The Integrated and Efficient Response to Wenchuan Earthquake Affected

Areas and Children: Social Damage Assessment and Children Rehabilitation

A Proposal to Cisco China

Wenchuan Earthquake Taskforce (WET)
June 29, 2008

Section I – Background

The Wenchuan earthquake has claimed 69,186 lives, and resulted 18,457 people missing. 37,417
people were injured (June 27, 2008). 14 million people lost their homes and millions are now
living in the temporary shelters. Four days after the earthquake, the Wenchuan Earthquake
Taskforce (WET) was jointly established by the State Council Emergency Management Experts
Council, The Disaster Reduction and Emergency Management Institute of Ministry of Civil
Affairs and Ministry of Education, and Beijing Normal University. WET has set up a training
station at Sichuan University, Chengdu, to provide mental health training and to establish a
mental health system in the disaster area. The station also explores several models for the
development of self-help survivor groups in the disaster areas, and provide policy
recommendations -- based on their interventions with the survivors -- on humanitarian aid, short-
term settlement and long-term re-location, community rebuilding, and livelihood redevelopment,
in particular an assessment of the mental health impact of these immense social adjustments
(which are often as distressing as the damage bought by the disaster itself).

Beijing center of WET focuses on the policy dialogues with nearly 100 experts in relevant fields,
corresponding to over 50 international experts, channeling resources to the disaster areas,
forming partners with government agencies, civil society organizations, and private firms, as
well as disseminate policy recommendations to central policy making bodies through its policy
briefs and research papers. It has established Chengdu base to coordinate the work in Sichuan
quake areas, and Wudu Base to coordinate the work in Gansu quake areas. Qiang Minority
working group is formed and is in operation. It has established international networks, and
hotlines for policy and psychosocial assistances. A media center has been efficiently linking the
experts, the policy studies, the ground zero situation, and the other information with the TVs,
internets and newspapers. Working papers o NGOs and on donation managements have been
drafted.

Up to June 20, over 10 policy workshops have been held, and dozens policy recommendations
were made. 17 groups with 105 experts (including 5 oversee groups) were arranged to the quake
areas. 200 volunteers were trained to participate in the psychosocial assistances and in research
in the situation of the affected people. 23 policy briefs and 13 policy working papers were
produced. Midterm report with 126 pages has been completed and it covered the first stage
assessment of eight policy areas: tax, finance, transfers, land, insurance, geared support, social
resource mobilization, and social policies (social administration, community, employment, social
services, etc). It has tested two disaster resources management software and created the Chinese
version of the software, and translated 359,468 words of international experiences.
WET work has gone to three distinct stages, first stage had focused on the emergency policies
and social response mechanisms, and it ended in May 31. Then the effort was shifted to the
resettlement management policies. The report was completed in June 20. The third stage, now, is
focusing on the planning policy, and mid- and long-term reconstruction and redevelopment
issues. As we have witness the remarkable achievements of the national and local governments
in rescue and resettlement effort, the speed of the reconstruction of the basic infrastructure is also
outstanding. The earthquake damaged 48,276 kilometers’ water pipelines, and 53,295
kilometers’ roads, by June 27, 44,128 kilometers’ water pipelines and 52,301 kilometers’ roads
were repaired. The economic damages and losses were estimated, however, the social losses and
social damages have not been assessed. Currently, we don't know the grief trajectory of children,
adult, teachers, parents, and grandparents in bereavement. We have no idea of percentage of
population in the disaster affected areas being affected by the trauma, especially on the non-
visible aspects of functioning such as psychosocial, emotional, social network, confidence,
stamina and resilience. While the roads and water pipelines can be repaired in two-month period,
the damage and the impact on the people, will take years, perhaps their whole life, to get over.
Building the houses will take six months, but building a community is a long-term effort.

Section II - Goals and Objectives

The goal is to build the capacity, in terms of policy recommendations, training, knowledge
transfer; evidence-based practice, model building, and long term follow up.

