Life continues in quake-hit Tibetan areas

(tibet.cn)
Updated: 2008-09-24 14:06

Norbu, host of a Tibetan family, lost his house and livelihood when the May 12 quake shook his hometown in Samen Village in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China's Sichuan Province, yet four months after the tragedy, when we step into this small village with 51 Tibetan households, we found that those quake survivors including Norbu family have devoted themselves to the reconstruction of their houses and lives.

Busy working on repairing the roof, Norbu plans to rebuild a relatively comfortable house where his family can live for the next couple of years.

"We really suffer from huge lost and at that time we live in a temporary tent not for from our damaged house," pointed to the tent, says Norbu. "Now, the government is offering a daily stipend of 10 yuan and 500 grams of food. There is no problem for our basic life. What we have problem is the cost for rebuilding our house. I have spent 200,000 yuan to build this house before the quake and it needs about 30,000 yuan to repair the roof and terrace, but we can only get a subsidy of 5,000 yuan from the prefecture government, of course the amount is not enough. But all of us obviously know that we have so many households suffering from the disaster, it is really not easy for the government to deal with. In fact, we have to rebuild our house even if there is no subsidy from the government, so we feel satisfied with the amount without too much complaint."

More than 5 million people were left homeless after the earthquake in Sichuan Province. The government has given 5,000 yuan to each family who lost their home to build makeshift accommodation in remote villages. Furthermore, the government has also designated 19 provinces and municipalities to each aid a county in the worst hit quake areas. These provinces are helping to rebuild schools, hospitals and other infrastructure projects such as roads, electricity and gas supply systems.

Now the survivors themselves are also struggling to rebuild new lives as locals start repairing the damaged houses once home to so many people and some residents come back to their daily handicraft work. Peace and leisure, this is what we have seen at Zada Village of Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture as a Tibetan girl is sewing at a sartorius and two Tibetan boys are mending fishing net opposing to the clear quake trail.

"We must depend on the government, but we also need the power of ourselves," said Shenzha Rgyal, a retired Tibetan soldier who becomes the host to a small restaurant in Li County. "Evacuating guests in my restaurant is my first act when the quake came and I also join in the volunteer team to give a hand to material-transport as well as establishing temporary tents for some ten households. We can't just rely on the government, but depend on ourselves which means alleviating the burden of our government."

As a matter of fact, there are countless volunteers including those Sichuan locals and some others from all over the world giving a hand to the rescue as well as the reconstruction.

Without waiting for signals from the authoritarian government, Liu Jin, a 22-year-old student in China's richest city, Shanghai, joined tens of thousands of volunteers who may be part of a fundamental shift in the world's most populous nation to offer help to the needy quake-sufferers.

"I believe people will unite even better in the future and we will have much experience if there comes another disaster," said a volunteer.

Yes, the quake has taught China a lot; the disaster has taught Chinese people a lot; the tragedy has also taught the whole world a lot.

We still remember Chairman Mao once declared "man must conquer nature" and we also believe the heroic Sichuan people can conquer the disaster sooner or later.

As time goes by, life continues in the quake-hit areas and tomorrow is another day.