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CWS appeal: China earthquake (updated)

A man and a child sit in the rain amidst the rubble of a collapsed structure after an earthquake in Dujiangyan City, China.

Photo: REUTERS/Claro Cortes IV, courtesy www.alertnet.org

June 12, 2008

The official death toll from the May 12 earthquake centered in Sichuan province, China, stands at 69,163, with 374,142 injured and 17,445 listed as missing. Continuous aftershocks and geologic change have been threatening the security of the survivors, aid workers and volunteers, according to CWS partner, the Amity Foundation.

CWS response

Church World Service has supported the work of the Amity Foundation, an Action By Churches Together (ACT) member, in this response. The Amity Foundation immediately began providing relief assistance to survivors in coordination with their local partners by providing quilts, plastic sheeting, food and drinking water.

This revised appeal fleshes out and details the specifics of an expanded response now under way and following further assessments of current needs on the ground. The initial CWS-supported response in Mianzhu County included preliminary psychosocial counseling at a camp for 6,000 displaced persons in a stadium.

In the CWS-supported response, Amity is assisting 20,000 families -- some 75,000 people -- through distribution of mostly non-food items, continued provision of psychosocial care, reconstruction of 500 houses, two primary schools and five village clinics, repair of 20 water systems, provision of emergency preparedness training and cash grants for the purchase of agricultural tools.

Work is focused on Beichuan, Mianzhu, Wen Chuan, Shifang, Dujiangyan and Pengzhou counties in Sichuan Province; Wen County in Gansu Province; and Lueyang County in Shaanxi Province.

Highlights of the response include:

Crisis phase: Providing 20,000 of the most vulnerable individuals with sufficient food (15 kilos of rice/person, instant noodles, sausage and water) to tide them over the immediate emergency period of food shortages; providing more than 10,000 poor families with quilts; providing 20,000 homeless families with plastic sheeting.

Post-crisis phase: Reconstructing 500 houses that were destroyed or severely damaged, to meet the basic shelter needs for those made homeless; rebuilding two schools, so that students can resume their schooling in safe classrooms; rehabilitation of 20 drinking water or irrigation systems, so that villagers get clean water, or can resume their agricultural and livelihood production as quickly as possible; reconstructing five village clinics to improve local medical health conditions; providing cash grants of 2,000 Chinese Yuan (nearly US $300) each for 1,000 families, in order to help survivors purchase agricultural production materials; training for 5,000 people in terms of agricultural production, earthquake-related knowledge and medical health, etc.

Contributions to supportChina Earthquake recovery may be sent to your denomination or to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN, 46515. Contribution may also be made online or by phoning 800-297-1516.

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;

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