WET aims to conduct a comprehensive social damage and need assessment, provide evidence-
based policy suggestions, create capacities in program design, management, monitoring and
evaluation, and assess the effectiveness of different approaches in helping the affected people
and the communities.

In addition, it intends to explore the models, and identify the best practices which can be
replicated and sustainable. For the model building, WET is establishing a comprehensive
rehabilitation program focused on children in earthquake-affected areas that aims at providing a
comprehensive rehabilitation program for children that reflects that best practice from around the
world and making this experience into policy so that damages can be minimized in the future.

The program will achieve the following objectives:

1. To assess the social damages of the earthquake on communities, on families, on

individuals, on social networks, on local organizations, on social support system, on
public and social services deliveries, on livelihood and employment, on marriage and land
ownership. The assessment will provide evidences for short-, mid- and long-term
reconstruction and redevelopment policies, and for designing intervention programs.

2. To develop the capacity of communities, local government agencies and volunteer

networks to provide quality rehabilitation intervention to children in earthquake affected
areas;
 3. To ensure that children in earthquake affected areas have access to quality assistance,
rehabilitation and education;

4. To identify the needs and provide input for intervention programs. To create a pool of
potential programs for better allocating the donated funds and resources.

Section III - Program Components and Activities

The program will consist of two components and will be implemented in partnerships with
government agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities, schools and community
based organizations at the national, regional, and community level.

3.1 Child Focused School and Community Rehabilitation

This component of the program will focus on providing quality rehabilitation to children in
communities and schools in line with the government’s community and school rebuilding
programs Mianyang, Deyang and Dujiangyan cities in Sichuan. WET will link the program in
700 schools identified by China Education TV as the “Classes in the Air” program. The program
focuses on short and medium term intervention for children between 3 – 6 and school-age
children (6 – 15).

3.1.1 Technological Resources

The program will provide a platform for professional educators and child psychologists from the
College of Psychology, Beijing Normal University to work with the teachers, social workers and
volunteers to provide individual and group therapy sessions to children affected by earthquakes.
The Wenchuan Earthquake Taskforce will build its program on two pools of technical resources:
1) the College of Psychology and the College of Sports of Beijing Normal University, and 2)
Right To Play China.

The College of Psychology of Beijing Normal University will develop psychological support
training modules to train teachers, social workers and volunteers to provide psychological
support and therapy to children traumatized in the earthquake. The College of Sports of Beijing
Normal University will develop exercise routines for teachers and volunteers to use to work with
children in school.

The program will also partner with Right To Play China to incorporate post-disaster
rehabilitation with sport and play orientated holistic child development methodology, and
introduce three child development curriculums to children with different needs.

Happy Healthy Children

The Happy Healthy Children’s Resource is a resource which promotes fun, play and effective
learning for children, ages 6-12. It consists of 2 manuals containing valuable teaching
information and over 150 physical activities and games. Through games, activities and
discussion, the resource aims at the development of the whole
child. The symbol of the resource, 5 coloured balls, is a reminder of 5 areas in which the child
must grow. The red mind ball represents activities aimed at intellectual/cognitive development.
The black body ball represents activities focused on physical development. The yellow spirit ball
represents activities focused on emotional development. The blue peace ball represents activities
focused on social development. The green health ball represents activities focused on
development in the well-being of the child: mental, physical and social.

The Happy Healthy Children’s Resource works toward the development of the whole child.
Separately, each ball represents a vital aspect of the child’s development. Together the balls
represent the full development of the whole child, which is the aim of the Happy Healthy
Children’s Resource. The HHC resources will be adopted to meet the needs of children affected
by earthquakes and focus more on the confidence building and developing social skills.

