Phase 1—Emergency measures

A.       Plan China took emergency relief to XiXiang and ChengGu Program Area which were close to the epicenter and affected by the earthquake.  

Two PUs of Plan China in HanZhong District—XiXiang and ChengGu County--were affected by the tremors. Many houses of residents and schools were demolished or became D-level dilapidated houses. Within 20 days after the disaster, Plan China provided free emergency relief of 400 tents and colorful plastic cloths of 300 bundles to the two counties, which benefited over 5,300 people suffering from the earthquake.  

The tents and plastics helped solve accommodation of many residents, and became temporary classrooms for those students preparing for college entrance examination. Head of XiXiang County, Mr Liu said gratefully, “This is the first relief goods we received after the disaster, and is also the most urgent goods for our people.”  

B.       Plan China communicated with donor countries and got donations mainly from Canada, France, Republic of Korea, Netherlands, UK, US, Sweden, Australia, Germany, Spain, Ireland and Japan, totally receiving over 2 million USD, with an equivalent of around 16 million RMB. Combining with field assessment to disaster areas and communications with local partners, Plan China conducted activities identification and implementation.  

C. Plan China also provided 700 thousand RMB worth of emergency goods to XiaoBa Township in An County of Sichuan Province, which was one of the major disaster areas. In the township, all of the residents, 9670 people, were entirely affected by the disaster. The direct economic losses were RMB 42.9 billion yuan. The fund was used to purchase rice, edible oil and quilts to the needy, which benefited all residents in XiaoBa Township.  D. Within 10 days after the earthquake, staff of Plan China and volunteers collected donations and sent the donations to Red Cross Society of China by May 21st.

Phase 2—Post-disaster recovery

A. Shaanxi School Reconstruction Project

The project helped to reconstruct 7 schools in Hanzhong District, including 2 schools in NanZheng County (DaYing Primary School and HongXing Primary School), 2 schools in NingQiang County (GuangPing Middle School and MiaoBa Middle School), 2 schools in XiXiang County (XiaoFeng Primary School and ZhongJiaGou Primary School) and 1 school in ChengGu County (YuanShan Primary School).  

The buildings constructions are in progress as scheduled, within the objective of starting the new school year in September 2009 in the new classrooms and related buildings. Further student activities, such as child protection and child-friendly environment activities for the students have been launched. 

B. Post-trauma psycho-social Project

Plan China supports several communities representing 3,000 villagers in MianZhu County of Sichuan Province by providing specific training to local teachers and community volunteers in social/psycho-social support techniques. Then these trainees can provide effective care for children and their care-givers, and utilize appropriate referral services. Simultaneously, Plan China project aims to provide on-going technical advice to local government for the reconstruction of child-friendly schools, such that newly built schools offer a healthy, safe, accessible (including disabled children) and appealing learning environment for children.

C. Water and Environmental Sanitation Project

In remote places of Northern Sichuan (JianGe County) and Southern Shaanxi (NingQiang County), there is an acute lack of primary health care including water and sanitation services for women, children and other vulnerable population living in both target areas- suffered greatly from the huge tremors. The project aims to address the issue of residents’ right to health, sanitation and protection for children and their families; representing 9,354 beneficiaries.  

The project will be finished by the end of August 2009. The main outputs are: provision of centralized water supply systems of 9 villages, construction/ rehabilitation of domestic latrines, hygiene promotion campaigns and child protection activities, including child-friendly places (schools and/or public areas) and participatory awareness-raising activities.

Phase 3—Disaster preparedness

Plan established a new disaster relief and preparedness team 

To respond effectively to this large disaster, and within the long-term purpose of building better Plan China capacity to respond to any emergency crisis in the future, Plan China created a new Earthquake & Disaster Preparedness Team at Country Office, coordinating with the responses operated in fields.