Save the Children continues to provide emergency relief in the snow disaster affected areas of Altay Prefecture located in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Emergency funds have reached RMB700,000. Many Kazak herders from Qing He and Fu Yun County, the two most recently affected areas, exclaimed, "We need heating fuel and animal feed the most."
With the support of the Disaster Relief Office of Altay Prefecture Civil Affairs Bureau, Save the Children staff visited herding families in the affected areas and gathered information about the disaster situation and how the weather has impacted children and families.
In mid-January, Save the Children responded to the Altay snow disaster with an initial allocation of RMB100,000 emergency fund for childrens' winter clothes, bedding and coal for heating herding yurts and houses of the most vulnerable. The recent storms have put children at risk of cold-related illness and injuries, including respiratory illness and frostbite.
Save the Children has distributed 1,300 sets of winter clothing to the most vulnerable children. In addition, 1,300
bedding sets and 250 tons of coal are being distributed to an estimated 500 poor families. "Although these children are poor, they are really smart and hardworking. If they get our help their future will be brighter," says
Aytuna Hisamudin, Save the Children Staffperson.
During the Spring Festival, Save the Children started the second distribution of relief items consisting of childrens' winter clothes, coal and corn to feed the animal herds that are the main livelihood for families in the
area.
According to the information from Qing He County Civil Affairs, herders in remote pasturing areas are in urgent need of animal feed as the herds of animals fight to dig through the deep snow for food. As a result, approximately 3,500 animals have died and thousands are at risk of death from leg injuries. To date, over 270 tons of corn are being distributed to the county Animal Husbandry Office — Herding Stations and then to affected
herding families in remote pasturing locations.