Early Child Play

The Early Child Play Resource (ECP) promotes fun, play and effective learning for children,
ages 2 -5. It consists of 2 manuals that contain valuable teaching information and over 60
physical activities and games. The Early Child Play Resource teaches young children through
the physical activities of: individual play, also called parallel play, and group games, also called
cooperative play. The purpose of the ECP Resource is also to develop the whole child: physical,
intellectual, emotional and social. This development is accomplished through games and
activities related to Right To Play’s symbol of the five coloured balls. Separately, each ball
represents a vital aspect of the child’s development. Together the balls represent the full holistic
development of the young child.

Abilities First
The Abilities First Resource is a resource targeting children and youth ages 5 to 18 with a focus
on inclusion of children with disabilities. Currently in draft form, the Abilities First Resource
builds on the philosophy, principles, suggestions and ideas of all Right To Play Leader Manuals
and the Right To Play Training workshops for Leaders. It emphasizes the commitment of Right
To Play to all children to have the opportunity to play and learn together. Through games and
sports activities attitudes toward those with a disability will change. This curriculum will adopted
to specifically work with children who became disabled from the earthquake.

3.1.2 Delivery Model

The program will deliver its program through a network of local teachers, social workers, and
volunteers under the model illustrated below.
 Trainer Trainers

Trainers – University Teachers,

Social Workers, and Volunteers

Activity Leaders and Support Providers – Local

Teachers, Social Workers, and Volunteers

Children

The program will first develop a network of trainers who can provide training in child
psychological support and sport and play orientated holistic child development. The trainers will
be selected from a pool from professionals from Beijing Normal University, Sichuan University
and other accredited education institution, registered social workers, and volunteers with
abundant social work and child development experience. The trainers network will then provide
training to local teachers, social workers, community health workers, and volunteers who are
working with children in schools, communities, and temporary camps. The trainer network will
provide follow up technical support to these activity leaders and support providers on a regular
basis.

3.1.3 Early Childhood Care and Development Program

At present, the national post-disaster rebuilding policy does not cover children under six. The
program will work closely with communities and families to provide basic health and care and
child development services to these children.

1. Early Childhood Care and Development Curriculum Development

The program will use international, national and local expertise to develop early
childhood care and development curriculum to be implemented to the disaster affected
areas. The curriculum will look at children’s needs in health, physical, social and
intellectual developments and how to provide these services to children in varied settings
such as community, centers, and temporary camps.
2. Building a Training, Technical Support and M&E Team
The program will establish a training, technical support and M&E team to provide
training, contextualized follow-up technical support and program M&E to local teachers,
care takers, and volunteers. The team will consist of professionals from Beijing Normal
University, Sichuan University and other accredited education institution, registered
social workers, and volunteers with abundant social work and child development
experience.
3. Building the Capacity of Local Service Providers
The training team will then provide training to local teachers, social workers, volunteers,
and community health workers to enable them to use the Early Childhood Care and
Development curriculum to children through early childhood care and development
centers, home-based service centers and informal parent groups.
 4. Curriculum Delivery and Follow-up Technical Support
The trained social workers, teachers, volunteers and health workers will follow the
curriculum to deliver early child development services to children. The training team will
provide continued follow up support to them and monitor the quality of the program
delivery.
5. Facility Improvement
The program will improve the facility and equipment of early childhood care and
development center and home-based service centers, such as learning and play materials,
sanitation facilities, and health facilities.
6. The Cisco-ECCD Caravans
The program will set up a few mobile early childhood care and development (ECCD)
center on a van, the Cisco - ECCD Caravan to cover children from communities without
any early childhood care and development services. The mobile center will provide
volunteer teachers and play and learning materials to children, and nutrition supplements
on a regular basis (around three half days per week.)

3.1.4 School-age Children Rehabilitation Program

The program will work with school-age children in both temporary camps and permanently re-
built schools to provide rehabilitation assistance to these children and support the current
education programs in these schools. The program will support local school teachers, social
workers and volunteers to provide individual and group psychological counseling sessions and
sport and play orientated holistic child development and recovery programs. The program will
provide children from different communities with varied needs through three models.

