(replacing preliminary appeal issued 10 July 2009)
Appeal Target: US$ 179,417
Contributions/pledges received: US$ 45,311
Balance requested: US$ 134,106
Geneva, 2 October 2009
Dear Colleagues,
Flooding and heavy rain in Southern China in July 2009 forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their homes and has killed over 75 people. (Source China Ministry of Civil Affairs, 5th July) The most severely affected areas include: Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Jiangxi Province, Hunan Province, Hubei Province, Guizhou and Chongqing. The heavy rains destroyed homes, flooded crops, cut power supplies, damaged roads and caused the Yangtse and Huai rivers to overflow. Some 938,000 persons had to be evacuated.
Just after the disaster there was not sufficient shelters and people were crowded into small tents, but now the shortage of shelter has been remedied with help from the local authorities and other organizations. Because unhealthy conditions of shelters, reconstruction of villagers' houses is the most urgent need, in particular for families in rural areas who do not have the means to reconstruct their homes without help from outside.
With the help from local government and different NGOs, the most vulnerable affected families received enough rice to sustain for the next three months. Amity also assisted, through a bilateral funding agreement, in providing a total of 509,359 kilos of rice for in Hunan, Guangxi and Guizhou. As a lot of crops, including grain, fruit trees and vegetables were destroyed by the floods, many people will encounter food shortages in a short period. Provision of rice will need to be complemented with other food, which would be sustainable if produced through agricultural recovery.
Basic commodities including quilts, clothes, mosquito nets, and cooking equipments were buried under the collapsed houses. With bilateral funding from outside the alliance Amity purchased and distributed a total of 10,252 quilts, 4,182 mosquito nets, 1,014 straw mats and 1,500 bed sheets to affected people in its target areas.
Funding in response to the Preliminary Appeal was low (a little over US$ 45,000 still held by the CO). Amity up-dated its assessment and subsequently revised the objectives. The appeal CHN091 replaces the preliminary version issued on 10 July 2009, focusing on rehabilitation schemes only.
