Earthquake Response

November 18th, 2008

Chengdu, November 18th,2008

It has been an eventful year in China as many of you will have seen throughout the news. During these moths Alpha Communities has continued to stay busy managing the funds that you contributed to us for our relief efforts, preparing and planning how best to steward those funds for maximum impact and change in the communities that were affected by the earthquake...

Associated Press article (Alpha Communities has been supporting Heart to Heart International and helping them with logistics and finances)

July 25th, 2008

Chengdu, July 25th,2008

With only fourteen days before the start of the Olympics in Beijing the world's attention is shifting from the earthquake in Sichuan to the events in Beijing and there is still a lot of work to be done here. There are homes, schools, cities and people's lives still to be rebuilt. The local officials and the Chinese government are doing an amazing job providing food and temporary housing for the people that have lost everything during the earthquake. There are many organizations and local people that have all pulled together to help

China is working hard to check on repairable houses and fix them as soon as they can and to place people that lost their homes in safe comfortable housing. The Health Ministry has said that there have been no serious epidemic outbreaks or public health incidents. There have been some problems with measles and intestinal discomfort due to the earthquake and the rainy weather that the area has experienced.

This week our director and another office worker went north of Chengdu to follow up on an area that some of our volunteers had helped out with immediately after the earthquake. In May the people of the town were all living in tents and trying to cope with the immediate aftermath of what had happened. Now where there were tents there are temporary houses and both Alpha Communities workers found the people very friendly and open. They were invited many times to sit down and enjoy the company of the local people. It was good to see that a place that has been so devastated by the earthquake start to pick up the pieces of their lives and rebuild. The local children have moved to other areas in China to study this year since their schools have been destroyed.

This week in Sichuan north of Chengdu there was an aftershock of 6.0. Here in the Chengdu office staff felt the building shake and sway for about 20 seconds. There were only 5 injuries reported from the aftershock at the epicentre. Thankfully there were no deaths and we hope to see the aftershocks lessen as time goes on.

Thank you for your continued support

July 15th, 2008

Chengdu, July 15th,2008

For the people less seriously affected by the earthquake life is returning to some normality although many are suffering various degrees of trauma. However, for those more seriously affected - still in tents or makeshift housing, coping with serious injuries, grieving loved ones - it is a critical period as media attention decreases, the adrenalin rush of coping with crisis is over, and the reality of a long, hard road ahead sets in. There is still much uncertainty over which towns and villages need to relocate and to where, which means many people in tents or pre-fabricated temporary housing have no sense of future and don't know whether they will ever go back to their homes.

Fresh landslides caused by heavy rain have re-blocked roads, slowing recovery and increasing the isolation of some areas. At a time like this it is vital that people know they are not forgotten and it is encouraging that people are still volunteering time and money to make sure help in various forms is still reaching people. Last week two of our workers traveled to Mianyang to visit the surrounding areas to see where Alpha Communities can further be helping people. Mianyang was affected heavily during the earthquake and as of June 7, 2008 there were 21,963 people killed, 167,742 injured, and 8,744 people missing. They met with officials from two cities and received a very warm welcome in one of them.

In Jiangyou 40 kilometers outside of Mianyang about 80% of the homes and building have suffered damage and need repair. Many people are still living in tents and temporary housing. The people are still afraid of aftershocks and many of their homes are not safe to move back into. The streets are lined with tents and make shift tents that people have put together and where they are still living in fear. In Anxian county they saw streets lined with tents and many temporary houses being built to house the homeless. It is very sad to see people that have lost everything sitting and waiting to see what the next step will be.

Hopefully these are areas that Alpha Communities will be able to work and help people with vocational training and other needs.

July 8th, 2008

Chengdu, July 8th,2008

Many students in the quake areas took their university entrance exams this week - a welcome glimpse of normality in a sea of uncertainty. However, many earthquake survivors who have been moved out of immediate danger are facing the prospect of months of instability in their temporary accommodation as the government plans and implements reconstruction. With nearly 70,000 dead and more than 18,000 still unaccounted for, people are often also dealing with deep grief and the uncertainty of whether relatives and friends are alive. At the bottom of TV screens there are still names and telephone numbers of people looking for loved ones. Two women were filmed trekking miles along a rock-strewn river bank looking for their truck driver husbands who have never come home.

