Revisiting Ma’an Qiao Village

In response to the upcoming resettlement of the villagers in Ma’an Qiao Village, allocated in Panzhihua City, Sichuan province, CCOUC led a team of 15 members including staff, students, clinical trainees and representatives from the Wu Zhi Qiao (WZQ) Charitable Foundation to revisit Ma’an Qiao Village from 18 to 21 January 2018.

A 6.1 magnitude earthquake in Panzhihua on 30 August 2008 added burden to this deprived area. Ma'an Qiao Village was one of the most seriously hit locations. With the support of WZQ, a project to build a “Healthy Village” under the World Health Organization (WHO) healthy communities planning framework was proposed. CCOUC team had conducted health needs assessment, intervention and evaluation programmes in Ma’an Qiao Village since then. Seven years later, the team revisited the village and accomplished altogether five activities including household and individual surveys, focus group interviews, health interventions, photography documentation and short-film production. Household-based surveys were conducted in five of the six small sub-villages and individual interviews were also carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the health intervention programme. More than 70 villagers actively participated in the health intervention programme which focused on mental health awareness, food labelling, and the preparation of oral rehydration solution. Disaster kit has also been distributed after the programme to remind villagers the importance of disaster preparedness.

While village heads shared foreseen problems such as villagers’ concerns of resettling in a new community uphill, the participation of our working partner WZQ in this trip allowed sharing of experiences on building a more resilient community in a different perspective from the architectural and engineering disciplines.