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© World Vision 2008
By Priscilla Tin, World Vision China Senior Communications Officer
In the face of persistently low temperatures and formidable amounts of snow, Granny Yang walked thirty minutes on steep mountain paths to collect a winter quilt for her grandson.
World Vision aims to donate quilts to more than 9,000 people struggling to stay warm in the remote and rugged mountain area of Zhenxiong County, Yunnan.
Granny Yang says a warm quilt will help her young grandson fight the cold winter nights that continue to descend upon villages in southern China.
Some 300,000 people in Zhenxiong County are poverty-stricken. They were among the first to be impacted by power outages and damaged electricity lines.
The blizzards did more than disrupt power and electricity flow: the heavy snow collapsed houses and left many families homeless before the Chinese New Year. The Zhenxiong County Bureau of Civil Affairs estimates that 94,000 homes have been damaged by the snow.
Thirteen-year-old Wang Tao and her mother have been squeezing into a tiny bed at night in Chishuiyuan Township. The pair says it will be easier to stay warm with a winter quilt to snuggle beneath. "Tonight we are going to have a good, warm sleep," said Wang Tao excitedly as she extended her arms to receive a blanket from a World Vision staff member.
World Vision is responding to the needs of snow-affected people across southern, central and eastern China.
World Vision assessments indicate that rice and winter quilts are crucial to helping people cope with the severe infrastructure damage. A total of 80,000 quilts and 2.1 million kilograms of rice will be distributed countrywide by the end of the World Vision's snowstorm response.
World Vision's relief and rehabilitation response in China totals US $1.93 million and is reaching more than 300,000 people in 10 locations across Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangxi and Anhui provinces. Food, generators and special activity kits for children have been distributed to assist those affected by the blizzards.
For more information or media inquiries, please contact Priscilla Tin, Senior Communications Officer at +(852) 9324-9315 or Michelle Tam, Communications Officer at +(852) 9613-3111.
For enquiries regarding proposals, funding interest, donor interest, etc, please contact Meimei Leung, Senior HEA Officer at +(852) 9327-5674.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