Model 1: the Cisco - School Play Caravan

This model is designed to reach children from remote communities in smaller schools where the
capacity of teachers and volunteers are low. The teachers, social workers and volunteers are
trained centrally in project counties and then travel to remote schools a few times each week to
deliver psychological support and group play programs. The group play programs will include
routine exercise developed by the Beijing Normal University and Happy Healthy Children
curriculum developed by Right To Play. The program will reach the eighteen townships that
suffered the worst damage by the earthquake.

Model 2: the Home for Children Program

This model will provide long term investment to improve teachers capacity and set up support
and play centers in schools for children to receive psychological support and therapy and group
play for reinforcement and further development.

1) Comprehensive Teachers Training

The program will provide comprehensive training to teachers to improve their capacity
to provide quality education and support to children in the post-earthquake environment.
The training will include child centered teaching methodology, safety management,
psychological support , child protection, and child participation. The training will be
 provided directly by leading trainers and lecturers from Beijing Normal University and
other leading education institutions.
2) Post-disaster Child Psychological Support Module Development
The program will develop a psychological support module specifically for children
affected in the Wenchuan earthquake to provide psychological support and counseling to
help children to recover from their traumatic experience.
3) Happy Healthy Children and Ability First Curriculum Adaptation
The program will adapt the Happy Healthy Children Curriculum for children affected by
the earthquake and localize the Ability First Curriculum and integrate it into the Happy
Healthy Children Curriculum to support children who have become disabled because of
the earthquake.
4) Building a Training, Technical Support and M&E Team
The program will establish a training, technical support and M&E team to provide
training, contextualized follow-up technical support and program M&E to local teachers,
social workers, and volunteers. The team will consist of professionals from Beijing
Normal University, Sichuan University and other accredited education institution,
registered social workers, and volunteers with abundant social work and child
development experience.
5) Building the Capacity of Local Schools
The program will select local teachers, social workers and volunteers who work directly
with children from temporary camps and re-built schools to enable them to provide
rehabilitation intervention to children using sport and play orientated methodology.
6) Curriculum Delivery and Follow-up Technical Support
The trained social workers, teachers, volunteers and health workers will follow the
curriculum to provide rehabilitation intervention to children. The training team will
provide continued follow up support to them and monitor the quality of the program
delivery.
7) Facility Improvement
The program will help schools and temporary camps to set up Home for Children, a
facility where children can find psychological support and child friendly learning and
play environment. The Homes will provide books, play material and group games for
children to use and participate.

Model 3: Distant Learning and Support Program

In schools where teacher’s capacity or resources are extremely low, the program will set up
distant learning centers to enable children access learning and support beyond their immediate
communities. The program will provide training to teachers to enable them to help children to
access specific on line resources and learning contents in coordination with the training activities
described in Model 2.
3.2 Social Damage Assessment

3.2.1 A Comprehensive Social Damage Assessment and Disaster Intervention Policy Studies

The effort of a comprehensive social damage assessment aims to correct the problem of
information asymmetry caused mainly by three factors: 1) due to the pre-quake difference in
social and economic development, and the different impact on different areas, the policies and
program designs face enormous challenges. 2) because the urgency of resettlement and policy
making process, the local conditions change rapidly. The programs and policies cannot respond
as fast as the condition changes. And 3) due to the damage on grassroots organizations,
information flow speed, and mechanisms intensified the information asymmetry for policy and
for interventions. The dynamic and temporal factors must to be considered if efficient policies
and interventions can be implemented.

A comprehensive household, community, and organizational survey will be conducted in the

quake areas. Study sample will be drawn based on the Mercalli intensity. Because the level 7 was
the set-level of the building earthquake-resistant standard in Sichuan, for those areas with a
Mercalli intensity >=7, human casualties and assets damages are severe. There are more than 13
million people, 90 counties, over 900 townships and 9,000 villages were hard bit by the
earthquake with the Mercalli intensity >=7. The heterogeneity of the affected communities and
the population groups require more diversified and tailored policies and programs to target the
specific needs of the individuals, families and communities.

