Supporter: Liu Liangchuan

A boy injured by the earthquake lays in a tent at a displacement camp in Yushu. Photo: Yue Yao/Mercy Corps

A coupon is a simple piece of paper, but a popular way for customers to exchange something in return for a product or service. Here in Yushu, coupons are helping us a lot in our work by reducing the risk of unfair distribution.

On the early morning of April 28, we sent two groups with 315 coupons to an area beside the Zaqu river — an area that's serving as a displaced earthquake survivors camp, where there are 220 households without organisation or any camp leaders The number of households changes every day, so we decided to start distribution here with an estimated 315 coupons that families could exchange for hygiene kits.

Once we arrived at the camp, I started to realize that it was kind of dangerous, because almost every family had more than one Tibetan dog — a ferocious and very territorial dog. We were very careful to visit each household —one by one — to verify the number of family members and to tell them how the coupon should be used, as well as the time and place of distribution.

In total, we distributed 224 coupons. It was really tiring physically and nerve-wracking mentally. And then, when we thought we had finished work in that camp, a Tibetan lady came to tell us her family hadn’t received a coupon and that her tent was on the other side of the camp. At that time, I felt like a solder crossing a field of land mines again — but we had to come back with her to make sure.

Hygiene kits stacked and ready for distribution. Photo: Mercy Corps

We had to make sure that no one had been missed.

The distribution that followed that afternoon was very successful: we had an emergency line around the buffering area, with volunteers walking around to help facilitate, and one local staff to verify the coupons and make sure that everyone sign a hygiene kit receipt with their fingerprint.

One older lady was particularly happy to get her hygiene kit. She left the distribution area with her granddaughter, but not before telling our local volunteer this: “There was some distribution here before, and I am old enough to remember it. The way you did it today was very good. I didn’t need to run fast or carry anything too heavy."

I saw the older lady disappear back into the camp. The line became shorter and shorter. People with coupons came and got their hygiene kits quietly. Those who didn’t have coupons were politely refused because we had one rule: only those with coupons could receive kits, to be fair.

Today, April 29, our team has delivered 434 coupons to another earthquake displacement camp in Yushu Park. The distribution location will be near the entrance to park — and we're hoping that everyone will be on time, coupons in hand.

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The road through the mountains to Yushu. Photo: Liu Liangchuan/Mercy Corps

The truck full of 2,000 hygiene kits — covered with dust and mud — at last arrived in Yushu on the evening of April 26. Their journey from Chengdu, the capital of neighboring Sichuan Province, totaled 1,200 kilometers and 50 hours. They crossed over seven mountains of Qinghai and the Tibetan plateau, all of which are more than 4000 meters (13,100 feet) tall.

The next day, we worked together with a local partner (an organised team of local Tibetans and volunteers) to unload 2,000 hygiene kits into a storage space on the ground, as there is no warehouse big and safe enough to store such huge quantity of goods — almost all buildings here are damaged by the quake. So we have to put it just outside of the camps where they will be distributed.

About 15 people joined in this effort, including local partners, volunteers, drivers and even cooks. Almost all available manpower has been mobilized to do this work. They come from different corners of this world: Kandez, Chengdu, Lhasa, France and Sweden.

The local team unloads the hygiene kits. Photo: Liu Liangchuan/Mercy Corps

The earthquake has brought them together — each of them have their own job and life outside of this response. They are singers, writers, managers and professionals — but when needed, they are doing simple labour in a efficient way in a place at the roof of the world.

Hygiene kits were carefully covered by waterproof sheeting after they were unloaded. The local team made a check-in voucher after spot-checking the containers according to the list. Every detail showed professional, clear understanding of the warehousing procedures presenting in Yue Yao's training early last week.

We don’t want to put all 2,000 packages into distribution at the same time, as the survivors' camps are separate and in different corners of the town. It’s too difficult to invite all of the families to one spot — such a procedure would easily cause disorder and desperate fighting among people. So we decided to distribute 2,000 in a more organised manner — it will take a little more time, but will ensure that the goods make it into the hands of people with real need.

This is how we are doing things differently here in Yushu.

A child stands with the stacked hygiene kits. Photo: Liu Liangchuan/Mercy Corps

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