It was a tragic event--a powerful earthquake registering 8.0 on the Richter scale hit Sichuan province in southwestern mainland China on May 12, 2008 leaving more than 69,000 people dead, 373,000 injured, 18,000 missing and 15 million homeless, according to tallies released by the mainland Chinese State Council Information Office. The temblor was the deadliest to strike mainland China since 1976, when an earthquake in northern Hebei province's Tangshan claimed 240,000 lives.
Many heart-rending stories have surfaced since the event and saddened people all over the world. Stories such as rescuers finding the bodies of parents who had covered their children with their own bodies in a vain attempt to save their lives, of teachers who survived the earthquake hopelessly calling out the names of the students still buried beneath the rubble, and of little children becoming the sole survivors of their entire families. However, at the same time, the event triggered an immense outpouring of concern and compassion from around the world. Humanitarian aid in a multitude of forms was rushed to quake-affected areas, from search and rescue teams and medical care to material supplies and cash donations.
Among all these relief efforts, the assistance coming from Taiwan has reportedly topped that of any other nation in the world. Just days after the quake, the Republic of China (ROC) government proposed a NT$2 billion (US$67 million) aid package for mainland China, including NT$700 million (US$23 million) in cash made immediately available and NT$100 million (US$3 million) in relief supplies including 2,000 tons of rice. The remaining NT$1.2 billion (US$40 million) was earmarked for post-quake reconstruction projects to be funded from public donations.
Meanwhile, local television in Taiwan gave round-the-clock coverage of the catastrophe and charity activities took place around the island, prompting many citizens to donate money for relief efforts. A television fundraising campaign on May 18, sponsored by Taipei-based television stations CTV and CTI and the Red Cross Society, for example, raised NT$220 million (US$7.2 million) for quake victims. Ma Ying-jeou, at that time president-elect, and his wife Chou Mei-ching joined some 100 celebrities and political pundits in answering phone calls and accepting donations from viewers. The public response was so overwhelming that the organizers decided to allow the event, originally scheduled to end at 11:30 p.m., to continue until midnight.
By late May, cash donations from the ROC government, enterprises, organizations and individuals had already reached more than RMB780 million (US$113 million), according to news releases from the mainland China's State Council. Of the top five cash donors among multinationals, four were Taiwanese enterprises, including Formosa Plastics Group, Evergreen Group, Foxconn Technology Group and RT-Mart International Ltd.
Goodwill to Good Action
As soon as they obtained the go-ahead from mainland Chinese authorities, which came on May 16, Taiwan's Red Cross Society and the Taipei City Government sent a rescue team via a direct charter flight from Taipei to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. Former Taipei Deputy Mayor Ou Chin-der, who was involved in rescue operations and reconstruction work after Taiwan's devastating earthquake on September 21, 1999, led the team of 22 specialists to Sichuan. The group was equipped with life-detection instruments and assisted in search efforts.
The exchange marked the first time that trained rescue personnel from Taiwan had participated in disaster relief operations in mainland China, from which Taiwan split in 1949 following a bitter civil war. By the time the team arrived, however, it was already more than a day after the "golden relief time"--the 72-hour window after an earthquake that offers the best chance of finding victims alive. They did not find any survivors.
After the rescue team returned to Taiwan, the Red Cross Society and Taipei City Government's Department of Health organized a second mission to Chengdu on May 19. The 37-member delegation, comprised of 25 medical professionals and 12 volunteers, offered medical treatment to the injured and conducted disease control operations. C.V. Chen, president of Taiwan's Red Cross Society, says his office will likely be engaging in consultations with the Red Cross Society chapter in Sichuan for years to come to coordinate relief efforts. The plans include setting up temporary shelters in the short term as well as assisting in long-term reconstruction, all with the aim of utilizing the resources offered by Taiwan as efficiently as possible.