In addition, the program will conduct a series of evaluations and research to improve China’s
national policy on disaster reduction, relief and emergency management. Evaluation will be
conduced on the following issues:
• The overall relief response and emergency management system; especially localized
system building.
• The capacity of relief response in different government line agencies;
• Medium and long term relief program for vulnerable population, including children;
• Effective participation and coordination of the civil society.

3.2.2 Dissemination & Learning Network Building

After the research is conducted, WET will organize a series of activities to promote and
disseminate the document to update officials and policy makers on reconstruction and
redevelopment policies, and disseminate the need assessment to private sectors and NGOs, and
feedback the key issues to research institutions both domestically and internationally, and
promote best practice and lessons learned from existing intervention programs.
 Publication of the research in Chinese and English. Create a working paper series and e-
versions of the publications.

 Creation of program pools for interventions.

 National conferences on after-quake social and economic policies: after the completion
of each research, a conference will be organized at the national level among the officials
from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the
 State Council Working Committee on Women and Children, and other line ministries to
present the findings and policy recommendations, discuss the gap between current
policies and the status of reconstruction and redevelopment.

 Internal workshops within government line agencies: workshops will be organized by the
Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the State
Council Working Committee on Women and Children within their system to disseminate
the research findings and the existing intervention programs.

 National & regional training sessions with government and NGO practitioners: training
sessions will be organized at the national and regional level for government and NGO
practitioners to promote best practice and analyze lessons learned on existing
intervention programs and form a working group of government and NGO practitioners
for program collaborations.

 Facilitating the design and implementation of the intervention programs targeting

different areas, different groups and different needs.

 Public Awareness Campaign & Support Mobilization: While disseminating research

results among policy makers and central government agencies and building the capacity
of government and NGO practitioners at the national and regional level, WET will
proactively work with its partners to promote public awareness and mobilize public
support.

Section IV - Key Performance Indicators

The success of the program will be measured by the following key performance indicators.

4.1 Deliverables for Research and Capacity Building

 Production and publication of research on the social damages of the Wenchuan
earthquake;
 A program pool for NGOs and for other social organizations.
 A network of concerned government officials and NGO practitioners with increased
understanding and strengthened capacity on the community redevelopment;
 Documentation and assessment of existing intervention programs;
 A sustainable resource mobilization mechanism to support intervention for the
earthquake affected areas.

4.2 Deliverables for Child Focused School and Community Rehabilitation

 More than 300 teachers, social workers and volunteers are trained;
 3500 children participated in the early childhood care and development programs and
school rehabilitation programs;
 80 children received assistance from the Cisco-WECARE Fund;
 More than 200 teachers, social workers and volunteers used effective rehabilitation
intervention to assist children;
  More than 2000 children received effective rehabilitation interventions and achieved
development in health, physical, intellectual, emotional, and social capacity.

Section V - How Cisco Can Be Involved

In addition to providing financial resources, Cisco can be involved as a core partner of the
program in various ways:

1. Co-sponsoring and Co-hosting the Policy Dissemination Conferences and

Workshops
Cisco will be involved as a co-sponsor and a co-host of the various policy dissemination
workshops for central government agencies in partnership with the National Disaster
Relief Committee and establish itself as a leading corporation in disaster relief, reduction
and emergency management, which is very in line with Cisco’s core business and
community investment priorities.

2. Staff Engagement
Cisco employee can have both short and long term engagement in the program.

Long Term Engagement: if Cisco employee can participate in the program as a full time
volunteer for more than one month, they will be selected and trained by the local training
team and work directly with children in the early childhood care and development
program and the school rehabilitation program as volunteers that lead sport and play
sessions for children.

