“Ankang Home” is one of the largest charity projects that have been launched by the China Children and Teenagers‘’ Fund (CCTF) since its establishment 37 years ago. The project has lasted 10 years since its birth in May 2008, drawing great attention from all walks of life and boosting deep public trust.
Initiated by the CCTF and Rizhao Iron and Steel Group, ”Ankang Home” project kicked off soon after the devastating May 12 Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 for children emergency rescue.
The first phase of "Ankang Home" was in Beijing and Rizhao City in Shandong Province from May 19, 2008 to June 18, 2009 to transfer and resettle orphans in hard-hit areas.
The Rizhao Iron and Steel Group made an emergency reconstruction of 264 apartments of five buildings that had been planned to be used for its employees to relocate 586 orphans or students from single-parent families and special hardship families in the worst-hit areas in Deyang, Mianyang, Guangyuan, Aba and Dujiangyan in Sichuan Province. At the same time, 126 orphans were temporarily placed at the Ruibei School in Beijing.
The Rizhao Ankang Home provided all that were necessary for living, healthcare, and education for these children to help them get out of physic trauma.
The second stage of "Ankang Home" project is the Shuangliu "Ankang Home" which lasted from August 26 to the present day. Spanning nearly 9 years, it is the largest centralized resettlement base for children in need in the earthquake affected areas. The Rizhao Iron and Steel Group has donated a total of 126 million yuan for the building of Shuangliu "Ankang Home" , building schools, and covering children’s learning and living cost. The Shuangliu County People's Government provided construction land and teaching equipment and facilities, and assumed the education management responsibility of the Shuangliu Ankang Home.
To date, 282 students have been admitted to university, and 342 students got employed or joined the military after graduating from vocational high schools. Only 48 students continue to live and study in "Ankang Home" due to their young age. The CCTF and Rizhao Iron and Steel Group will continue to provide financial support for them to complete their studies.
The extraordinary development of Ankang Home over the past 10 years has left us many thoughts.
Firstly, improving the coordination mechanism between the government and the social forces in disaster relief is an important way to effectively cope with disaster management. As one of the important social forces, charity organizations have unique advantages in disaster management. On the one hand, they can extensively mobilize various social forces and organize donations; on the other hand, they can go direct into the disaster areas and responded to the needs in a more agile, direct, and deeper manner.
Secondly, educating the public, especially children and adolescents to establish security awareness and master basic emergency knowledge and skills is a prerequisite for reducing losses and injuries.
Thirdly, professional and rational rescue services are an important basis for ensuring the quality of post-disaster reconstruction work. The successful practice of the “Ankang Home” project is it was aimed at targeting the survival threats faced by orphans after the earthquake, and carried out relocation and resettlement with the support of specialized management teams.