Caring For China Caring For China Global Doctors, the Red Cross, and Heart 2 Heart

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1 At 2:28 PM on May 12, 2008, an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 struck an unprepared Sichuan Province in central China. Only a few hours later, I had an exchange of s with Hugh Hewitt, a close personal friend who is also a popular talk radio show host (KRLA 870 AM), and one of the country s most successful political bloggers. Hugh suggested that Caring For China start an Earthquake Relief Fund to assist with the inevitable emergency and rescue efforts that would soon be under way. Although Caring For China was never intended to be a relief organization, Hugh convinced me that we could fulfill this role since 1) we had long standing relationships in China, 2) we could trust our people there; 3) we had the infrastructure to account for the funds and wire the money to China, and 4) we had a medical team that could deploy quickly. Hugh immediately went on the air with the message of the natural disaster and donations started arriving on PayPal (an online payment system linked to our website) and a few days later, checks started arriving in the mail to our Santa Ana address. Within a few days, our medical team in Xi an bought train tickets and left for the earthquake area, coordinating with Global Doctors, the Red Cross, and Heart 2 Heart; all reputable NGO s that had a presence in China prior to the earthquake. Once they arrived, a Land Rover filled with medical supplies along with a driver and a map was waiting for them, and they immediately went to some of the hardest hit areas where they began administering first aid. The team consisted of Dr. May Du (China), leader of our healthcare team in Xi an; Dr. Jason (USA)Infectious Diseases; Laurie Sanders (Australia) Int l communications coordinator; and Dr. Farhan (Pakistan) neurosurgeon. They worked wherever they were sent, including the stadium in Mianyang, where many victims were brought. Meanwhile, other efforts by team members in other cities in China were underway to purchase blankets, tents, food and drinking water for areas that were slow to receive government help. In one mountain village they visited, virtually every home was flattened and the water supply was cut off. The earthquake fund supplied tents and tarps, drinking water, and a kilometer of 1 inch ABS piping to connect to the water source. In several cases, funds were left with church leaders to distribute as they saw fit. This may have been the first time these churches had ever joined with another church for any reason, and laid a huge foundation for future cooperation among groups with similar value structures.

2 Caring For China is perhaps best known for managing 3 orphanages in Shaanxi province, which borders Sichuan, where the earthquake occurred. All our orphanages felt the quake, and all the children and carers were relocated outside their buildings into government supplied tents. In Hanzhong, very close to the Sichuan border, they lived over a month in the tents, caring for special needs babies, newborns, and toddlers. Miraculously, no kids in any orphanage in China were killed in the earthquake, although 7000 schoolrooms were destroyed, along with thousands of primary and secondary school children. Many of the notes attached to earthquake relief checks designated their use for the orphanages. All these requests were honored. Mosquito netting, cots, and other supplies were purchased for use while they were all out camping. Fortunately, the weather was warm. By the end of June, the Earthquake Relief Fund had reached over $100,000 (much had already been wired to China) and the Board of Directors of Caring For China ( met to discuss strategy. It was decided that I should go to China as soon as possible to meet with our leaders there, and visit the sites where we had been able to assist. The trip was scheduled for July 12. The local team in China arranged the itinerary and I was to be accompanied by two of those who had participated in the first trip to the earthquake zone Laurie Sanders and Dr. Farhan. The day after landing in China, we set off for Gansu province, which borders Sichuan to the north, where we had been involved with a lot of relief efforts. We took an infamous sleeper bus, a pleasure I had not enjoyed before, and when we arrived the next morning in Wudu, I was quite sure I didn t want to ever again. Imagine the smell of the last 10,000 passengers stinky feet distilled into the blanket covering you in a hot, humid bus with no A/C. These busses are made for Chinese bodies, too. Fortunately, I m not a very big guy, otherwise I wouldn t have been able to fit in the narrow little area. There s a raised headrest, underneath which is the lower legs and feet of the person behind you.

3 There was still a substantial tent village in Wudu, evidence that the buildings had not yet been approved for people to return. We rented a car, leaving Wudu for the nearby mountains, and found the roads were still difficult, following the earthquake. We often had to get out of the car to get over ruts, and many places we had to back up to let lorries pass us. The mountainsides are terraced from the bottom to the top in most of Southern Gansu. All different crops are planted, and families walk for miles every day to get to their plots of land. The earth is called loess, an orangish claylike dirt that doesn t seem particularly fertile, but bricks can be made out of it, and almost all the local homes are made out of mud brick construction. When it rains, the mud washes away in a creamy yellow mix, and eventually finds its way into the Huang He, the Yellow River. That s where it gets its name from the yellow mud from these hills. When the earthquake happened, shaking violently for 2 ½ minutes, these mud houses all disintegrated. They have no reinforcement, and traditionally, the peasants just make new mud bricks, build new houses, and there you have it. This is modern China, though, and the government leaders are asking the families to build with a concrete foundation, using rebar steel for reinforcement, and fired brick instead of mud bricks. They are subsidizing almost $3000 per house (the real cost is closer to $10,000), so many people are considering the upgrade, but loans are hard to obtain, and the lenders require collateral something the poor village people don t have. We re concentrating our efforts on just a few villages.

