Totally Different —— Life in Disaster-affected Areas

On July 20th, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) launched the Disaster Relief Action in Chongqing Flood-affected Areas and donated 2 million RMB materials to Bishan and Tongliang counties. The relief materials arrived at the disaster-affected areas on July 25th, and were then distributed to the victims to help them overcome the difficulties. On July 16th, 2007, a flood with levels higher than anything recorded in the past hundred years hit Chongqing, which affected 459 townships in 35 counties. The county seats of Shapingba, Bishan and Tongliang were submerged; a total of 6.88 million people were affected, 42 died, 12 disappeared and 1785 injured; a  total of 31,900 houses collapsed and 88,600 houses were damaged; the directly economic losses amounted to 2745 million RMB, of which, agriculture losses were 989 million.

On July 28th, CFPA and CCTV film channel jointly launched “film star’s caring tour to disaster-affected areas”. The couple, Ms. Jinag Qingqing and Mr. Chen Jiangbin, both famous film stars, went into the Bishan Disaster-affected area to look for the poor mothers and babies. They brought infant nutrition food to the infants, showing their care for poor mothers and babies in disaster areas through hands-on action.

In the afternoon, the couple visited 3 sets of mothers and babies in Tianchi Village in Bishan County. Located in the mountainous areas, houses in the village were washed away in the flood. Because it was raining on the previous night, the road was very muddy and difficult to walk on. On the way to a victim Huang Xuemei’s house, the film stars had to walk through water. Huang’s daughter was only 19 days old and the flood was happened on the 9th day of after her birth. In the flood, most houses were washed away by flood, but fortunately, because most villagers attended the 9 days party to celebrate her birth according to local custom, they survived from the flood. So everyone called the girl “little lucky star”.

Huang lived in an adobe house built in 1980s, and the house was low and humid. She said that she was very weak after childbirth and worried about possible illnesses caused by the house’s high humidity. On rainy days, the house leaked everywhere. She was afraid of rains coming again like last time. However, due to poverty, she was not able to find a good way to solve the problem.

The “Little Lucky Star” suddenly cried out possibly because she saw so many people coming to see her. The couple film stars who just had their own child were busy holding the little girl and presented the milk powder and Vitameal (a kind of children’s food) to the mother and told her use the food when her daughter turned 6 months.

The second poor mother and baby visited were Lei Tao in Tianchi Village. Her house was located the foot of the mountain. Beside her house, big stones and broken trees were washed down by the flood. Although her house had not collapsed, the rear wall was broken and mud and sand came into the house. She recalled: “first, we saw a neighbor’s house below us was washed away, and the strong flood waters were rushing down beside our house. We are very worried at that time.”

Her son was born 4 months ago and the little fellow smiled at us. The star couple held the little son in their arms as if he was their own son.

Lei said: “our son has no nutritious food to eat, and unfortunately, I has no milk for him. Now I can only feed him with porridge.” Ms. Jiang Qingqing cried at the sight of the food shown by the son’s grandmother. She sobbed: “The gap between us is so large. We worry about choosing the best milk powder or diapers for our child. When you see the experiences of these families, and then you want to help them……”

While the wealthy urban mothers are puzzling about which infant commodities to purchase, poor rural mothers are using simple porridge. They need little and are satisfied if their children are healthy and not affected by the disasters. Two mothers, totally different lives.
         
However, the mothers in disaster-affected areas are strong from the hardships life brings them and try pay as much attention as they can in raising their children. Like Ms. Jiang Qingqing said: “they devote all, even their lives, just like the mother Huang Xuemei, who felt very happy for just surviving the disaster. How luckily they feel - they are good if their children are good. They are stronger than all of us. ”

Mr. Chen Jiangbin talked his feeling about the tour. He said: when you have your own child and your family, if you see the difficult life of others, you will be touched by them. Real life is still hard, you need to come to set your own feet on the earth and feel their life. It is most important to participate in the activity to help them. 

The life of poor mothers and babies is a condensed picture of life in the poor areas. Maybe, a victim near the muddy road is waiting for our help. Let’s cast more eyes on them. Let more people feel the social warmness and care! All donations made by general public will establish a Disaster Relief Fun to help the disaster-affected people to overcome their life’s difficulties.