Funds Help Improve Rehabilitative Care for Young Earthquake Victims in China

John P. Howe, III, MD., President and CEO of  Project HOPE visited China's Sichuan Province  immediately following the earthquake to begin  planning for HOPE's long-term relief efforts focusing on rehabilitative services for children.

In July of 2008, Project HOPE sent an assessment team to the Sichuan Province to evaluate the rehabilitative needs of children recovering from earthquake related injuries.

The assessment team found an urgent need for equipment and specialized rehabilitative services to care for the large number of people, especially children, recovering from earthquake related injuries.

But the earthquake also caused 370,000 injuries. More than 70,000 of those injured require long-term rehabilitative care to properly heal. The large number of people, including many children needing rehabilitative care has put a strain on the 420 rehabilitation physicians and therapists currently available to provide these medical services in the Sichuan Province.

Project HOPE continues to help, thanks to generous grants from Johnson & Johnson and The Baxter International Foundation. The grants are are allowing Project HOPE to initiate programs to improve services and train rehabilitative professionals at the local and national levels, to ensure those recovering from the earthquake, especially children, will receive the care they need to properly heal.

John P. Howe, III, M.D., President and CEO of Project HOPE traveled to the Sichuan Province just weeks after the catastrophic event. “When I visited Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province, immediately following the deadly earthquake, local officials and hospital administrators communicated the urgent need for more rehabilitation services,” he said.  Read his from the earthquake zone.

Project HOPE then sent an assessment team made up of  respected international experts, Chinese health professionals (including a HOPE-trained specialist from the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center), and HOPE China staff to the earthquake zone to evaluate the rehabilitative needs and the ways in which Project HOPE could help. Working with local officials, including the Chinese Ministry of Health, the team concluded that not only was there an urgent need for more rehabilitation specialists, there was also a need for specific training  for earthquake related injuries such as amputations, prostheses and crush injuries, especially when working with children. The team also found limited rehabilitative equipment available for children.   

The grants from Johnson & Johnson and The Baxter International Foundation will allow Project HOPE to begin training rehabilitative professionals at the local level and provide an improved curricula, rehabilitative specialist guidelines and a replicable rehabilitative model that Chinese rehabilitative specialist can use to help earthquake victims in need of services now, and also build capacity for future rehabilitative needs in China.

This is not the first time Project HOPE has stepped in to help with rehabilitative training following a natural disaster. Following the earthquake in Turkey in August 1999, Project HOPE helped establish a rehabilitation center in Izmit and trained rehabilitation professionals. The center continues to serve local communities, providing an example of HOPE’s sustainable programs. In Bosnia, a physical therapy rehabilitation program developed by Project HOPE after the war has benefited large numbers of children and health care providers. Project HOPE also has a long-established relationship with the people of China, providing health education and heath care in the country for more than 25 years.