Reconstruction plans include the complete location of Beichuan town and reducing the populations of Qingchuan and Wenchuan because too many people now live in danger of landslides. Many farmers will have to leave their mountainous rural homes and move to an 'urban corridor' stretching northwest from Chengdu through Deyang and Mianyang, which is being widened to cope with this influx. It's hard to imagine how it feels having survived the original impact of the earthquake to then be completely uprooted from centuries-old communities.

As the two month anniversary of the earthquake approaches on July 12 the threat of flooding is still real as the the earthquake did a lot of damage to the reservoirs and dams in the earthquake area. With the rainy season lasting through July and August parts of the country have experienced up to 50% more rain fall than usual.

It has been reported that 1.1 million farmers lost their land and will be searching for new jobs along with the 600,000 migrant workers that lost their homes will also be looking for jobs. Finding jobs during the time of construction will be hard for them all. Vocational training and assistance will be important in the coming months.

July 1st, 2008

Chengdu, July 1st,2008

An eastern route to Maoxian and Wenchuan counties has opened up from Chengdu reducing the normally 3-4 hours journey from 30 hours to about 19 hours, but parts of this route are still very dangerous. The situation in Maoxian is improving but parts of Wenchuan are still without electricity and many villagers look set to be in temporary accommodation for some time. For example, the village of A'er, surrounded by mountains on 3 sides, could disappear under landslides if the heavy summer rains, already at least 30% higher than this time last year, fill cracks caused by the earthquake and bring the mountainsides down. The villagers have been moved to a flat area some 50 km from their valley. Some children have been evacuated to places as far away as Guangzhou (near Hong Kong) to continue their schooling, while others are still with their families in the tent areas. A graduating student who hoped to work in Wenchuan has now joined many others trying to find work in the Chengdu. Local governments are doing their best to help the jobless but it is a daunting task. There is no telling what effect all of this will have on the cohesion of these mainly Qiang ethnic communities but it is clear that they will continue to need much support to get back on their feet again.

In the last update we reported that we were able to deliver desks and chairs to Fushun Primary school. This week we are happy to report through a generous donation that we ordered desks and chairs for two more schools in the earthquake area., Tumen Central Primary School and Guangming Central Primary School and will deliver them next week. The water filters that were delivered last week are being distributed this week to Guangyuan City and to Qingchuan county. These are areas that have not received a lot of relief aid but also suffered severe damage from the earthquake

Thank you for your continued support to the earthquake affected areas and for the people of Sichuan.

June 23rd, 2008

Chengdu, June 23rd,2008

As aftershocks decrease in frequency and intensity it's tempting to think that life is returning to normal but 'the long road' is only just beginning for many people. In Wenchuan county, where mountains are steep and flat land is scarce, 70,000 people had to be evacuated this week to safer local areas as the rainy season is aggravating already dangerous landslides. The scattered high mountain villages of Longxi township were completely evacuated to a tent village down in the main valley. A 70-year old man interviewed says they are willing to leave their village because their houses are ruined and there are big cracks in the ground.This evacuation has many implications: the villagers have left behind livestock, unharvested crops, and possessions, they have no idea of the future, no usable schools for the children, and everything has become 'one day at a time'. Because of landslides and the destruction of the route to Chengdu, the quickest route now takes 28 hours instead of 3-4.

On a positive note we were able to deliver needed school desks and other school supplies such as meeting tables and teachers desks to a school in Maoxian, in Aba Prefecture, which is one of the schools that has students that we sponsor. It took one of our workers nearly a week to make the trip up through the mountains to make the delivery. It was a hard 28 hour bus ride for him to get back to Chengdu, a trip that usually takes 3-4 hours. Many of the schools will return to class on July 15th in tent schools. There is a big need for new desks and other school equipment that were destroyed in the earthquake. We also had a shipment of water filters arrive from America that were donated to us that will help many to have access to clean water. Thank you for all your support.

