After the floodwaters receded, Amity Foundation helped the villagers “take back” their lives in three dimensions
In early July, 2026, Guangxi experienced sustained heavy rainfall, a very rare occurrence for the region. Nanning, Guigang, Qinzhou, Fangchenggang, and other areas were subjected to widespread heavy to extremely heavy rainfall. Multiple rivers exceeded warning levels, and a breach occurred at the Liulan Reservoir in Hengzhou City. Across 14 cities and 63 counties and districts in the region, 375,000 people were affected, with 130,000 requiring urgent relocation.
Wherever the flood waters reached, houses collapsed, farmlands were submerged, and roads were cut off. When the floodwaters finally receded, the villagers were left with black mud inside and outside their homes, soaked and ruined furniture and appliances, fallen crops, and shattered days.
How can we help the affected villagers return to normal life? Amity Foundation’s approach is clear: to simultaneously address three issues: “What is needed now”, “How to help the rescue effort” and “How to start over” Therefore, they joined forces with the Tencent Foundation and other partners, and under the Ministry of Emergency Management’s State-Society Collaboration Mechanism, they simultaneously took action from those three dimensions.
Dimension One: Emergency Mobile Supermarket—Solving “What is Needed Now”
Return the choice to the masses, ensuring every penny is spent wisely.
On July 10, at the open lot at the entrance of Niqiao Village, Shabu Town, Qinnan District, Qinzhou City, cases of power strips, desk lamps, rice cookers, quilts, slippers, tissues, cleaning supplies, as well as Hot Kid canned milk beverage and small toys, were laid out and piled high.
This is not a village bazaar but the State-Society Collaboration : Emergency Supermarket event jointly launched by Amity Foundation and the Tencent Foundation.
Old Mr Zhang was the first to enter. His house had been flooded for two days, and all his electrical appliances were destroyed. He headed straight to the small appliance section, grabbed a rice cooker, and left. “This is great. You can pick whatever you want to buy.” He turned around and said, finally a faint smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
Aunt Wang, 53, went around the tissues and cleaning supplies section several times, but finally ended up in the snacks and toys section. She brought a pack of Hot Kid milk beverage and a small toy for her 4-year-old grandson. “When the flood waters came, the boy was terrified. Hopefully, this will cheer him up a little.”
Why didn’t they let disaster victims directly receive assorted supplies, but insist on creating a “supermarket”?
Amity Foundation staff explained that although centralized purchasing and distribution may have been fast, it didn’t always hit the spot—some families lacked quilts, some lacked pots, and some urgently needed cleaning supplies. “Every household has a different list of necessities.”
So they came up with the idea of Charity Vouchers: distributing 200 yuan in paper vouchers to each of the 5,000 affected households—considering that the local internet may not have been fully restored and many of the victims were elderly, paper vouchers were more practical. Each voucher had a unique number, making issuance transparent and traceable. With vouchers, people freely selected their most urgently needed items, resulting in donations spent where it mattered most, and hearts warmed in the most practical ways.
Another ingenious aspect of this arrangement was, this supermarket didn’t travel far and wide to source its supplies, but instead cooperated with local shops and supermarkets. Mr. Luo, a supermarket owner, was also a disaster victim—his supermarket in Fangchenggang was flooded by drainage backflow, causing significant losses. But when he heard about this event, he signed up immediately and brought a large amount of supplies. “In times like this, everyone is struggling, so we must contribute what we can.”
This not only made things easier for the flood victims, but also allowed local businesses to gradually recover after the disaster. Every single consumption voucher connected disaster victims, local businesses and rescue forces, achieving a win-win situation for disaster relief and local economic recovery.
Moreover, this model is still growing. On July 13, the Emergency Supermarket Open Support Plan was launched, opening applications to frontline social organizations and rescue teams nationwide, aiming to open the “Emergency Supermarket” to more villages so that more disaster victims can benefit.
Dimension Two: Mobile Repair Stations for Rescue Boats—Solving the Problem of ‘How to Help the Rescue Effort’
If the Emergency Supermarket solved daily life problems on land, then who could guarantee rescue on the water?
During floods, rigid rescue inflatable boats and rubber boats serve as lifelines—in charge of transferring the elderly and children and transporting relief supplies. But under high-intensity operation, the boats can also “get sick.”