Team members from Taiwan's Red Cross Society and representatives from the Taipei City Government are seen on their arrival in Chengdu. The 22-member team assisted with rescue operations. (Photo by Central News Agency)
The Taipei County Government also donated more than NT$10 million (US$326,800) worth of supplies through Taiwan's Buddhist organization Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM). The goods included protective outfits, face masks and gloves as well as disinfectant to help rescue workers and residents in the area with disease control.
Several Taiwanese religious groups, including DDM's Social Welfare and Charity Foundation, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation as well as Buddha's Light International Association (BLIA), a lay service of the Fo Guang Shan Monastery, have participated extensively in quake relief work as well.
Right after hearing of the calamity, Tzu Chi established a disaster relief coordination center at the group's headquarters in Hualien, eastern Taiwan. Its first batch of relief supplies included blankets, daily necessities and medicine and was accompanied by 11 volunteers from Taiwan and 16 from mainland China, all arriving in Sichuan on May 14. It then divided its work force into four sections: preparing food, comforting quake victims, organizing activities for local children and taking care of chores. In particular, the group used activities such as singing, dancing, storytelling and drawing to distract younger quake victims from the chaos surrounding them and help them regain some peace of mind.
Many Needs
By June, more than 1,000 Tzu Chi volunteers had contributed to relief work in the disaster areas and the group's medical teams had assisted more than 3,700 quake victims. "Disaster relief is not one dimensional. It's not enough to simply offer medical care, food and daily necessities," says volunteer Chien Shou-hsin, vice president of the Dalin Branch of the Tzu Chi General Hospital in Chiayi County, central Taiwan. "Psychological comfort and simply keeping people company, too, are important forces that can help quake victims work through trauma. Sometimes, a hug and just listening to what they have to tell can help them a lot," Chien says.
Tzu Chi has launched fundraising campaigns in 26 countries to finance its relief efforts and is now working on assembling prefabricated structures for accommodation and schooling to help quake survivors return to a more normal life as soon as possible.
Immediately following reports of the Sichuan earthquake, Master Hsing Yun, founder of BLIA, announced the group would make a donation of RMB10 million (US$1.4 million) for relief work. The organization also set up a rescue command center in Taipei to coordinate the work of its branches in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia. The group formed a 39-member team, which arrived in Chengdu on May 15 to offer rescue services, medical care, supplies and victim support. It dispatched a second medical group shortly after that with some 600 kilograms of medical supplies to help the sick and injured.
Secretary-general of BLIA ROC Chueh Pei says along with setting up six temporary clinics to address the immediate medical needs of quake victims, BLIA has sent members to quake-ravaged areas to help with evaluation and planning of the reconstruction work. The group plans to earmark funding of at least RMB50 million (US$7 million) for the rebuilding effort.
Another serious problem, Chueh Pei notes, is helping quake victims reestablish their mental health. She cites likely psychological issues as ranging from anger and depression to suicidal tendencies among quake survivors, many of whom lost family members as well as almost everything they owned. To help with this work, BLIA has invited professors from the Department of Life and Death Studies of Nanhua University in Chiayi, central Taiwan, psychologists and Buddhist priests to render psychological counseling services to survivors in Sichuan. In addition, the group aims to recruit some 10,000 to 20,000 teachers local to the disaster area to receive training in mental health care to assist with the long-term needs of victims.
Similarly, DDM vice abbot Guo Pin says his organization is offering three main types of assistance to Sichuan quake victims. Initially, it focused on providing the affected residents with emergency medical services and basic supplies, including tents, sleeping bags, packaged foods, bottled water and medicine. "The temporary clinics that we set up were overwhelmed by waves of injured people. Our volunteer doctors attended to 400 to 500 patients a day who were mostly suffering bone fractures and infections from cuts. When our first relief team was about to leave, locals lined up to say goodbye to us and asked us when we'd return there," he recalls. "This calamity, when viewed in a positive perspective, helps foster compassion between Chinese and Taiwanese and other peoples alike and more importantly brings out the better side of human nature such as by contributing to disaster relief."