June 10th, 2008

Chengdu, June 10th,2008

The aftershocks have settled somewhat but the aftermath is just beginning to be fully assessed. 69,142 people died and a further 17,551 remain missing. 5 million are homeless. Additionally a further 250,000 individuals have been evacuated from the valley below a lake that has been created by a landslide that occurred following the earthquake. 1.3 million people in total live downstream many of whom have evacuated the mountains because their houses were destroyed. During the last two weeks Alpha Communities has continued to connect with the townships it has worked in to assess the short and long term needs and how it can best serve those communities with requested aid and long term support. It is becoming clear that our vocational training and micro-loan initiatives will be well utilized in coming months and years. Ongoing educational support and materials will also be required.

Thank you once again for your donations!! Through your generous giving Alpha Communities has provided school materials, desks, tables and three computers to one of the key townships affected by the earthquake. Miraculously the children were all safe but the school will be held in tents for the next two years because their building is destroyed. The aid that has been donated will be distributed over the coming weeks in collaboration with the government to the most affected and least reached areas; this includes medical aid, water purifiers and temporary housing. We have also set up a logistics operation which will be used over the summer months to continue supplying relief and aid to affected areas. Over coming weeks we will also be assisting and facilitating several international organizations' responses in Sichuan to ensure that efforts are collaborative and do not replicate work or waste resources.

May 30th, 2008

Chengdu, May 30th,2008

Today Alpha Communities finally received word that its sponsorship program students in Fushun and Tumen Townships (Maoxian County) were not killed in the earthquake. It has taken a long and anxious 18 days to reach them because telecoms have been down and roads impassable. The schools are badly damaged and much has been lost. The government will invest funds to rebuild the schools but the local officials are asking for support to provide school supplies such as desks, chairs, library materials and books. It is overwhelming to look at the big picture in Sichuan at the moment and the thousands of lives in need of help. But as a Chinese proverb says, �A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step� and each individual helped is one of those steps to small and large scale recovery. One of our volunteers met yesterday with a college student from Wenchuan, �Daniel�, who was near to completing his first year in Chengdu studying International Business when the earthquake struck. His 25-year old cousin died in the quake and his house is ruined but he knows his parents are safe and well. Like so many others here, he is an only child expecting to support his parents as they get older. One of his main concerns now is that his family won�t be able to find his college fees ($1500USD p.a.). This is a key area in long term recovery. Many college students from Maoxian and Wenchuan are the first ones in their family to get a college education and if they manage to graduate and find a decent job, this will bring long term benefit to their communities.

May 28th, 2008

Chengdu, May 28th,2008

We are looking ahead now to beyond immediate relief efforts in the earthquake affected areas. Wenchuan county town, a region where Alpha Communities has already been working through sponsoring students, will have suffered severe long term economic losses. Two substantial pillars of the local economy have been tourism and business generated by the local teachers college. Last Thursday about 5000 students from the college were evacuated and the college will have to relocate for the foreseeable future. With the loss of tourism and student revenue the local people have not only suffered wide-scale destruction and loss of life but have also lost longer term major sources of income. This means that beyond the more immediate needs of rebuilding homes and infrastructure, these people will need considerable help in the area of education sponsorship and other longer term projects. Another report we have received focuses on the housing of farmers who live higher in the mountains. Many homes are cracked and unsafe to live in � their houses are also used as a place to store their harvest which is due in July. After the harvest these families will need more permanent housing because the winter will fast approach � temperatures drop substantially and there will be a need for adequate housing that can be properly heated.

This weekend�s �aftershocks� were considerable earthquakes in and of themselves. A further 400,000 houses collapsed already damaged in the initial earthquake. Today it is reported that 67,183 people are dead from the earthquake and over 20,000 remain missing. The need is as great as ever and we ask you to continue to let your friends, relatives, colleagues � everyone know that they can support the earthquake relief efforts through Alpha Communities� website www.alphacommunities.org We are so thankful for your support and generosity.

