China Earthquake Relief Project
Project Overview: China's devastating May 12th, 2008 earthquake claimed more than 80,000 lives and has left more than 5 million people homeless and more than 4,000 children orphaned. A Child’s Right was able to work with the Chinese government both nationally and locally in the most damaged areas to provide clean and safe drinking water to families and children impacted by the earthquake. ACR was able to install 30 clean water systems in 10 schools for children displaced by the earthquake, 9 displacement camps and 1 hospital. All sites are equipped with replacement parts and supplies to keep the systems fully operational for several years.

The majority of our work was focused within miles of the epicenter of the earthquake and each installation provided water to more than 1,500 people on average. With this undertaking, we were able to provide clean and safe drinking water to more than 50,000 people who were severely impacted by the earthquake, 30,000 of those are children. We were informed that this was the single largest donation of its kind from any organization after the earthquake!

Project Logistics: The Chinese government moved swiftly to get all of the displaced people out of tents and in to more permanent structures (see photos to the right). These sites, usually accomodating 2,000 to 7,000 people per site, are perfect locations for our units. As well, the temporary schools rebuilt in the earthquake zone provide an ideal target for our systems: high concentrations of at-risk children with harmful drinking water.

With direction from local government, hiring of local engineers and plumbers, assistance from our own China staff and additional help from AJ Antunes Filtration Technologies staff, ACR was able to install our systems in sites with the greatest need of high-impact and sustainable water purification methods. As each site will be in operation for at least 3-5 years, our national staff and regional contracted employees will provide consistent maintenance and support for each system to ensure success and sustainability at every site.

Support of this project: The majority of our equipment and spare provisions for this project were generously gifted to us by AJ Antunes & Co.. Their assistance has been stellar on all accounts. The majority of our financial support comes from donors Dion and George Russell. The China Association of Social Work assisted with gaining broad access for our staff to implement our services in the hardest hit areas and have been tireless in their advocacy of our work on behalf of children. The national Chinese government and US Embassy worked with customs officials regarding customs fees and duties on our equipment. The local government in Sichuan as well as Civil Affairs Bureau, Water Resources Department, Construction Bureau, Office of Disaster Relief management, and several local magistrates assisted extensively with site designation and proper appprovals to work amongst the displaced communities and schools. We offer a sincere and heartfelt thank you to all of these partners.

If you would like to see more photos of this project, please go to our past projects page here