Volunteering in Sichuan Disaster Area

'Plan for New Hometown', located in Longmenshan Township, Pengzhou Prefecture, is a post-disaster reconstruction project initiated by Chengdu Roots＆Shoots, Institute for Civil Society of Sun Yat-sen University, YID and Mowo.

JJ has been working in Sichuan for 4 months, after 5 month DI training  in YID. The following is the news she send back:

I am working in the community center. My main work is the part - community culture building.

1. The posters about the community history

I made a total of 7 posters for showing the history of BaiShuiHe Community. I spent a lot of time on collecting materials and photos by interviewing local residents, looking for old pictures, searching for information on Internet. At last, they were printed out after a lot of editing and typesetting work.

2. Photo show
I collected more than 200 photos from local residents about the earthquake, the earthquake relief and the life after the earthquake. Then I put them up on the wall and made them a heart shape.

3. 'New Hometown' - the newspaper for the community
Another work for me is to make the newspaper 'New Hometown' for the community. So far, I have made 4 issues in big size and put up on the wall for people reading. I hope we can make it like real newspaper in future and distribute them to each family. But it is still not on the agenda of the project. And another problem is residents participation. Although some article was interview with the residents, there was still too limited participation of them in making the newspaper. I hope more participation from them to make it 'their' newspaper.

The community culture building is very important for mobilizing people taking more active participation in the community affairs, and making them proud of themselves and the community. At the same time, we can win their trust and hear their discussion and evaluation on our work. This helps us get closer.

4. The activity on 12th May
To commemorate the big earthquake day of 12th May, an activity with the theme 'New life, new hope' was held on the day one year later. We prepared a lot and very seriously. Many guests and audiences were invited to the activity. Good speeches, wonderful performances, and a moving atmosphere made it very successful.

I was one of the hosters, in cooperation with another local resident. It was a big challenge for me, because there were many changes unexpected during the activity. I have to adjust very quickly and fortunately I made it except for some mistakes.

The activity was also the opening ceremony for the community center. Now the center will be put into regular use under the management of local resident volunteers.

After the activity, we had an evaluation meeting on our work. Later, we organized the residents to hold another evaluation meeting on their work. I made a video for the activity, and issued to the residents for commemoration.

June will be the last month I stay here before going back to YID. I would like to bring about the start of a function room in TongShaBa Xiaoqu of BaiShuiHe Community. This is my plan.

-JJ, September Team

From Sichuan