May 26th, 2008

Chengdu, May 26th,2008

The weekend has seen the number of dead rise above 60,000 with another 20,000 plus still missing. The aftershocks continue. Just yesterday another massive shift caused 270,000 homes to fall down. Lakes are forming in the mountain areas as landslides block the rivers causing a further fear and worry of flash floods for those already affected. Today Mianyang � where we have just rented facilities to use for the delivery of aid and coordination of volunteers is threatened with a 50% chance of flooding. People we know there are evacuating even as we type. What this means for the camps of refugees now housed around Mianyang can only be imagined. Alongside these events we are getting a better picture of how we can respond - how we can use the funds that you have generously donated in ways that will benefit the most people effectively and efficiently over the coming months. Shipments are now on the way and we will be sending those out in coming weeks to various refugee camps through the region.

May 22nd, 2008

Chengdu, May 22nd,2008

Alpha Communities through Heart to Heart facilitated several volunteers to help with the emergency response in the last week. Doug McGee, Josh Kidwell and Gabe Mellan from Beijing have been living at one of the refugee camps for the last three days. With most people having walked out of the village and the injured in places where they could start to receive some help the three guys carved out a niche, got creative and started a kids activity � playing games, singing songs and being themselves � totally goofy. The first day some 40 kids turned up. Yesterday 250 children came with parents because it�s been so much fun. �These guys have seen hell, they�ve lost their world and we are just helping people laugh again� said Doug last night on the phone. The camp director commented that the first day people were understandably fraught but the kids activity has helped changed the whole atmosphere of the camp. We are so proud of them as they capture the essence of what Alpha Communities is about � people matter. (Watch them on ABC News Webcast � Helping China�s Homeless) You will see a short advertisement before the news video starts.

The numbers continue to rise � the death toll, the injured, the amount of after shocks, but also your generous giving. With it Alpha Communities will be receiving goods from the US and distributing both through our partners and with the local government. As we get on with this work we will continue the updates two to three times a week.

May 21st, 2008

Chengdu, May 21st,2008

Thank you for your kind donations over the last week - through the website, your organisations and groups. Yesterday we completed setting up the warehouses in Mianyang, a city affected by the earthquake where many refugees have fled. From there the medical aid and other relief goods such as tents and food that Alpha Communities has paid for with your support will be delivered over the coming days and weeks. The first shipment of $300,000USD of medicines is on its way donated by Giving Children Hope in California. Deliveries of water purification equipment and needed supplies are being arranged in coming weeks and months from Humanitarian International Service Group out of Washington DC. Yesterday we received further permissions from the Ministry of Civil Affairs to import these goods tax free and will collaborate with their efforts and direct the aid to the locations that have received least. Alpha Communities is beginning to move into the second stage of its plan of action that leads back into its long term strategy of working with communities and addressing structural poverty.

The official death toll has now raised to 40,075 and there is over a quarter of a million injured. The fear of aftershocks hangs over everyone�s head. Many more are expected over the next month or two. Just this week 200 relief workers were killed in a landslide. Please keep your donations coming, please keep checking our website for updates, please keep telling your friends, relatives and contacts about Alpha Communities and what we are doing to support the response to this disaster. There will be reconstruction and rehabilitation work for many months and years to come.

May 20th, 2008

Chengdu, May 20th, 2008

This morning's grim numbers are: 35,000 dead, more than 5,000 still buried in the rubble, and more than 250,000 injured. Yesterday one of our volunteers came across an elderly woman who is the only survivor of her village. The entire place was swept away by a landslide. The older woman only survived because she was away from the village at the time.

But amidst endless sorrow good things are also happening. Last night some of our volunteers went to a refugee camp where they started to play songs and dance with the children there. It turned into a huge party with lots of fun. It seems so incongruent, but it may help some of these children deal with the severe trauma they are experiencing.

Other volunteers are going up trails with army personnel to villages that are still isolated. They found one village where the people had three bottles of water between all of them. They had not had news that they could hike down to a trunk road where water is handed out. Volunteers that take the time to find even the smallest places bring new hope to people who feel forgotten and overlooked.