Short Term Engagement: if Cisco employee can participate in the program for a few days
throughout the program duration, they will participate in a one day event in summer
camps or during school semesters. The one day event is called the Mini Olympics. The
objectives of the Mini Olympics is to 1) Promote life skill learning among children; 2)
Team building and cooperation in conjunction with some healthy competition for
employees and among children in the school; 3) Provide employees with an opportunity
to spend a day mobilizing the community in a participatory, memorable way, either as a
participant or activity leader; 4) Foster learning initiatives already linked to program
goals.

Section VI - Partner Organizations

• The National Disaster Relief Expert Committee and The Disaster Reduction and
Emergency Management Institute of Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of
Education will provide support for policy consultation and channels for policy impact
for this program.
• The School of Social Development and Public Policy (SSDPP), previously the
Institute of Social Development and Public Policy (ISDPP),Beijing Normal
University: SSDPP was established as a center of rigorous academic inquiry that also
trains practitioners and consults with government to apply the latest thinking in social
policy design and implementation to the practice of public policy in China. At the School,
 social development is defined as “development that is equitable, inclusive, and
sustainable, that is responsive and accountable, and which empowers the poor and
marginalized to participate effectively.” In China, social development takes place in the
context of a transition from a centrally planned to market economy, and takes the form of
transformation from a paternalistic state to a participative civil society. Effective and fair
participation of citizens in the process is essential to ensure the formulation of effective
social policies that lead both to equitable outcomes and to sustainable economic and
social development while minimizing the tendency for economic development to divide
societies into distinct sets of ‘winners’ and ‘losers.’ Specifically, as an organization
committed to promoting China’s social development, SSDPP, through its research,
education, consulting, and training programs, seeks to: Influence public policies to
promote equitable and sustainable outcomes; Empower citizens to participate effectively
in the process of social change; Boost domestic capacity by training and educating
practitioners and future leaders in the field of social policy. The School will be manage
and coordinate the implementation of the program and lead policy research and impact
activities in this program.
• The Beijing Normal University Education Foundation is one of the country’s leading
university foundations that provides financial and capacity building support to children,
students and education related institutions both in the university and across the country.
The Foundation will be responsible for the financial management of the overall funding
of this program, providing a tax deductible receipt to Cisco, generating quarterly financial
report to Cisco, and providing support for external independent audit of this program.
The Fund will directly manage and monitor the investment in school facility
improvement. The Foundation will also coordinate the participation of the College of
Education and the College of Psychology of Beijing Normal University in this program.
• Right To Play is a global leader in developing and delivering specially designed
programs that use sport and play as tool to foster the healthy physical, social and
emotional development of children and youth. Working in both the humanitarian
and development contexts, Right To Play has projects in more than 20 countries in
Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Right To Play started its work in China in 2007 and
have established partnerships with various central government agencies and multinational
businesses. In this program, Right To Play China will be responsible for curriculum
development, training trainers, training school teachers, social workers and volunteers
and providing follow up technical support and monitoring the delivery of curriculums.

Section VII - Budget

The total budget of the program is 5,151,800 RMB with 3,211,800 RMB from Cisco and the rest
of the total funding from Beijing Normal University, Right To Play China and other local
partners. A budget breakdown by component is provided below. The detailed budget will be
provided based on further feedback from Cisco.

Program Component 1 – Child Focused Rehabilitation 1,000,000

1.1 Early Childhood Care and Development
Curriculum Development
Teachers Training and Local Capacity Building
 Building Community ECCD Centers
Cisco ECCD Caravans
1.2 School Age Children Rehabilitation Program
Curriculum Development
Teachers Training and Local Capacity Building
Model 1 Implementation
Model 2 Implementation
Model 3 Implementation

Program Component 2 – Social Damage Assessment

2.1 Surveys 1,200,000
Gansu: 2 counties and 30 communities
Sichuan: 5 counties (Quake Intensity 7,8,9,10,11) and 75
communities
2.2 Dissemination & Learning Network Building 300,000

Cisco Staff Engagement 100,000

Total 2,600,000

Section VIII - Program Implementation Plan

Need to be revised.