Interview with Qiu Zhonghui
Amity has done a lot of relief and reconstruction work. Are you content with the result?
It is important whether or not the local beneficiaries, rather than me, are content with the result. Only half an hour after the event we sent staff to the crisis region. The same day, we decided to commit CNY 2 million. That was the first time Amity has pledged such a big amount at the very beginning of the emergency work. Also on that day, we sent an appeal to our partners. Our greatest concern was to meet the needs of the victims as soon as possible. Reconstruction was also quite successful. Woyun was the village where reconstruction work made the quickest progress and ran more smoothly than in other villages. By the end of June 2009, all the house reconstruction work was completed. Only a few of the houses have not been redecorated yet.
After the earthquake, Amity opened an office in Woyun Village to manage and supervise reconstruction work. Is Amity doing a job the villagers should be doing themselves?
It was very meaningful for Amity to establish the Sichuan Earthquake Reconstruction Office in Woyun, which is staffed with Amity employees around the clock. The traditional institutional system and the conventional way of doing emergency relief is not appropriate after a disaster of such scale and with such huge loss of lives and assets. Setting up this office makes our work more efficient and effective. Also, being stationed in the village can strengthen and deepen staffers’ understanding of the locality, the project targets and local partners. In addition to promoting participation of local people in the reconstruction effort, the office can accomplish better coordination of the project and increase the involvement of the experts. Through process management and control, it is easier to realize project capacity building and to investigate the special needs of the local people. For example, a survey conducted by our Office in August 2008 showed that the material most needed for agricultural recovery after the quake were granaries. So we provided each family with one.
However, we don’t want to replace the local people. We organized a Village Reconstruction Committee, elected by the villagers. We have worked with the people. It is important that they make their own decisions and develop the village according to their needs. Our reconstruction work will end at some point, so we have to emphasize self-development. Support from outside is, of course, very important, too. I want to thank all the people who have helped our work, especially the experts from the Hong Kong Institute of Architects, the Hong Kong Institute of Planners and others. They visited the village to give instructions and training. Farmers quickly understood the key points of seismic fortification. The training has enabled local people to participate in reconstruction work. The new houses in Woyun survived the recent 5.6 M aftershock undamaged. We have learned a lot about the importance of technical support and other details. Mr. Liao, head of Village Group 2 and member of the Village Reconstruction Committee, has improved his working capacity and reputation by attending a training by the Hong Kong experts. Many families invited him to inspect their houses. Amity staffers have actually learned a lot themselves about reconstruction.
What else did Amity staff learn?
Working with the local people is the principle we must hold on to. For example, all the target families have been affected by the quake but it is more difficult for poorer families to recover, so we wanted to help the poorest families with special grants. Instead of choosing the target families ourselves, we made a survey and organized discussions among villagers together with the Village Reconstruction Committee. The list of candidates was put on public display in the village. In this way, we won the villagers’ understanding and got a list of the poorest families. Our approach has promoted community harmony and encouraged villagers to help each other.
We also learned how important profound supervision is. Amity allocated funds gradually. Only if farmers proved at different stages during house reconstruction that standards were respected, did they get the money. Some families were given funds from the Village Reconstruction Committee before they completed their tasks, which was found out by our monitoring efforts. We called a meeting of villagers to explain the importance of quality control and our purpose of granting funds in stages. After that, the Village Reconstruction Committee reversed the payments and rechecked the house quality. So construction quality was ensured.
What does Amity want to achieve besides reconstructing homes?
We are working to help victims with reconstruction in three aspects: their houses, their community, their spirit and morality. There are many tasks ahead for Amity. We want to reconstruct the drinking water and broadcasting system and promote organic agriculture. To help rebuild the local community, we are considering to expand the role of the Village Reconstruction Committee. In the future it could take care of community management in agricultural technique, road management, health management etc. We want to help them set up an autonomous village organization to realize sustainable development. We hope that eventually all our activities will help to develop a community spirit in Woyun. This is very important because many families have lost homes and relatives. They tend to concentrate on solving their personal problems on their own. But we should work together as a community to overcome these problems. By organizing cultural events and village art performances and emphasizing elections, we hope that farmers become more self-reliant and enhance their self-development ability. After one year of work, local villagers and Amity are confident that the village will have a bright future.
