that the library project gave me and I’m going to visit one of the schools on Monday (one day trip with the volunteer driver from Leo). They also asked me for 250 back-to-school kits and possibly some toys (I’ll send another project proposal to the funding committee about that).
I’ve been emailing back and forth with Jenny and Tom from the library project and sent them infos about six schools that might be good locations for a library. They are very eager to get the project started so I hope to send you guys some news in the next week.
Lynda the author of “Good Grief” and Hong, her manager,have sent us almost 2000 copies of “Good Grief”, a booklet for kids that deals with the topic of how to cope with loss (translated into Chinese especially for the earthquake kids). I’ve been delivering those books to all the tent schools I’ve visited in the last week and also put one copy in each back-to-school kit. Lynda and Hong will be coming to Chengdu between July 25th and 27th. I’ve already arranged a trip to Luoshui with the Rainbow Project for them and will probably also take them to one of “our” tentschools in Jiulong or Tumen.
The “back to school kits”, have been a big success so far and we’re going to buy some more for the school in Qingchuan and Beichuan.
Rebecca has been working tirelessly on getting in touch with all the NGOs so our first NGO Newsletter will hopefully be sent around soon. So, that’s pretty much all (not enough space for all info about the many other meetings we have had).
Tags:Add new tag, Back-to-school kit, baijiu, Beichuan, Belgium, British Chamber of Commerce, driver, Dujiangyan, fundraiser, Good Grief, Holland, Huangpin, hygiene, library, Luoshui, Lynda Dyer, mayor, Mianyang, Mianzhu, newsletter, NGO, postcard, Qingchuan, Rainbow Project, reconstruction, school, Shenzhen, T-shirt, teacher, tent, translator, Tumenzhen, volunteer, Wenchuan, Yingxiu
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