Volunteers Make a Difference in Earthquake Relief

By staff reporter ZHANG HONG

THE magnitude 7.0 quake that struck Lushan County on April 20 was a cruel test of Chinas disaster response capabilities. But the countrys emergency responders proved their mettle； compared to the Wenchuan Earthquake of 2008， relief measures were more timely， rational and effective in dealing with the devastation. At times – and despite their best intentions –the large number of volunteers that turned up to assist with relief efforts actually impeded progress. For instance， traffic jams into， rather than out of， the disaster area were a problem. But generally speaking， theres no doubt Chinas private relief organizations have come a long way in five years.

Faster， Better， Stronger

The Lushan quake has resulted in about 200 dead and 12，000 injured. The toll is high， but significantly less than that from the magnitude 8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake of 2008， when 70，000 people lost their lives.

In the aftermath of the Lushan earthquake， nongovernmental organizations quickly united in their desire to act. Wang Zhong， head of the Zhuoming Earthquake Relief News Service， said in the wake of the Lushan quake that he felt new media were instrumental in the quick response. One piece of news from a microblog， he says， would instantaneously lead to thousands of people knowing about conditions in a certain area and heading there to do their utmost to boost relief efforts.

On the day the quake struck， 24 enterprises， including giants like Tencent， Inc.， Lenovo Group Limited and Ping An Insurance Group， donated money to quake-hit areas. Li Chengpeng， a microblogger with a huge following， immediately organized a professional relief team to Yaan City， where Lushan is located.

When Yaans Baoxing County was still out of reach of government relief workers， a privately organized rescue team climbed over Jiajin Mountain– the first snow-capped mountain the Red Army crossed during the Long March， to reach Baoxing. Only once debris had been cleared from an access road did government workers join the volunteers.

“Compared with five years ago [when the Wenchuan Earthquake struck] we are a much better team，”said Jiang Yili， head of One Foundation Rescue League. Over the past five years its fair to say most private rescue teams have grown from loose conglomerations of amateurs to highly skilled associations of professionals in their own right. The government recognizes this and allows them significant leeway in rescue operations.

The earthquake of 2008 spurred many of todays aid relief volunteers to action. Huge personal and financial losses burdened entire communities in the quakes aftermath. The same year， total charity donations in China hit a record high. Private-sector donations surpassed RMB 76 billion. Many enterprises made single donations of over RMB 100 million.

The money for recovery was there in 2008， but actual recovery efforts on the ground were to an extent hampered by the lack of experience of private relief organizations. For instance， Jiang Yili recalled that it took his organization two days to ready a team for departure to the disaster zone. This time， however， One Foundations Sichuan branch team was ready to get to work within 30 minutes of the first tremors.

One Foundations search and rescue teams were actually the first responders to the quake. The government-backed rescue efforts started five hours later. One Foundation carried out search activities， helped transport the injured out of hotspots and collected and collated information about the damage.

Wang Shaoyu， a public security planning and risk management expert and professor at the School of Architecture of the Harbin Institute of Technology， says that volunteer rescue organizations performed admirably in the aftermath of the Lushan Earthquake. Based on Wangs analysis， volunteer groups in Lushan responded on a larger scale， faster and more efficiently than in preceding natural disasters.

Volunteer Spirit

Five years ago， nongovernmental disaster relief was still something new to the Chinese people. Shortly after the 2008 earthquake struck， an airline stewardess on a plane to Chengdu， capital of Sichuan Province， conducted a quick survey out of interest. The results showed that one third of the passengers on the plane were heading to the disaster area. Among them were， unsurprisingly， reporters and photographers. But quite a few of them were volunteers.

One such volunteer was a doctor named Hao Nan. Upon hearing the news of the earthquake Hao asked for leave from his hospital post to go to Wenchuan in the hope of providing assistance to the injured. Many of the volunteers on the plane were just as enthusiastic as Hao. They wanted to lend a hand， but werent exactly clear about where to go or how to help.

“During the 2008 earthquake， the Beijing Branch of the Blue Sky Voluntary Search and Rescue Team was assembled and sent to the disaster-stricken area. It was a well-equipped and disciplined team，” said Wang Xiaozhou.

“But other individual volunteers？ Well， they were totally unorganized，” he said， adding that those without experience and rescue abilities were actually endangering themselves by being in disaster zones.

