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Rural quake victims need help: Oxfam

By Tan Yingzi (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-13 11:08

Many earthquake survivors still need significant assistance and challenges to reconstruction efforts are "enormous", Oxfam says.

John Sayer, director-general of Oxfam Hong Kong, said more attention and effort was needed for poor people in marginalized rural regions to help them build a sustainable life.

"The challenges to reconstruction are enormous," Sayer said.

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"Many survivors of the disaster still need significant assistance, especially the poorest and the most marginalized people, who tend to be women, children, elderly people, ethnic minority people, and people living in very remote areas."

Oxfam HK's $135 million ($17.5 million) rehabilitation plan in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi made these people a priority, he said.

Oxfam Hong Kong is a member of Oxfam International and an independent development and relief agency working with poor and disadvantaged people in Asia and Africa.

It has already collected more than HK$158 million for rescue and reconstruction work in the quake-hit regions, which will last for three to five years.

Oxfam has 37 projects that have brought benefit to almost 640,000 residents in more than 125 communities in remote areas of the three provinces.

The majority of social and financial resources had been poured into well-known quake-hit counties, including Beichuan and Yingxiu counties in Sichuan, while unknown villages in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces received little attention from the outside world, Oxfam said.

"Four counties in Gansu have been seriously destroyed by the quake but only the city of Shenzhen has offered them some help," said Yu Zhenwei, manager of Oxfam Hong Kong Lanzhou office.

Sayer said Oxfam focused on very remote villages that received less assistance and had a participatory approach to reconstruction efforts, which involved the whole community and aimed to enhance people's ability to fight against natural disasters and poverty.