|
Earthquake Rebuild Project Update
Project Plan
Transaction Details
Rescue
Diary
Donation
Total donation of $68,262 as Feb 14, 2009. Total amount of $68,347
was sent to China for the rescue and rebuild project. Angel Pray
covered $70 wire fee.
Wu Long School
(五龙义校)Rebuild
Project The
committee of APCCF(Angel Pray Child Charity Foundation) Sichuan
Earthquake Relief Fund has decided to direct the entire remaining
fund, $68,347 minus $4,400 (urgent help fund RMB30,000) distributed
in early emergency relief effort, to Wu Long School rebuilt
project. This is a summary of the decision process and recently
activities.
Download the video of Wu Long School that
suffered after the earthquake 5-12 (size20MB)
1) Why Wu Long School
Right after the
earthquake, we intended to use our donations to help orphans and
disabled children. But as our fundraising effort and the whole
relief effort have evolved, we have to change our plan. Here are
the main reasons:
a.
As many have
pledged right after the fund was set up, the money was actually
coming in very slowly, especially for the donations processed
through a company program that usually will take 2-4 months for us
to get the money. Also, during the emergency time, it is hard to
find local volunteers to help execute our plan. But still, we were
able to distribute a small amount of money to some orphans and other
children in need.
b.
The overall
donations for Sichuan earthquake have exceeded $14 billion. Our
fund is tiny and slow comparing to many. We also don’t have a
network of volunteers in China as of now. To make our effort
effective, we have to stay focused.
c.
It is
understandable that the distribution of all earthquake relief funds
are not even and not well planned. Because donors who tend to
direct their money to the areas that are well covered by the media.
For example, Ju Yuan School(聚源中学),
the school covered the most by the media for its devastating loss,
has received more than 100 million RMB. On the other hand, many
areas that are more rural, less accessible to the media or less in
casualty have received little notice or little help.
d.
Wu Long School is
located in such a rural area. It connects to the main road through
a hilly one-lane dirt road which takes a SUV to drive almost an
hour. The earthquake has caused structure damage to most already
badly maintained buildings and forced students living and learning
in poorly conditioned temporary housing. Fortunately, there was not
casualty during the earthquake. But probably because of that, they
seem to be left out during the waves of donations.
We feel Wu Long
School just needs as much help as others. There are a few affected
schools in the same county. Wu Long is selected because it is
furtherst from the center of the county.
2) About Wu Long School and rebuild project
Wu Long is
a 1-9 grade school including elementary and middle school. It is
located Yianting County(盐亭县),
probably the poorest county under the government of Mianyang City(绵阳市).
It has more than 600 students after the earthquake. Because it is
extremely hard to commute, almost all the students live on campus.
The school
benefits from the recently implemented nationwide free 1-9 grade
education program that allows them to hire more qualified teachers
and buy more equipment. Because of this program, the government
will be responsible for rebuilding the school damaged by the
earthquake. The government budget for the new school is 5 million
RMB. According to the current plan, it will take 3 years the latest
to complete the project.
As of now, our
fund is worth about 400k RMB. We hope to add a facility, such as a
gym, a library, etc., to the new campus, so we will see a concrete
result of our donations and it will be there for a long time.
The county
education department and the school are very appreciative of our
help. We both agree that our fund will not be moved over until the
government budget money is in place and the final project plan
starts to be implemented. As what facility we will help to build
will depends on the school’s final plan and the construction cost at
that time. Our local volunteers in Chengdu will keep track on the
progress of the project.
3) A visit to Wu Long School
On Sept 22,
2008, APCCF volunteers from US(Yin Ye, Wei Wang) and
Chengdu(Xiaoxuan, Deng ) visited Wu Long School. It took more than
3 hours to drive from Chengdu through Mianyang and Yanting to the
school. The school principal, Mr. Qiang Huang(黄强)
and the county education official met the volunteers in Yanting.
Mr. Huang then guided the vehicle through the dirt road to the
school.
After touring the
campus and seeing the damaged school buildings, temporary classrooms
and student dorms, it is very obvious that the school is in a great
need for all the help it can get. Everyone is moved to see rows of
the bed packed and smelled dorm rooms on one side, and the small and
crowded classrooms on the other side. Yet, the atmosphere on campus
is quite positive. Students and teachers are very focused on
learning and teaching.
The volunteers
and Mr. Huang discussed the school rebuilding project and how APCCF
can get involved. It is agreed that the school will inform APCCF
the progress of the government funding and construction plan and
APCCF will indentify the facility that it can help build at a time
that the construction plan is about to be finalized.
Pictures of the
visit are to be posted on the APCCF website.
4) Other Activities
In addition to
the fundraising effort, APCCF is working to get more volunteers in
China to provide help for whatever is needed. These activities are
all funded by local donations which do not take any money from APCCF
relief fund:
a. Volunteers in
Chengdu led by Xiaoxuan have been our liaison in working with the
earthquake victims. They have spent a considerable amount of time
and money in relief effort, especially in the initiation of Wu Long
project.
b. Volunteers in
Shanghai have been working with Wei Wang to purchase new children
clothes. A package valued at 2,500 RMB has been shipped to Wu Long
School.
c. Volunteers
associated with publishers in Shenzhen and Shanghai are preparing
many series of books. These books will be shipped to Wu Long School
before or after the new library is built depending upon the school
plan.
d. Volunteers in
Beijing will send recycled computers and accessories from top
business schools to Wu Long for their computer lab.
5) Final Comments
By the time APCCF
raised sizeable amount of money, a lot of heavily affected areas
have already got piles of donation and/or are packed with large
quantities of relief shipments. Our fund size is still very small.
But we want to spend the money more effectively. It is why we
decided to hold it for a specific project.
The challenge
remains that the small fund size, about 400k RMB, limits our options
for the facility that we can help build. Given it will take a
little more time for the construction plan to be finalized, we urge
people continue to donate to the fund or still consider APCCF relief
fund for your next year’s contribution plan.
Besides the
fundraising, there are still many things we can do to help. We
welcome anyone who wants to get involved in any fashion. Please
feel free to contact us for your idea and thoughts.
The committee
members wanted to thank all the people who have donated and helped
for your trust and your support. We will provide more update as the
project progresses.
International Transactions |
Home