2 July 2010. A week after severe flooding hit southern China affecting about 68.7 million people, the survivors’ greatest need is food.

“Food remains to be the urgent need of affected people in hard-hit areas like Jiangxi and Hunan as a result of our assessment conducted last week,” says Echo Chow, Senior Communications Officer.

Since May, the flooding in China has killed 379 people, with 141 missing. About 68.7 million people have been affected in 22 provinces and regions. More than four million people were evacuated and the estimated economic losses are around 12.13 billion USD.

Following initial assessments, World Vision is now preparing to respond to the urgent needs of the affected people.

Meanwhile, survivors like Wu Xirui are still filled with sorrow upon losing their possessions due to the severe flooding.

“All our belongings were swept away. I was not able to take some because we were warned of mudslides, so I had to prioritise saving my two children,” said Wu Xirui of Hunan province. She carried her crying children to a higher and safer place .

Though their house was spared, their source of livelihood was not. “We were looking forward to the corn harvest next month but the merciless flood damaged all the crops in our farm,” she said.

More than 1.6 million hectares of farmlands were affected in the floods, of which 277,800 hectares lost all their harvest.

“The villagers plant rice, peanut, soybean, sweet potato and corn to earn a living. They have no extra income. With all these things gone, I am afraid they will suffer from food shortage in the future,” said a local government official.

Last week, World Vision distributed hygiene and child friendly kits that contain toys, disaster preparedness brochures and some stationery.

World Vision has been working in China since 1982, and most recently provided assistance to survivors of the April 2010 Qinghai, China earthquake.