Disaster Risk Reduction - China

DRR IN

China Natural disasters occur frequently in China, affecting more than 200 million people every year. These include floods, earthquakes, and droughts. In the worst natural disaster to strike China in over 30 years, the Sichuan earthquake claimed the lives of over 86,000 people, and destroyed the homes of more than 11 million people. Some 45 million people have been affected. The scale of the destruction was staggering – eighty percent of the buildings in many towns collapsed. Continuing aftershocks threatened the disaster zone for the remainder of 2008. Damage to roads, dams, communications infrastructure and industry are widespread and extensive.

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The timing of the earthquake, during the afternoon on a school day, had particularly devastating consequences for children.

The government confirmed the collapse and damage of more than 7,000 schools, and many of the victims were children.

Substandard buildings have been largely blamed for the collapse of schools in the quake zone and it is estimated that 1.9 million primary and secondary school children’s access to education has been affected. Save the Children intervened 48 hours after the earthquake.

Save the Children’s Presence in China Left: Child volunteers deliver self-protection knowledge in Gaouguan Village.

Right: Child Peer educators complete the Risk and Resource map in Tashui Junior High School, Tashui Town, An County.

Cover: A damage inspector walks among the rubble in the city of Han Wang, Sichuan province, China.

Save the Children helped people affected by severe floods in China in the 1930s and provided food and shelter to victims of the war with Japan. We worked with Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong during the 1970s and 1980s, and in 1988 our work resumed in mainland China. The program office relocated in 1995 from Hong Kong to Kunming, Yunnan province, and in 1999, we moved the head office to Beijing, where we work directly with government ministries and other organisations to improve policies and practices that affect children’s lives. We have program offices in Yunnan province and in the autonomous regions of Tibet and Xinjiang. We also work with migrant communities in Beijing and Shanghai. We run projects in more than ten provinces and regions that focus on ensuring that all children attend school and get a good education; protecting children from harm, in particular those affected by migration; improving children and women’s health; and responding to emergencies. Immediately after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake we opened an emergency program office in Chengdu, and have since set up a permanent program there.

In 2009 Save the Children implemented the DRR Sichuan Earthquake Programme in China with a total of $356,465 from Google and Mercy Malaysia. The program has reached 3000 children directly and 6000 adults indirectly. In addition, we have directly engaged with 20 local partners.

This DRR project is part of a broader program involving health, education, and protection. The DRR project involves working with children, adult community members and teachers on activities that help the community and schools prepare and reduce the impact of disaster. Through child participation, Save the Children has reduced the disaster risks facing children, their caregivers and their communities in Sichuan townships.

Capacity Building Save the Children built the capacity of program staff for DRR programming. By increasing knowledge of staff on DRR, the roll-out of DRR activities were promoted. In addition, community volunteers were trained in DRR to assist in the program to become the “trainer of trainers” and ran DRR information workshops in their communities.

DRR & Education Save the Children initiated a joint child-adult risk mapping exercise and created action plans in communities and schools. DRR training materials were translated and adapted to the Chinese context in all Save the Children programs in China.

School children in townships developed and participated in DRR preparedness and mitigation activities in schools. Additionally, 1,000 children in Save the Children’s Activity Centres (CACs) participated in DRR activities. Save the Children also provided school first aid kits for schools and child survival kits for children distributed by the earthquake.

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