Now that we have two warehouses, dorm facilities and an office up and running in Mianyang, we are beginning to focus on Wenchuan and Maoxian counties. The roads to both counties are still not open, but we are working on permissions to bring in medical supplies and other goods via roundabout routes. The government is asking for, among other things, tents, as the rainy season is approaching and many still do not have adequate shelter.

So far you have donated 82,000 US$. Thank you for your continued support and encouragement.

May 19th, 2008

Chengdu, May 19th,2008

We are now in the second week of relief efforts after the earthquake. The immediate crisis response of saving people buried under the rubble is giving way to concerted efforts to prevent disease and making sure survivors have at least minimal shelter, food and clothing.

So far you have donated $50,000 USD. We are profoundly grateful for your generosity. We have been offered free warehousing in Mianyang to use as a staging area. There are also living quarters ready there for volunteers who daily go out to help those who come walking out of the hills. Yesterday one volunteer told about a group of villagers that he came across on the road. They had walked for eight hours. One man was carrying a woman who had a broken hip. Another one was carrying a relative with a skull fracture. There is a great need to help severely traumatized people, beyond the immediate physical needs, with simple comfort, a kind word and a few minutes to share their grief.

Yesterday was the first day with no major after shock since the main earthquake, though more may still come. The dams are all holding so far. So far there has been no major outbreak of disease. The army has started to bury victims in mass graves. The death toll as of last night is 33,000 and the injured number 220,000. Soldiers are also clearing away dead livestock. All survivors are sprayed with disinfectant to prevent cholera and other infectious diseases.

We are starting to plan for longer term reconstruction and are hoping to send people up to areas further into the mountains, to assess needs. One of the big issues will be to get fields, now buried in rubble, ready for planting again. People up in the mountains depend on small plots of land where they grow corn and beans for their survival through the next winter.

May 18th, 2008

Chengdu, May 18th, 2008

Yesterday the Ministry of Health gave us permission to import and disburse as many supplies as we can get our hands on to all of the stricken areas. So far you have poured some 19,000 US$ into relief efforts by donating through our website. We are scrambling to supply needed aid to those volunteers and other relief workers to keep up the rescue efforts. Even at this late stage we still have people going through rubble, though this first phase is sadly slowly winding down. Today some of our staff and volunteers are out in Mianyang working in the warehouse there, while most people are simply walking up the mountain tracks, trekking through landslides to bring relief to isolated communities.

More of our efforts are now focussed on helping shocked and devastated survivors with food, water and shelter. Also, prevention of disease is becoming very important. Some ten million dead livestock - sheep, cattle, horses, chickens - are lying around rotting away. They pollute water and spread disease. Sanitation and clean drinking water are now top priorities. Already there are increasing numbers of cases of stomach trouble and dehydration through diarrhoea.

Another issue is the continuing danger from aftershocks. Since Monday we have had 145 major aftershocks and the latest one last night measured 6.1. The government warns of more heavy shocks to come. An emerging problem is the damage these shocks do to dams at hydro-electric plants. If a dam breaks it may cause major flooding, causing more devastation. Yesterday a large number of refugees from Beichuan had to be brought further away to Mianyang in a hurry because a dam in the vicinity was in danger of breaking.

We are becoming tired and sometimes despair at the scale of the devastation surrounding us. The official statistics as of last night are: 29,000 dead, 199,000 injured, about 4,5 million people displaced.

Please keep up your support so that we can keep our small efforts up in the middle of all this.

May 17th, 2008

Chengdu, May 17th, 2008

Here are the official figures as of last night: more than 22,000 dead, 14,000 still buried in rubble, 169,000 wounded, and 4,8 million people displaced.

As we try to deal with the overwhelming needs we are grateful for the generosity with which you keep giving. As of last night we had received US$ 17,000 through our website. PayPal is helping by waiving its commission, so that the full amount of your donation goes directly to the quake victims. Also, the charity Giving Children Hope from California has made available some 5 tonnes of emergency medical supplies which are on their way to China now. We have just been granted permission to import and distribute these supplies.

We are overjoyed to tell you that, after five days of anxious waiting, communications with Maoxian, a town where some of our sponsor children study were restored early this morning. The twenty or so Alpha Communities kids that are there in boarding school are all unharmed. We are still waiting to hear from Fushun and Tumen townships.