Members of Dharma Drum Mountain comfort Sichuan quake victims. (Courtesy of Dharma Drum Mountain)
DDM's two other missions, Guo Ping explains, are to help with housing reconstruction and mental health care with the group planning operations spanning at least the next three years. While awaiting policy formulation from the mainland Chinese government about post-disaster reconstruction, the group has sent engineers to the quake-ravaged regions to make preliminary assessments.
The relief work has led to an unprecedented exchange between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and has served to bolster cross-strait relations. Taiwan's China Airlines organized a Boeing 747 humanitarian charter flight May 15 to deliver 110 tons of aid donated by the Taiwanese public. A mainland Chinese cargo plane also flew from Shanghai to the international airport at Taoyuan in northern Taiwan May 17 to pick up relief supplements also bound for Chengdu.
Warm Praise
Taiwan's quick response and generous donations to the quake relief campaign have won warm praise in mainland China. Mainland China's semi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait expressed its appreciation May 15 in a letter of thanks sent to its Taiwan counterpart, the Straits Exchange Foundation, for the aid sent to quake-hit Sichuan.
Since then, Taiwan-based Business Weekly and National Taiwan University (NTU) have formed an alliance that aims to take Taiwan's experience in earthquake reconstruction to Sichuan. Yu Kuo-ting, president of Business Weekly, says that since Taiwan's 921 Earthquake in 1999, the island has developed expertise in reconstruction work. NTU's Graduate Institute of Building and Planning actively took part in related reconstruction projects following the 7.3-magnitude quake that killed more than 2,400 people and damaged some 80,000 homes. Yu says his magazine also helped mobilize domestic enterprises to join in the rebuilding efforts and so has accumulated experience in coordinating resources. "We want to utilize Taiwan's experience in dealing with the aftermath of the 921 quake to facilitate similar work in mainland China," Yu says. "It's our hope this alliance can serve as a platform to integrate the aid being offered by Taiwan in the form of donations and professional expertise to make the best use of them." In the meantime, the alliance is expected to target resources from companies and individuals in the private sector.
Yu says comprehensive planning is important before any reconstruction work begins. It is a point that should be emphasized, he says, given the large area affected by the quake and the massive amount of rebuilding that will be necessary. In late June, Hsia Chu-joe, a professor at NTU's Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, was scheduled to lead a 30-member team--consisting of architects, civil engineers, geologists and experts in environmental engineering, landscaping and urban planning--on a fact-finding tour of Sichuan. The group hoped to unveil a detailed plan for rebuilding homes and schools as soon as possible after their evaluation. "Taiwanese people are enthusiastic to render assistance to quake victims in the mainland. We want to aim their donations in the right direction to maximize their efficiency," Yu says.
Consolidated Assistance
Likewise, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan pledged to consolidate Taiwan's assistance to mainland China to help it reconstruct and rehabilitate quake-affected areas. He has instructed authorities, including the Ministry of the Interior, Department of Health and Mainland Affairs Council, to work out a series of aid schemes. These are to include temporary shelters, medical care, disease prevention and control and counseling for victims to be coordinated by the National Disasters Prevention and Protection Commission.
Tzu Chi volunteer Lin Ching-wen, deputy head nurse at the Yuli Branch of the Tzu Chi General Hospital in Nantou County, southern Taiwan, says although she has returned to Taiwan after finishing her medical mission in Sichuan, the thoughts of the quake victims remain vivid. A letter from a young girl upon Lin's departure, in particular, still brings tears to her eyes. "Dear Auntie Ching-wen: My sister and I really do not want you to leave... I have come to associate nurses with angels. You have taken me under your wing and taught me how to smile again. The love you've given me shall encourage me to face difficulties and move forward," the girl writes.
Indeed, as Tzu Chi Master Cheng Yen says, the Sichuan catastrophe has inspired love within people's hearts, and as long as there is love there is hope. The outpouring of love from people all over the world holds out the hope of a better future for the quake victims of mainland China's Sichuan province.
Write to Kelly Her at kelly@mail.gio.gov.tw