There were large numbers of such individual volunteers at the time. Wang said he saw many volunteers wearing leather shoes and barely carrying any rescue equipment at all as they headed out to the disaster zones. Often they would go out with fistfuls of money to hand out to victims. But money doesnt do a whole lot when the local shop – along with the entire community – is destroyed.

“The best prepared of these first-time rescue volunteers were a group of hiking fans， who brought their outdoor gears including ropes， camping equipment， flashlights and food，” said Wang. The others had little idea what would be needed in the rescue missions into which they threw themselves.

After the Lushan earthquake struck， Wang received a dispatch order from the Blue Sky headquarters in Beijing. He immediately assembled the Shangdong branch of the organization. His team arrived in Chengdu – over 1，000 kilometers away – a mere 10 hours later.

“Arriving at the scene of the disaster， we saw that a number of other Blue Sky rescue teams were already at work. Members from the headquarters in Beijing had reached Lingguan sometime before and were on their way to Baoxing County， which was among the worst hit areas. The Sichuan branch was already in Baoxing and had commenced rescue operations，” Wang recalled.

The Lushan earthquake tested the ability of nongovernmental rescue teams to the limit. Most passed with flying colors. In some part this is thanks to their channeling donations to the purchase of cuttingedge rescue equipment， such as life detectors， rescue dogs， radars， acoustic listening devices， medical kits and short-wave radios. Many teams also donned uniforms， boots and safety helmets， and carried their own food. Their professionalism was a boon to overall relief efforts.

One Foundations members had perhaps the most impressive equipment inventory of all rescue teams in Lushan. They worked with off-road vehicles， electric generators， emergency medicine kits and other specialized search-and-rescue equipment.

When volunteers were unable to set foot on the ground in Lushan， often they took to the web to help in the disaster relief. “Chengdu Public Welfare，” a group chat platform on WeChats instant messaging interface， attracted the attention of many NGOs， including One Foundation and the Youcheng China Social Entrepreneur Foundation. On the platform， discussion participants shared daily information updates. Those in the disaster zone would post information about the rescue work， the needs of victims， and even weather conditions.

Another group chat platform named “420 Coordination Group” collected information about the rescue work and the needs of victims and sent the information to another group chat platform named “Routangseng”， which organized donation drives based on the information it received. “Routangseng” would then give the materials they collected to volunteer rescue teams in the disaster area. The whole operation was efficient – and entirely transparent.

Civil Society Comes of Age

China has occasionally been the victim of colossal natural disasters， the most devastating of which in recent memory was in 1976. On July 28 of that year， a magnitude-7.8 earthquake hit Tangshan in Hebei Province. It is believed to be the largest earthquake by death toll of the 20th century. More than 240，000 people lost their lives and 164，000 were badly injured.

Only four yeas after the Tangshan earthquake， China again faced natural calamity when the north of the country suffered crippling drought while the south was inundated with floods. Unlike in the aftermath of Tangshan， the Chinese government turned to the international community for aid assistance.

As China reformed its economic system and opened itself to the wider world， the country has re-ceived stronger support from international organizations and individual countries when natural disasters have struck.

A change in the last few years， arguably starting with the Wenchuan earthquake of 2008， has been the increasingly prominent role of domestic civil society in relief efforts. The most tangible and visible impact of this has been a dramatic increase in the number of relief volunteers. Over 200，000 volunteers participated in on-the-ground relief work during the Lushan earthquake， and over one million volunteers from around the country applied to join rescue teams.

Experienced rescue workers and leaders from volunteer rescue teams have begun traveling the country during non-disaster times to give talks and hands-on lectures on rescue skills to the general public. Private rescue teams also offer help to first responders in their normal duties – by assisting， for instance， in hiking and mountaineering accidents and smallerscale natural disasters.

Search and rescue experts are increasingly respected for their knowledge and expertise. They are inspiring a new generation of young Chinese to consider entering first responder roles full-time. “I first signed up as volunteer to a search mission. I wanted to offer my help. After the experience， I now see rescue work as a distinguished career in its own right，” said one man in charge of a volunteer rescue organization.

Since the Wenchuan earthquake， Chinese society has grown more capable of dealing with large-scale natural disasters. Enterprises， for their part， have realized that they can assist with targeted donations. According to national statistics from 2011， over 57 percent of charitable donations that year were made by businesses， among which more than 57 percent came from private enterprises. The figures attest to Chinas growing embrace of charitable causes.