4 Over the years, many villagers have bought televisions and other appliances, and I was surprised to see that this enterprising tent dweller had even hooked up his TV to a satellite dish to watch the Olympics no doubt! now, they might not be done by winter and the government is asking for the tents to be returned next month. No one seriously thinks they ll be left without shelter, though. Still, they need to start building soon. We met with the village leader and he showed us an area where 52 homes had all disintegrated. The cleanup was not too hard he rented a tractor and just bulldozed the rubble off the side of a hill and flattened the remaining area for new homes. This time he wants to upgrade everyone to the new standard concrete, steel reinforcing, and fired brick. But he worries that even if they get started This shows where the remains of most of the houses have been cleared off into a ravine. They are planning to build the new houses on the mesa where the tractor is. What remains of this house is being propped up by poles. Not a very safe place, especially considering that the aftershocks have been very strong many over 6.0, and even though it s only mud, it could injure or kill someone if it fell on them. We were told it would be taken down when the new houses go up. Coils of water pipe that will reconnect the village to a mountain water supply.

5 As we drove back into town, we passed a home being built. We asked the driver to stop so we could look at it. This is the new construction standard. Notice the concrete foundation, the rebar steel sticking up through the concrete, and the fired bricks stacked in a pile behind. You can see the tents in the far background where the family is still living. This will be ready by winter. During our stop, we were invited to go to a woman s house to meet her husband who had signs of Parkinson s Disease. Since Dr. Farhan is a neurosurgeon, this seemed to be a reasonable request, and we walked a short distance to her home. In her lobby//dining Room, we passed this poster display that showed she was a Christian, and when we offered to pray with her husband, she became very excited and invited everyone in her extended family to join with us. Indeed, although he was only 33, the man was shaking uncontrollably, and Dr. Farhan was able to prescribe some medicine that would help with that. When we finished praying, another lady asked us to go to her house and pray for their son, who had been tortured by his grandfather when he had lived there for a couple of years. We walked there, and prayed for him. Again, others who saw what we were doing asked us to go to their homes and pray with them, but we had to cut this short. It seems there are many needs that require prayer that are not being met, and yet there is openness to asking for prayer that is missing where I live in America.

6 Several days later, we went to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, and met with friends from the Earthquake Resource Center. They have a hands on approach to relief efforts and they are coordinating 6 to 8 teams at any given time to help build houses, deliver tents, food or whole libraries of books for some of the tent villages. Outside Chengdu, we passed thousands of these white and blue temporary homes. We would visit an earthquake village later and see what the construction and living conditions for the families in them was like. The sign above, by the way, is for a Chinese telecom company advertising the super cheap rate of 3 cents a minute for their cell phone service. We were told that we should stop by a construction project just outside Chengdu for a rehabilitation hospital actually what will be the largest rehabilitation hospital in China 100 beds with all kinds of special units for amputees, physical therapy, and training. It was started by a group of Korean Christians who had it 60% built when the earthquake hit. There was some damage, which needs to be repaired, but now the money is short just when the hospital is needed the most. The earthquake produced 2000 more amputees in this area many of them children plus untold thousands of people with crushed limbs, fractures, and other trauma. The design is very modern, and they are looking to host many international doctors. Here is an artist s rendering of what the rehab hospital will look like:

7 This is the stage of construction today. If you know of any foundation or generous donor who would like to make an immediate difference in the world, please put them in contact with me. I ll be happy to pass on the business plan, contact information and /or answer any questions to get this much needed facility in operation as soon as possible. We passed by Dujiangyan middle school. This was one of many schools that collapsed during the quake. Out of 300 students who attended here, 220 were killed. The last of the rubble was being loaded up and carted away. Even so, what appeared to be moms were walking through the debris, picking up objects and staring into space. So heartbreakingly sad.

8 A temporary school was set up in Siang Er Siang, just up the road. Just after the earthquake, our medical team came here to give some assistance. This time, we brought them some ping pong paddles, balls, and an amplifier and sound system so they could play music and make speeches. There s a temporary classroom set up behind the ping pong table. Inside, it looks like a typical Chinese classroom, except there aren t any pictures of Marx, Lenin, Mao or Hu Jin Tao. Just a slogan that tells them to study hard. They insisted on a staged photo, so here I am handing the microphones to the Xiao Jiang, or principal. He was a very cool guy, playing ping pong with the kids, and even doing a brush painting later on. This is one of the girls dormitories set up at the school. It s temporary, of course, but seems very adequate for the students. They sleep six to a room. The boys dorm is up on a hill behind this.

9 The art teacher at the school is also a good psychologist. He encouraged the kids to write poems about how they felt, and these are all taped up around the buildings. When we commented on this, he got very excited and said that they would do an art exercise right now. And so they did! He brought paper, brushes, and ink out, and asked for volunteers, who all wrote very nice characters, saying Thank you kind hearted people, and When one is in trouble, eight people come to help, and other expressions. When they were done, they gave us all the artwork to take with us.

