by Pamela Logan  July 12, 2001

EARTHQUAKE UPDATE

In other news, we have secured a generous grant from USAID to help the victims of February's earthquake in Yajiang (Nyachuka) County. Next month we will begin construction of a beautiful stone-arch bridge at Egu Township.

Background You may recall that the river crossing at Egu is now served by a flimsy wooden bridge that is washed away by monsoon rains every summer; furthermore the "road" leading to Egu and the more remote townships beyond is narrow, damaged, and dangerous. The government has found funds for widening and improving the road; our bridge will be the crowning touch that will allow villagers in three townships easier access to markets in which they can sell their products. Improved transportation will also be a boon to education, health care, and economic development for thousands of people living in this remote region on and around the Yalong River.

More information may be found at  http//www.khamaid.org/programs/disaster/index.htm

Back in March, some of you generously gave money for emergency humanitarian aid to the earthquake-stricken area. After consultation with the county bureau of Civil Affairs to determine which items were most needed, we bought shoes and grain, and sent them to the most severely affected townships. I now have a report on the details of the distribution

Shoes: Bayirong Township received 750 pairs. Pubarong, 150 pairs. Decha, 120 pairs. Xiwuluo, 150 pairs. Yayihe, 150 pairs. Kela, 160 pairs. Zushang, 20 pairs.

Rice: Tongda Village of Bajiaoluo township 1500 kilos. Murong Township 1500 kilos.

OTHER PROGRAM NEWS

Art Conservation

We have secured a grant from the Ambassador's Fund to help the Dege Printing House access the long-term stability of the building and the surrounding hillside. The team of eight consultants, who were hired from Sichuan Archeological Research Institute, visited the Printing House last month and are now preparing their report. Kham Aid Foundation art conservation program director Jonathan Bell will meet with them later this month, and then proceed with me to Dege to see how the murals are faring and plan for intervention to take place next year.

Wheelchairs

We have received a pledge from the Wheelchair Foundation to deliver 240 news chairs to our partner the Holy Love Foundation in Chengdu. In addition, Wheels for Humanity is giving about a hundred more specialized chairs, plus some physical therapy equipment. In September our delivery team will bring 180 wheelchairs to Kham and fit them to disabled people in Yajiang, Litang, and Batang counties. The remaining equipment will be distributed among the Holy Love School and the Sichuan Federation of Disabled Persons. See http//www.khamaid.org/programs/health/wheelchr.htm.

Other Health Programs

In August a team of six athletes will bike their way across Kham to raise money for health care, and to bring donated equipment to rural hospitals and clinics. Details of this may be found at http//www.khamaid.org/bikeride.htm. Then, in October we're starting a training program that will teach midwife and home health care skills to ten village women. This program is being run for us by the Women's Federation of Ganzi.

English Teachers

Four volunteers, Craig Keller, Jen Wilking, Douglas Westbury, and Liu Ying, have convened in Chengdu and will soon be on their way up to Kangding to begin a five-week stint of volunteer teaching. Waiting for them is a large gang of eager college and middle school students, and representatives from several remote counties including Daocheng (the Yading Reserve), and Dege (the Dege Printing House). More information about this program is available at http//www.khamaid.org/programs/economy/englishteacher.htm.

Tree Planting

A forester recently visited our site where we put in 20,000 spruce seedlings last April. He pronounced the planting work to be excellent, and projects that the survival rate could be as high as 95 per cent. This is in contrast to a government-organized planting site a few km away where poplars were being planted and he thought the survival rate would be 20-30 per cent, partly because the site chosen is too sunny, and partly because of the poor quality of the planting. The program will continue next year, with even more trees planted. See http//www.khamaid.org/planttrees.

Preservation of and research into ancient texts

Program director Stephen Aldridge is continuing work with Tibetologists in China on Tibetan text preservation. In October he will begin five weeks of work on Tibetan literary culture issues as they are presented in Tibetan books that deal with the Minyag area of Kham. For more information, please write to stephen@khamaid.org.

Kham Aid Kids

This autumn we'll be adding at nineteen more girls to our scholarship rolls, so they can attend junior middle school with the help of individual sponsors. For more information on our kids and how you can sponsor a child in Kham, please see http//www.khamaid.org/programs/education/khamaidkids.htm.

Books for Schools

We have printed 3000 sets of the 8 volume Tibetan-language series, Window to Science, and distributed them. Now we're now gearing up for our next publication, which will be a manual for home health care. Info on the program is at http//www.khamaid.org/programs/education/bfsindex.htm.

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