by Beate Engelen
One year on, the shattered Sichuan villages near the fault line at Mianzhu had made a new start. The local economy had been kicked into high gear. Red bricks, piled high along the roadside in front of nearly every homestead, were gradually replacing the heaps of rubble and debris from the time right [...]

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 [...]

by Tang Zhengshu
My name is Tang Zhengshu. I’m 15 years old and live in Woyun Village with my family. The earthquake of May 2008 was a disaster for us. Our house collapsed, the furniture was damaged and our livestock was buried under a pile of rubble. After this, my family sank into utter despair. Whenever [...]

Gong Sheng
For the children of Woyun, Gong Sheng is the perfect older brother – someone to love and to look up to.
Promoting popular traditions and folk culture is one part of development work which Amity wants to emphasize. Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival are certainly two great opportunities to promote this idea. On September 15, [...]

Our disaster relief and reconstruction principles, together with the latest figures of expenses for Amity’s work in the Sichuan earthquake region, can be downloaded here (PDF – please click on the image). This document highlights how beneficiaries are selected, the emphasis put by Amity on beneficiaries’ participation, how we monitor our project work and how [...]

by Beate Engelen
The new homes in Woyun Village are almost all finished, traffic is buzzing and people are busy planning their future. It almost seems as if pre-disaster conditions had been restored – things seem even better than before, with all the specially designed houses which will protect the farmers from future earthquakes. But a [...]

An engineer from Hong Kong mucked in to help villagers in Woyun build earthquake-proof homes
Villagers in Woyun received technical training by a Hong Kong expert on how to rebuild houses so they are able to withstand a strong earthquake. Kwong Chun-Kin, a construction expert and consultant to Amity’s Hong Kong Office, stayed in Woyun Village [...]

“Wells of Happiness”
Amity’s local office in Woyun Village near Mianzhu, Sichuan Province, recently finished a drinking water project. 12 wells have been restored to good working order, corroded pipes have been replaced in 7 places, 3 new pumps have been installed.
The earthquake of May 2008 not only led to the collapse of well shafts and [...]

Issue 89/2, 2009, of the Amity Newsletter focusses on “Reconstruction”. It is available for download from the PDF downloads page.