Desperate For Water After Devastating Earthquake

Lijing Lai said, “I woke up and everything on my desk fell over! The ground shook left, right, left, front, and back.”

When a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Hualien County, Taiwan, it left buildings teetering, caused massive landslides, and damaged critical infrastructure. Lijing Lai’s main source of water was destroyed.

Lijing explained, “When my younger brother came, he ran to the back of my home and saw that the water tank was broken.”

Lijing has had a difficult time walking ever since an injury 5 years ago. Without running water, many basic tasks became very strenuous.

“I have to go to my daughter’s or son’s place to take a bath,” said Lijing.

Lijing mainly lives on government subsidies, and her children barely make enough money to support themselves. Like others in their community whose water tanks were damaged, they couldn’t afford to pay the rising prices for a new one. That’s why Operation Blessing partnered with the Chinese Christian Relief Association to purchase and deliver water tanks for 9 homes. 

Samuel Chang, with the CCRA, “Because Operation Blessing is an international organization and we are a local one, we are sharing and learning from each other. We are working well together, because we are both Christian organizations.”

Lijing said, “Thank you for donating the water tank for my home.”