Volunteers, too, face danger and death
By Winter Zha |
May 8, 2013, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
XIAO Yan, a 23-year-old railway worker, has learned that volunteer work after an earthquake is difficult and dangerous, but also rewarding when a villager clasps his hands and weeps with thanks.
Xiao, from Hubei Province, went to Sichuan's Lushan County to support relief and rescue work after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake on April 20.
On April 26, in Longmen Township, his vehicle was struck by falling rock after a road had just reopened after emergency repair. Multiple aftershocks were still dangerous. The vehicle's hood was crushed and it was undrivable. It was a close call and Xiao himself was lucky to survive with only a scratched arm.
Just a few days earlier, a 32-year-old woman, from Xiao's volunteer group, had been struck and killed by a falling rock in the area shaken by landslides after the big quake on April 20.
Shaken but outwardly calm, Xiao walked for half an hour and then was picked up by a villager on a tricycle and taken to a town. He kept talking about his scrape with death to anyone he met, hoping that talking would ease the shock.
Back in May 2008, Xiao had volunteered to join relief work in the wake of the deadly Wenchuan quake that claimed more than 80,000 lives.
At the time he had just dropped out of college and enlisted in the army, which joined in search and rescue. Two years later he joined the railway system.
"I was inexperienced then," Xiao tells Shanghai Daily, "and at the beginning the relief efforts were quite a mess."
Everyone wanted to help but most did not know what to do and the proper way to do it. This time, he had experience.
Xiao and other volunteers carried relief goods, mainly food and tents, deep into mountain areas near the epicenter of the quake, using whatever transport was available. They also walked, carrying heavy backpacks.
"An old woman held my hands tight and cried," says Xiao after he delivered a small amount of aid, promising that more relief was on the way.
Before he left for Lushan County last month, Xiao says he gave all his savings to a woman with a sick baby in a village in Hubei. "Hopefully, they are fine," he says.
On the day he left Lushan County, a school reopened in a newly built temporary structure.
Light industry factories began recruitment and people were slowly healing.
Xiao, from Hubei Province, went to Sichuan's Lushan County to support relief and rescue work after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake on April 20.
On April 26, in Longmen Township, his vehicle was struck by falling rock after a road had just reopened after emergency repair. Multiple aftershocks were still dangerous. The vehicle's hood was crushed and it was undrivable. It was a close call and Xiao himself was lucky to survive with only a scratched arm.
Just a few days earlier, a 32-year-old woman, from Xiao's volunteer group, had been struck and killed by a falling rock in the area shaken by landslides after the big quake on April 20.
Shaken but outwardly calm, Xiao walked for half an hour and then was picked up by a villager on a tricycle and taken to a town. He kept talking about his scrape with death to anyone he met, hoping that talking would ease the shock.
Back in May 2008, Xiao had volunteered to join relief work in the wake of the deadly Wenchuan quake that claimed more than 80,000 lives.
At the time he had just dropped out of college and enlisted in the army, which joined in search and rescue. Two years later he joined the railway system.
"I was inexperienced then," Xiao tells Shanghai Daily, "and at the beginning the relief efforts were quite a mess."
Everyone wanted to help but most did not know what to do and the proper way to do it. This time, he had experience.
Xiao and other volunteers carried relief goods, mainly food and tents, deep into mountain areas near the epicenter of the quake, using whatever transport was available. They also walked, carrying heavy backpacks.
"An old woman held my hands tight and cried," says Xiao after he delivered a small amount of aid, promising that more relief was on the way.
Before he left for Lushan County last month, Xiao says he gave all his savings to a woman with a sick baby in a village in Hubei. "Hopefully, they are fine," he says.
On the day he left Lushan County, a school reopened in a newly built temporary structure.
Light industry factories began recruitment and people were slowly healing.
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