Debris from Trangu Monastery
In recent days, AsiaTravel has been working with our local partners to get on-the-ground knowledge of the Yushu tragedy, and to provide needed supplies and aid.
Since our last post on Yushu, we have been notified of the following:
– AsiaTravel’s Europe Team Director, Veronique, hopes that the truck she helped coordinate to bring supplies to Yushu has arrived to the area. Since the road from Nansheng to Yushu was damaged by the earthquake, traffic has been slower.
– At this point, villages and other local areas outside of Yushu proper need the most aid.
– Volunteers are having some difficulty with relief efforts due to the language barrier and altitude sickness.
– One of our local Yushu partners, who was previously deemed unharmed but was unreachable, has been located and we are cooperating with him to distribute tents.
AsiaTravel has decided to take a three-fold approach to our aid for those suffering in Yushu, which includes two NGOs and aid for our local partners and friends affected by the earthquake.
1) Local partners: we are donating money to purchase medicine for our local partners’ families, in order to better facilitate their and their loved ones’ recovery from this tragedy.
2) Orphans: we are donating money to The Orphanage School, which is run by international NGO Rokpa, to help those children orphaned in the region.
3) Monks: we will also be donating to the Yushu chapter of Himalayan Consensus, an NGO dedicated to ethnic diversity and cultural sustainable development. The coordinator, Laurence Brahm, has sent goods to Damkar monastery where AsiaTravel visits during journeys for the Tibetan Yushu Horse Festival.
How can you get involved in these aid efforts?
– For The Orphanage School/Rokpa, please visit their website and scroll to the bottom of the page on how to give Single and Regular donations online and via mail.
– To donate to Himalayan Consensus or AsiaTravel’s local partners’ families, please email Alex at alex.grieves@wildchina.com with the subject line “Yushu donation.” Alex can provide you with contacts and donation information.
UPDATE: Follow Rokpa’s Yushu Relief blog for up-to-date information on developments in the area.
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Photo credit: Land of Snows
Have more questions about the situation in Yushu? Have other news from Qinghai, and ways to help? Please email Alex at alex.grieves@wildchina.com.