“The engine runs from morning till night. People work in shifts but the boats keep working the whole time. The spark plugs are all burned black.” Hua Ming from the Nanjing Blue Leopard Rescue Team said, “There are all sorts of things under the water—wire, broken wood, broken bricks. Every time the debris scrapes the boats, it punctures the chassis.”
The worst part was when a boat broke down halfway, loaded with passengers, stuck between destinations.
Amity Foundation has keenly identified this less visible need. On July 9, they set up a special station in Shika Town, Qintang District, Guigang City—the “Mobile Boat Rescue Station.” This is the first private boat maintenance team at the flood site in Guangxi, capable of repairing boats and engines.
The main workforce behind the ship repair was technical expert Wang Gencheng. Before retiring, Master Wang worked at Xuanwu Lake in Nanjing, having worked with water transportation for over thirty years. Within less than two hours of starting duty, he and his teammates had repaired three boats.
The news exploded in the disaster relief information coordination group. “Where is this mobile rescue station? Our boat needs repairs too!” “Can engines be repaired, too?” Colleagues eagerly came to inquire. Master Wang and the others posted the repair locations for each time slot in the group chat, so anyone who needed to come could come, and some even made reservations in advance.
Acquiring repair supplies was a challenge. The special glue required in repairing inflatable boats is inflammable, difficult to carry, and takes too long to ship. Master Wang and his teammates searched all the local hardware stores and auto parts shops, finally gathering less than half a case. “It should be enough to last a short time, we’ll just make do for now.”
After each boat was repaired, its boatman would turn back and shout, “Thanks!” Sweating profusely, Master Wang would mop his forehead and get ready for the next round: “Come on, next boat.”
An Amity Foundation staff remarked, “With a faster boat, people would soak in the cold water for one less minute; with a stable boat, the driver would feel a bit more confident.”
Looking after those boats coming and going in the water means guarding every person it carries.
Dimension Three: Digital Work-for Relief — Solving the Problem “How to Start Over”
The floodwaters receded, but the real problems were just beginning.
The silt inside and outside the house must be cleaned up shovel by shovel; soaked streets must be disinfected time after time; all kinds of trash must be removed truckload by truckload.
At the same time, many affected villagers worried: their land has been flooded, their livelihoods lost, and their income cut off. How would they get by?
On July 13, Amity Foundation, together with the Tencent Foundation, launched the “Digital Work-for-Relief” project in 20 disaster-stricken villages in Qinzhou.
The simple approach was to turn public area post-disaster recovery tasks such as dredging, disinfection, resettlement site services and material sorting into individual labour positions. Disaster-affected villagers would report to work and receive wages for their labour.
This was killing two birds with one stone. First, with chores such as disinfecting public areas and repairing small infrastructures being done, the village could restore order faster; second, the villagers were not passively waiting for relief, but actively participating in reconstruction with their own hands, while receiving temporary income to ease their current financial pressure.
The change in identity from recipient to participant could sometimes be more important than money. As one villager involved in work-for-relief said: “I used to think that when disaster strikes, I had to rely on others for help. Now that I am helping myself, I feel reassured.”
Three dimensions, one goal
From the Emergency Supermarket to address material shortages, to the Mobile Repair Station to ensure rescue forces, and then to Work-for-Relief to promote productive recovery—these three dimensions might seem different, but in reality, they are closely linked.
Material support allowed disaster victims to receive their daily necessities with dignity; rescue support gave frontline forces greater confidence to fight; productive recovery allowed victims to rebuild their homes with their own hands and regain control over their lives.
These three dimensions converged into a single goal: to help disaster victims return to normal life.
Beyond these three dimensions, Amity Foundation continued to deliver large quantities of supplies: 6,100 units of rice, cooking oil, and quilts were delivered to Jiulong Township in Qinnan District; 3,000 sets of dredging tools and 100 high-pressure washers have been put into service in Hengzhou; 150 units of sanitary pads and 71 units of diapers delivered to Qinzhou, catering to the needs of mothers and babies; six inflatable boats, five outboard motors, and eight generators were handed over to frontline rescue partners.
Epilogue
The floodwaters have receded, and life continues to move forward.
From the Emergency Supermarket on land, to the Mobile Repair Stations on the water, and then to Work-for-Relief inside and outside the village—Amity Foundation has united forces from all sides, weaving a safety net from three dimensions to steadily meet the most genuine and detailed needs of the victims.
Every thread in this net represents respect, professionalism, and kindness.
On the other side of the net are the families “starting over”, their shining faces smiling once again.