Our local staff member Nima is out in Mianyang with volunteer Steve. They have found warehouse space for relief goods and also housing for teams of volunteers who are moving forward to help out. Today 70 volunteers will be working the rubble in Beichuan in small groups, to still dig for survivors. Though the golden 72 hour window is long past, miracles do happen, and we will look as long as there is even the slightest possibility of finding people alive. Other volunteers will start to work with the walking injured and displaced that are coming out of the hills. They are traumatized and destitute, hungry and without shelter. There are some five million of them now, a number that will still grow over the next few days. Help us help them!

May 16th, 2008

Chengdu, May 16th, 2008

Again - thank you for your generosity and support. About $14,000USD in donations came in over the last 48 hours. We are making this money available to the emergency relief workers who are still digging through the rubble in Beichuan for survivors - there is so much need and devastation. Last night the official death toll topped 20,000 people. Now that the first 72 hours after the quakes have passed the hope of finding people alive, barring miracles, is minimal. We expect the death toll to rise dramatically over the next days. Still we don't give up hope and we keep searching.

Several teams of our workers have been on site, moving with army and Red Cross personnel. As the army forges ways through the rubble small teams of volunteers follow the soldiers, carefully listening for signals of people alive under the debris. One team pulled twelve people out alive yesterday. It is painstaking work as sometimes it takes a long time to locate the precise place where a survivor is buried, and then more time to get rubble removed. There is a shortage of tools to remove concrete slabs and rocks, so that much work is still done with bare hands. One lady who came back to Chengdu late last night told us that she had located an elderly lady, removed the first layers of rubble until the women could be rehydrated with IV fluids, and then had to leave her, still buried, until another crew carrying rubble moving equipment could come along. The elderly woman did survive. There is also a tremendous shortage of medicine, clothing, food and shelter for the thousands upon thousands of refugees who are walking out of the hills right now. Alpha Communities staff is working together with other relief personnel to set up a warehouse and response centre closer to the epicenter from which to send out emergency supplies. The government is making an all out effort but the need is so great that officials are requesting all possible help to meet the needs of those afflicted in the quake. Please keep giving generously.

Linked here is Alpha Communities plan of action for support in the next 24 hours, over the next two weeks and long term assistance plan.

May 15th, 2008

Chengdu, May 15th, 2008

Thank you to those of you who have already been supporting Alpha Communities in our response to the earthquake. Yesterday we saw some $2000 USD donated on our website and a further 65,000 RMB from an International School in Shanghai. We are currently supporting the response of Heart to Heart and 3E who are coordinating with both the Red Cross and local government providing medical and practical assistance on site. The first personnel reached Beichuan last night at the epicentre of the earthquake. We are still waiting for direct news from them. Right now the official death toll is over 15,000 people with an estimated 25,000 people still trapped. We are waiting for news from children and families that Alpha Communities supports in Maoxian and Wenchuan (again towns right at the epicentre of the earthquake). Please, please email your friends, colleagues, relatives and let them know about this situation. We need your support. With it we are in a position to make a real difference - not to the whole situation because of its enormity but to those individuals and families we can reach

May 14th, 2008

Chengdu, May 14th, 2008

This Monday, May 12th, there was a 7.9 earthquake in Sichuan where Alpha Communities has some of its projects. We felt it here in Chengdu where the earthquake was less powerful yet still made the buildings shake. The scale of the disaster is still trickling through but

Alpha Communities is in a position to support the
short term disaster relief response and certainly the long term rebuilding and redevelopment of these already poor areas.

Some of the students under our sponsorship programme were right in the epicentre areas and we are unable currently to know how they are but we expect the worst given the reports coming out of those areas right now.

If you would like to partner with us by donating to this cause we need your support. Click on the donate button to the left to donate online through PAYPAL. Gifts can also be posted to our offices in Germany, Holland, UK and US and would be tax deductible in both the US and UK. Whether you donate online or send a check to us in the post please in each case make your donation to Alpha Communities and clearly mark it FOR SICHUAN EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE.

We will keep you posted as we get more information.