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NGOs play key role in quake relief

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-06 07:30

Two days after the May 12 earthquake hit Sichuan, millionaire Wang Wenzhong headed to the devastated province to help with relief work.

The 50-year-old owner of a leather shop in Beijing acknowledged that he had no expertise in disaster relief, but he said it was "no impediment to helping the needy".

Wang gathered 14 villagers and 10 college students from Liangshumin Rural Construction Center, a Beijing-based NGO dedicated to assisting village development.

Chefs from major restaurants in Beijing distribute food they have cooked to quake victims in Pengzhou, Sichuan province, on May 25 2008. The Beijing Association of Restaurants brought together 105 chefs and collected 2 million yuan ($288,600) to set up three canteens in the quake-hit area to offer free food to local people. [China Daily]

Time did not allow the team to make full preparations. Lessons like first aid were taught on the flight to Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan.

Still, Wang managed to hired three trucks for transporting relief supplies consisting of 926 sets of cotton-padded clothes, 70 tents and 2,000 quilts.

Wang and his team had planned to go directly to Mianyang, one of the hardest-hit areas, but the road was blocked and no suitable vehicles were available.

Wang and his team modified their plan and headed for Pengzhou county and Xiang'e town of Dujiangyan city, where 400 people died from the quake, 15,000 survived and 90 percent of homes were destroyed.

The team decided to set up rescue stations in the area.

In one week, the team helped put up more than 100 tents in Xiang'e. They raised funds, distributed relief supplies and comforted the young and the old. They worked on the principle that the villagers could rehabilitate their own community with a bit of help.

Each villager was allocated a bowl of rice for every meal, said Bai Yali, a volunteer.

"We also had to keep order to prevent chaos or quarrels," Bai said.

"People can be irritable after the disaster," Bai added.

"We helped with the small things, but it required patience."

Zhou Zhongmin, a retired technician who was traveling across Sichuan and studying rural education when the earthquake struck, agreed.

"Disaster relief doesn't just mean big gestures," Zhou said.

At a rescue station, Zhou and other volunteers boiled 40 pots of water one day for more than 1,000 victims.

"They were desperately thirsty," Zhou said.

Those like Wang, Bai and Zhou are part of an expanding network of non-profit, volunteer groups made up of people from all walks of life doing their part for quake victims.

Shortly after the quake, eight Beijing-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) alone initiated a program to help quake victims.

By May 18, Green Earth Volunteers, one of the participating organizations, had raised 46,097 yuan ($6,635) and bought large quantities of daily necessities, including six boxes of a spicy bean sauce popular in Sichuan cuisine.

"These things may seem insignificant, but they are what NGOs are good at," said Wang Yongchen, director of the environmental group.

She noticed that China's NGOs are adapting to deal with challenges they have seldom experienced before, in the aftermath of the quake.

On May 13, Roots and Shoots, 1KG, NGOCN, and other NGOs decided to coordinate their quake relief efforts.

"We're small NGOs, covering different areas. Only through cooperation can we do things efficiently," said 1KG director An Zhu.

Ideas were quickly turned into action. The next day, the joint office of the May 12 Concerted Action of Civil Organizations was opened in Chengdu to oversee nationwide endeavors.

So far, more than 120 NGOs nationwide have joined the Chengdu networks. With a joint office as headquarters, the relief work is characterized by systematic arrangements, baseline surveys, information dissemination, and procurement through to transportation.

Apart from the grassroots organizations, suppliers of funds and resources are also taking a more organized approach to corporate responsibility.

The China Social Entrepreneur Foundation, with a 10-year focus on poverty alleviation, set up a funding scheme on May 14, under which public-interest organizations can get grants of up to 300,000 yuan ($42,900) within five working days if their application is successful.

Narada Foundation, another influential private foundation funding public welfare projects, also gave 10 million yuan ($1.42 million) to fund grassroots civil organizations in quake relief.

But NGO groups still have hurdles to overcome.

Wan Yanhai, director of Aizhixing Institute, an organization for AIDS research and health education, said the government should provide more opportunities for NGOs to participate.

There has also been some disorder on the part of the civil organizations.

"To some degree, so many people are acting spontaneously," said Liang Xiaoyan, executive councilor of Friends of Nature, a Beijing-based NGO committed to environmental protection.

Li Zhigang, a council member of the Bright China Foundation, believes that the participation of civil organizations will be a long-term process. They have roles to play in the four main relief functions of first aid, hardware construction, software construction and ultimately, the improvement of crisis strategies, he said.

Li said areas such as medical care, road construction, clean water provision, psychological counseling, orphan placement and enhancement of public awareness need help.

"Each NGO should devote itself to its respective strength, instead of overlapping its work with others. Otherwise, it will be a waste of resources," Li said.

Civil organizations equipped with professional expertise can complement the government's work in quake relief, said Wang Ming, director of the NGO Research Center of Tsinghua University.

"As a Chinese saying goes, 'the wealthy contribute money, the physically strong contribute labor'," Green Earth Volunteers' Wang Yongchen said.

"I hope we can contribute our strength in a highly organized way, as civil organizations become an important force."

China Features