Abstract
This article reports relief activities conducted by a Chinese non-governmental organization (NGO), NGO Disaster Preparedness Center (DPC), established after the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. The DPC conducted emergency response following the earthquake and continues its support for disaster recovery in this and other disasters. The description of the DPC and conclusions regarding its role in responses and recovery to the earthquake are based on our 13-month participant observation since 2011.
According to a previous report (Chen & Sugiman, 2010) on the DPC’s first year and a dialogue on emergency relief between disaster NGOs in China and Japan (Atsumi & Chen, 2011), we introduced DPC’s disaster recovery projects in communities damaged by the 2008 earthquake, its social entrepreneurial actions for self-financing, and a Japan-China exchange program for disaster non-profits. These reports revealed that DPC experienced trials and errors in networking with other organizations, but firmly maintained its mission, that is, a survivor-centered approach.
We further reported DPC’s emergency response in cooperation with other organizations at the time of Yiliang Earthquake of September 7, 2012 in Yunnan Province, focusing on its communication with government, other agencies, and individual volunteers. The DPC and its members faced various conflicts with other participants over human resources, donated goods, funding, and the approach toward caring for survivors, but nevertheless maintained an attitude of improvisation and reduced tension on site. We suggested that foundations supporting disaster NGOs play a mediating role between governments and NGOs.
In response to the DPC’s transition from emergency response and recovery to disaster preparedness in communities, a strategy also followed by Japanese disaster NPOs, we reached consensus that Chinese and Japanese disaster NGOs/NPOs cooperate and jointly focus on the East Asia region which experiences frequent natural disasters.
Finally, we confirmed the practical and academic significance of a detailed description of this Chinese disaster NGO, with which readers are likely to be unfamiliar. It is practically important to learn how this Chinese NGO has maintained its mission toward survivors in response, recovery and disaster preparedness as well as academically intriguing to add ethnographic evidence of this NGO in the growing field of voluntary organizations active in disaster.
