Earthquake's destruction of house leads husband to suicide

Ma Juying with her two year old son after the earthquake destroyed her house

Ma Juying’s home was destroyed in the Sichuan Earthquake in 2008, the strain of which caused her husband to commit suicide, leaving her a single mother of two.

Ma, from Dazhuba Village, Ningqiang County, Shaanxi Province, is mother of two sons. One is 17 years old, by her first husband. The other is two and a half years old, by her second husband.

Despite the fact that all four members of the family were lucky enough to survive the earthquake, the destruction of their house combined with low crop yield and consequent food shortage placed a huge financial and emotional strain on them all. They were entirely dependent on a land of one Mu (1/15 acre), but the crops had been frequently destroyed by wild boars from the nearby mountain.

Ma Juying’s husband tried to find work after the earthquake, but to no avail. Eventually his increasing feelings of depression and shame of not being able to support his family tragically lead him to commit suicide.

I lost all hope after the earthquake and my husband’s death. We have no place to live and nothing.

Besides suffering from the emotional loss of her husband, practically his death left Ma to support her two children all alone. Her elder son went to the city in June and again in September in search of work to earn an income for the family, but was unable to find a job and returned empty-handed.

Left homeless, their greatest fear was rebuilding their house or finding shelter before the bitter Winter set in. Fortunately, besides the RMB 20,000 allocated by government, Actionaid provided an extra RMB10,000 to Ma’s family to rebuild their house, so that her family would have a proper place to live in time for Winter. Meanwhile, they lived in small rented accommodation for RMB1,000 (Euro 100) a year, with the help of ActionAid and the government.

Now the government and Actionaid is helping us. We will rebuild our house and carry on with our lives again.