10 The next day, we took a train to Mianyang, then went up to the mountains where some of the worst damage occurred. Along the way, we saw a lot of buildings and countryside that spoke to the power of the earthquake. Even the roads got damaged when huge boulders crashed down. They re covered with steel sheets, but some holes still showed through.

11 We passed the Chengdu Rural Credit Union on our way. My company started as a service bureau to credit unions and they seem to be very popular all over China. This one was closed on the weekend. As we got closer, the damage kept getting worse. This was probably a beautiful building once.

12 We had heard that Beichuan was badly damaged. Our car was stopped several times, but we kept finding ways around the roadblocks. Finally, we had to get out of the car. We rented motorcycles to go the last 10 kilometers. We weren t prepared for what we saw. The mountains on both sides of the valley both slid down, and buried hundreds of buildings in the city. The local people said over 20,000 people are still buried there. Our driver said that the government is going to turn the whole abandoned city into an earthquake museum to honor the dead. Here s a before picture of Beichuan, taken for a postcard. It s a beautiful city, with two rivers converging in the valley. Here s the quake: Beichuan after

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14 So where did everyone move to? Most are in a tent camp about 20 km away. Beyond this sea of blue tents is a new sea of temporary housing, going up at a phenomenal rate. We spent a couple hours at this camp. Our first stop was at this school set up by UNICEF. The kids were very happy for us to interrupt them, and they all came out to talk with us. This is just one of many domestic and international NGO s that are helping out. The tent camp seems very orderly, and these residents have pooled together to put a brick pathway on the main thoroughfare in front of their tents. They get a lot of rain there, so this really helps keep the mud out of the tents.

15 Inside the tents. Everything the family owns. Most are very orderly, and some are really space challenged. This is China, so of course someone set up a market. Everyone s got to go, so here s the place. This is a water purification station, donated by the Japanese Government. Inside is the Reverse Osmosis equipment. They re using untreated mountain water outside to clean their pots, pans, dishes and laundry.

16 A Chinese Christian group from the north set up this library, which was fully populated by studious kids on a Saturday! This is an earthquake baby, born the week after the quake, considered very lucky. She s looked VERY healthy, to me. This is a new family arriving in the tent camp relief style limo service. A Korean nonprofit group set up this temporary elementary school. They call it the Sheep Home.

17 The tents will work OK until winter, but what then? The government s answer is to build a whole city of temporary houses, with new roads, underground water and sewer, utilities, even street lights. These have gone up almost overnight all over Sichuan province. There s a new temporary hospital, complete with solar heated water that s almost ready for use.

18 This is a new middle school, going up for all the kids of the temporary city. And you ve GOT to have a sign with shiny gold characters! Here s a cooking complex, again with solar heated water. The temporary homes don t have kitchens. Actually, they don t have bathrooms, either, they re all on the ends of the buildings. This is inside a temporary housing unit. The walls are insulated, the floor is concrete, the roof is sealed and insulated, too. They get a window, a door, two electrical outlets and a phone jack. That s it. No furniture just basic shelter, about 18 square meters of it. Putting in the new electrical service. You can go really fast when you don t have to worry about those pesky inspectors. Each unit is separately metered.

19 The bathrooms are all on the ends of the buildings; men s and womens sides. The showers are in a different building. I m sure they ll get around to tiling this bathroom. There are multiple stalls, western and squatty style commodes, and a handwashing sink inside. Again, pretty basic, but a definite upgrade from tent camping. These people may be living here from three to five years. When they build the temporary units, the walls are all made of prefab metal coated insulation panels. They just cut the windows and doors in after the panels are installed.

20 So what is the final result of the trip? The Earthquake Relief Funds were well spent. Immediate assistance was funded and a lot of temporary help for shelter and living needs was provided. Some of the funds are being used to help isolated mountain villages to rebuild at a higher standard than ever before. All the funds sent to China were accounted for with receipts and detailed explanations. Those who received the assistance (that I was able to talk with) were genuinely appreciative. But our assistance was only a small part of a huge domestic and international response. The government also seemed very appreciative of the outside help, and their response has been massive, immediate and well managed. I was able to advance our relationships with other nongovernmental organizations (NGO s) and I believe there will be many more opportunities to partner with other agencies in a real spirit of cooperation. There was always a suspicion, or mistrust about this in the past, but the earthquake seemed to demolish those barriers just as effectively as it demolished so many buildings. I ll be going back in September/October to participate in the Directors Meetings for our organization, and will also take the time to again follow up in the villages and cities that we have provided substantial assistance. I am very interested in seeing the Chengdu Rehabilitation Hospital reach completion, as there is an immediate need in that region for this kind of a hospital that practices at international standards. Thanks for taking the time to read this report. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at my address: jondietz@fssi ca.com. I m the one in the blue shirt.