Supporter: Jeff Franklin

Sometimes it’s the intangibles that can make all the difference in healing after a disaster. In relief worker lingo, we sometimes refer to things like the trainings, capacity building and youth post-traumatic recovery work we do as the “software.” In the Tibetan Plateau province of Qinghai — where a devastating 7.1 magnitude earthquake rocked Yushu County on April 14 — Mercy Corps and our partners are bringing some of this software to a very special and unique group of survivors and teachers.

Teachers and Mercy Corps staff discussing how to adapt the training and "My Earthquake Story" workbook to the local context. Photo: Mercy Corps

In contrast to the provision of food, water, new houses, schools and roads — the "hardware" — that’s being undertaken by the local government in Qinghai province, Mercy Corps’ Comfort for Kids program benefits are something you can’t simply touch and feel with your hands. This program reaches a little deeper below the surface.

Last weekend, our team was back on location in Yushu with our trainer from the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake Youth Psychosocial Program, introducing the "My Earthquake Story" workbook for child survivors and talking local teachers through the methodology of the program. The workbook allows a safe and personal space for young survivors to express their unique experience from the disaster — with spaces to draw and color, write about their losses, emotions and fears. This is indeed their very own earthquake story.

Last Saturday, 42 teachers attended our training session on the "My Earthquake Story" workbook methodology at the 3rd Primary School in Yushu Town. In addition to being introduced to the tools and methods, Mercy Corps’ team and trainers learned a great deal from the teachers about local Tibetan culture and what things in the workbook would need to be updated to suit the local context.

A group of teachers discussing the My Earthquake Story workbook. Photo: Mercy Corps

The idea is that, through this training and the workbook updates, the teachers will be ready to work with the 3,000 students once they return to the classroom after the summer break. The team wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. Would the Tibetan teachers and youth accept this sort of exercise? What would work and what would not? With the blessing of the school principal, our team did a pilot run with two 5th grade classes on Sunday — many of these kids lost family members and friends in the quake.

What did we learn? We learned that youth the world over, while different in so many ways, all desire comfort and care in times of trauma and uncertainty. We learned what culturally-sensitive adjustments to the workbook will make the program even better. We learned that the passion and backing of the program by the local principles and partners makes all the difference.

Now it’s time to make the little tweaks and prepare for a the next, larger phase.

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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

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An elderly quake survivor mourning the dead as she sits outside King Gesar Square to witness the memorial on April 21st in Jiegu town. Photo: Yue Yao/Mercy Corps

Please note: this is the fourth 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.

At 10:00 a.m. on April 21st, just as the snow began to fall, Yushu County was crying.

We got up very early to prepare today’s work and attend the day of mourning in Jiegu town.

Many people were gathered in King Gesar Square, from local Tibetans and monks from various regions to humanitarian workers and civil servants. Everyone was so quiet, only the soft traditional Tibetan music playing in the background could be heard.

I followed our local partner colleagues to join a group of people standing near a bunch of emergency tents.

While the sky continued spouting snow, vehicles were blaring their horns as symbol of solidarity and Yushu County was crying, Qinghai Province was crying, China was crying the world was crying with us.

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A young quake survivor taking home emergency food supplies from our local partner’s distribution. Mercy Corps’ Yue Yao was on site to help with relief supply distribution in Qinghai over the last several days.
Photo: Yue Yao/Mercy Corps

Please note: this is the third 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.

It was a big day today.

I helped our local partner with two of their emergency distributions, the first being in the morning. The heavy road traffic last night forced us to postpone the first distribution until this morning.

It was a small size food distribution targeting 120 people living in the Minzhu Lu temporary housing camp, which we assessed yesterday. Before the distribution took place, our local coordinator provided a very specific list of survivors, with family names and the number of people in each family. We also viewed information regarding the number of people these families lost in the earthquake.

This afternoon, we served 1,007 people living in a camp near Yushu Park. It was a very tough distribution, since the camp was not very well organized and lacked a camp leader to take charge of the event. We heard the community had a pretty desperate struggle earlier during another distribution. While this is completely understandable after an emergency, when survivors are desperate, we wanted to do things right. We were a little worried about how we could efficiently and safely distribute this load of much-needed food — our truck had roughly 9,000 vegetables, including potatoes, carrots and greens.

When we encountered damaged and crowded road conditions, we re-grouped and set our “Plan B” into action: we had to dig out a new path for our food supply truck. We managed to arrive in the camp and then we set up a secure distribution line with a large group of local survivors.

By 8:30 that evening, we had managed to complete the full distribution. It wasn’t until we had all gone back to our operating base that we realized how exhausted we were. Everyone said the same thing before lights out though — we did today this for 1,007 courageous survivors.

This is a great team.

Digging out a new path for a food supply truck en route to an emergency camp for displaced earthquake survivors. Extreme weather, icy roads and heavy traffic have made access tough in Jiegu town.
Photo: Yue Yao/Mercy Corps

Our joint distribution point for emergency food relief. The team worked throughout the day and evening and provided much needed local style food items for more than 1,000 Tibetan survivors.
Photo: Mercy Corps

A Tibetan family receiving a pack of emergency food supplies. Photo: Yue Yao/Mercy Corps

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Please note: this is the second 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.

Yushu County is normally a picturesque area, located in the eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau, about 3,800 meters above sea level. However, it is also one of China’s nationally recognized “poverty counties,” and the horrific earthquake last week almost totally destroyed this beautiful little corner of the Tibetan region.

I have been deployed in Yushu to help respond to the earthquake with some local non-governmental organization (NGO) staff. These particular groups heading to Yushu though had no previous agency experience on disaster response and understandably had limited knowledge about how NGOs can operate in an emergency setting. So one of the first things Mercy Corps was able to do was provide emergency training for local teams.

On the third day after earthquake, I had arrived in Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province. There were many people from Qinghai, Tibet and the U.S. who’d already flooded into the local NGO office trying to work out a team response. As Mercy Corps' Disaster Management Capacity Building Program Manger, I was invited to do a quick emergency response training to help the attendees structure a response team and mechanism.

An elderly Tibetan woman passes a damaged building on a street in Yushu. Photo: Mercy Corps

When in Yushu, the teams would have to face very difficult situations, much like in other big disasters. Introducing some of the basic and hands-on tools, such as the Sphere Standards (Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response) would become very useful in helping the various teams to operate.

I now see these teams putting some of the tools from Mercy Corps to use, from recording relief supplies received each day, to following Mercy Corps’ practices on community distribution. I am proud to be helping the local agencies become the best responders than can be.

A well-organized distribution line outside of Jiegu. Photo: Mercy Corps

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