Wednesday 28 April 2010
Tents given to villagers in earthquake-torn Yushu
A family from an outlying village in Yushu, Western China, receives a ShelterBox tent. Photograph: Tony Zhang
Up to 2,000 people made homeless by a powerful earthquake that struck Western China have been given disaster relief tents from ShelterBox.
ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) member Tony Zhang (CN) travelled through mountainous terrain in freezing temperatures to get to Yushu, near the Tibetan border, which was hit by a 6.9 magnitude quake on April 14.
Thousands of families lost their homes in the disaster which also collapsed houses, schools and offices.
Tony distributed a total of 200 disaster relief tents to the outlying Yushu villages of Ri Ma, Shang Laxiu, Xia Laxiu, Niang La and Ba Tang, with help from local volunteers and NGOs.
Fellow SRT members Andrew Gauci (AU) and Owen Smith (NZ) worked from Xining, Qinghai province’s capital, to coordinate the difficult logistics of getting disaster relief tents to the area. They were supported by the charities, Friendship Charity Association, Shanghai Charity Foundation and local Rotarians.
'90 per cent of buildings collapsed'
Team leader Owen said: ‘Tony and our friend Awang, a Tibetan from Qinghai province, left Xining with a truck full of tents for the 800km road trip to Yushu from Xining. You go from about 2,600 metres above sea level at Xining to around 4,000 metres altitude at Yushu on this journey. Tony arrived the next evening after an 18-hour journey.'
Tony said: ‘We arrived at the epicenter at the town of Jie Gu and we were astounded by the scene in front of us because 90 per cent of buildings had collapsed.
‘A local NGO leader Yong Qiang took me to a huge camp for Internally Displaced People which was a racecourse before the quake. Our tents arrived and a group of villagers unloaded 100 tents. The distribution went smoothly without any chaos and tents were given to the most needy families. Then we moved to another village with the remaining 100 tents and villagers from scattered villages came up to pick up their tents.
‘I showed locally displaced people how to put up a tent and one family with five people moved into their ‘new home’ immediately. I visited several more sites on remote villages and found our tents had been perfectly put up by local people.
‘We finished the distribution in Yushu area and we are very happy with what has been achieved.’
90 per cent of buildings collapsed after the 6.9 magnitude earthquake. Photograph: Tony Zhang
Owen thanked the many volunteers who had helped with the transportation and distribution of the ShelterBox tents. ‘In Yushu there were a number of volunteers from a local NGO who helped with tent erection demonstrations and distribution,' he said.
'In Xining we also had help from university students who were volunteers with the Friendship Charity Association and waited up late into the night to help us transfer tents between trucks in the freezing cold.’
Owen was impressed by the way the Chinese authorities responded to the disaster.
‘The Chinese government did a great job of getting aid to the people affected by the earthquake’ he said. ‘They really were putting in a huge effort but there was still need particularly in the remote villages.’
The images below are from SRT member Tony Zhang:
