Hope and hygiene kits for China’s Qinghai quake zone

A local volunteer in Yushu offering free emergency telephone service to help survivors reachtheir loved ones and request assistance and supplies.
Photo: Yue Yao/Mercy Corps

Please note: this is the fifth dispatch piece by Yue Yao, Program Manager with Mercy Corps China, who is currently in Qinghai. I am receiving and posting his notes while he's in the field.

Hope is the word that comes to mind now when I see Yushu County, the heaviest hit area from the April 14th tremor in Qinghai Province.

My recent mission to Yushu was both humbling and touching — everyone I met was so kind-hearted and helpful. From the moment I landed on the ground in Yushu the week before last until I left, I had continuous invitations to hitch rides with passionate volunteers, taxi drivers offering no-fare trips and other kindred spirits.

On the road from the capital city of Xining to Yushu County, you could find people all along the road offering free water and traditional Tibetan tea to those traveling to and from the disaster zone to help with relief efforts.

Local people set up tents and offered free food and tea to exhausted relief workers and survivors.
Photo: Yue Yao/Mercy Corps

Apart from many national and international civil society groups operating in Yushu, people from all walks of life, various regions and agencies could all be seen lending a hand, chipping in to help those in need. During coordination meetings in our operational base, we met volunteers from Beijing, Sichuan and Tibet. We even met volunteers from the United States, France and Australia working extremely hard on the ground to offer their skills in order to reach the goal of urgent goods and service delivery for the survivors.

While the Chinese authorities have done a tremendous job in supplying the most urgent and vital goods since last week — such as food, water, shelter and warm clothing — more is needed. Mercy Corps has been invited to continue helping in relief efforts by providing much needed personal hygiene items to surviving families whose lives are on hold in the temporary emergency camps.

We are packing and shipping 2,000 hygiene kits to the more remote and overlooked areas from the disaster. Daily necessities that are so often overlooked, such as soap, washing detergent, tissues, towels, toothbrushes and toothpaste, hair brushes, underwear and storage containers; these simple items help people start to restore their sense of dignity, normalcy and self-care. We are working hard and rapidly to get these materials on the road and into the hands of the hopeful in Qinghai.

Just as sure as the sun comes up everyday to warm and light this snowy land, hope is starting to show its face again too.

Mercy Corps China’s Sichuan team has procured 2,000 Hygiene Kits for packing and delivery to the disaster zone. The journey could take up to 40 hours, through rough mountain passes at 4,000m above sea level, to reach Yushu County in Qinghai Province.
Photo: Mercy Corps