Briefing on the impact of the earthquake, the affected women and children, and the existing problems and needs.

Anxian is located in the northwestern part of Sichuan Province. As of July 7, the disaster had killed over 2,600, injured more than 88,000 and over 470,000 people have to be relocated. Over 80% of infrastructures were destroyed.

Visit “UNICEF Child Friendly Space”

UNICEF supports the establishment of Child-Friendly Spaces, to provide psychosocial support to children in the most severely affected earthquake areas, including Beichuan, Anxian, Jiangyou, Pingwu, Mianzu, and Qingchuan counties. UNICEF has estimated that the Child-Friendly Space at each of these sites will benefit, on average, some 300 children. Through psychosocial activities targeting parents who lost their children in the earthquake, the Child-Friendly Spaces will benefit 5,000 parents.

Check UNICEF water purification equipment

Now that more than 5 million people have been relocated to temporary shelters. The Ministry of Water Resources found that 72,400 rural water supply systems and 36,500 kilometers of water distribution pipelines were damaged by the earthquake. According to UNICEF’s assessment 4,185 villages and 446 townships in the worst affected counties in Sichuan need to repair sanitation facilities.

UNICEF provides technical support and supplies to local partners in water supply, sanitation, hygiene and health education that will cover prefabricated camps, tents, hospitals and schools. The joint project will concentrate on four counties in Sichuan: Pengzhou, Mianzhu, Beichuan, and Qingchuan.

In addition, UNICEF has provided over 78,000 water purification tablets for 2 million people in the quake zones to use for 3 months.

Communicate with students in pre-fabricated classrooms

UNICEF provides training, educational supplies and equipment, sports and recreation supplies, and libraries to temporary settlements and remote rural areas.

Pre-fabricated classrooms and mobile libraries are one option for school children before permanent schools are built. These pre-fabricated units will last a minimum of three years, allowing sufficient time for permanent structures to be built by the government. The pre-fabricated classrooms will allow earthquake-affected children to resume their studies in a more appropriate teaching and learning setting, where they will have a roof over their heads and be shielded from extreme weather conditions. This will help children regain a sense of normalcy and allow them to resume their studies in a more child-friendly learning environment. Each classroom is for use by 50 to 60 students

View from distance the ruins of Beichuan County

The disaster has killed 150,000 people in Beichuan, injured 27,000 people and more than 4,300 missing. 161,000 people from 20 townships and 278 administrative villages were affected in the earthquake. The Beichuan County was completed destroyed and 142,000 people lost their home.

Ambassadors of the Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF, Ms Miriam Yeung, Ms Charlie Young and Mr Louis Koo traveled to the quake zones in Sichuan. They have visited pre-fabricated classrooms, UNICEF-supported Child Friendly Spaces, water supply systems and tents in the most-ravaged communities. The field visit has been filmed and will be broadcast at Jade Channel from 7:00 pm to 7:30 pm on 1 August (Monday).