ACT News Update

China 01/04

With more rains, floods in China, ACT member continues assistance

Geneva, September 7, 2004—Heavy rains continue to lash parts of China during the current summer rainy season, causing flooding and triggering landslides and mud and rock flows, and trapping thousands of people. The latest rains falling over the last several days, have, according to media reports, caused more than 100 deaths, and dozens of people have also been reported missing, in one of the worst-hit areas in Sichuan province in southwestern China.

Members and partners of Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, a global alliance of churches and related agencies, have been responding since early August to the needs of people who have been severely affected by the floods caused by heavy rainfall, which began in mid-June. The Amity Foundation, under ACT Appeal ASCN41 – Assistance to Flood-affected – issued on August 9, is assisting the most vulnerable in Longchuan, Yingjiang, Fugong, Ludhui, and Gongshan Counties in Yunnan Province and Yuanling County in Hunan Province.

Earlier in the season, floods in Hunan killed 53 people, injured more than 9,000 and made nearly 100,000 of the province's more than 64 million people homeless, according to a Hunan flood status report.

Amity Foundation says that from July 15 to 20, residents of Yunnan Province experienced successive waves of flooding. The greatest needs following the flooding have been food, medicine, protection from mosquitoes and bedding. Reporting on the situation, Amity explains that after people’s houses had collapsed in the floods, they were forced to sleep in tents and were pestered by mosquitoes while living outside. In addition, the cold weather at night and lack of blankets posed problems for people.

Amity, along with its partners, Overseas Friendship Association, Yunnan Overseas Friendship Association and Christian Council of Yunnan Province, plans to provide food rice, medicines, blankets, mosquito nets, repair and rebuilding of levees and reconstruction and repair of houses and schools for approximately 28,500 people among 6,000 families. The ACT Coordinating Office so far has received US$50,584 or 7.67 percent of the total target for the appeal.

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