Monday, June 2, 2008

Mercy Relief raises S$163,000 for China quake victims

By Gamar Abdul Aziz, Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE: Due to the overwhelming requests from social and corporate groups, Mercy Relief has extended its fundraising permit until June 15. The revised permit number provided by the Commissioner of Charities is 0015/2008 (II). It said the total donation collected for the quake victims in China has now reached S$719,000. This includes the S$163,101.66 raised by 650 volunteers, during the one-day island-wide street collection on May 23. This is according to CERTIS Cisco, which provided the security and processed the counting and administration of the donations collected. CERTIS Cisco had underwritten the cost of cash processing for the street collection. In addition, CERTIS Cisco will also waive the charges for the next cash processing of the donations from collection boxes placed at SingPost, Shell, Toys ‘R’ Us, Kopi Tiam and other corporate organisations. 50 staff from corporate group KPMG also took to the streets, armed with donation cans and raised more than S$25,000 in over four hours. 200 of the volunteers that day were Chinese nationals working and studying in Singapore. Mercy Relief said its response team has personally distributed relief supplies - including food, water, medicines and tents - worth over S$400,000 since May 16. The items were carried on trucks, which had to travel through rough terrains which, at times, needed to be cleared manually. Mercy Relief said supplies were distributed at several counties in four prefectures - namely Aba, Mianyang, Deyang and Chengdu. Large 30 square-metre system tents have also been erected as a temporary school in Wenchuan, the epicentre of the quake. Mercy Relief is working with the local Disaster Management Centres, the Sichuan Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (SFPA) and the Chengdu Poverty Alleviation Bureau (CPAB). - CNA/vm

Amelia | | 8:18:00 PM