(Hong Kong．11 June 2008) Mrs Selina Tsang Pou Siu-mei, President of the Hong Kong Red Cross (HKRC), arrived Sichuan earthquake affected area yesterday (10 June 2008) to visit the affected people and the HKRC Medical Post in Yanmen(雁門) town.  Mrs Tsang also discussed with the government of Sichuan province on the proposed future work plan and received positive feedback.

Mrs Tsang and Lady Wu, Director of HKRC, departed from Hong Kong yesterday morning and visited some affected families and the elderly home in one of the earthquake affected areas - Yanmen town.  She expressed her deepest regards to the villagers, elderly people and kids there, wishing them to recover from the disaster soon.  She also visited the HKRC Medical Post in Yanmen and showed her support and encouragement to the medical volunteers from Hong Kong.

There are a total of six medical volunteers joining the HKRC mission in Yanmen, where the team comprises of three medical doctors and three nurses. They stationed in Yanmen since late May, providing medical services to the villages and performing vaccination like Hepatitis A for children. They also provide medical outreach service in case of emergency.

In order to staff off the HKRC’s rehabilitation plan proposed on 28 May, Mrs Tsang met with Mr Chen Wen Hua, Vice Governor of Sichuan province, this morning.  Being informed that that HKRC is planning to allocate most of the donations for the reconstruction of houses, water supply system, medical and rehabilitation facilities, and schools, Mr Chen Wen Hua showed support and their willingness to facilitate this process.

HKRC has distributed tents, quilts, relief food and family kits to about 230,000 affected people and help them in the emergency phase.  Up to date, HKRC has received donation amounting HK$900 million, where more than 90% of the donation will be utilized for supporting reconstruction projects in the affected provinces. 

The “Liaison Office” of HKRC in Chengdu has been established.  Mrs Tsang and Lady Wu also visited the new office and have a more thorough understanding of office operation and the work of the delegates.
Hong Kong Red Cross would like to express our gratitude to the support of corporations and individual donors.  As of 18:00 pm tonight, we received donation amounting to HK$900 million.  Donations received from 4 to 10 June with HK$500,000 or more include:

In addition, about 500 companies / organizations have committed to raise fund to support our relief work.  The detailed list of supporting company / organization, please refer to our website at: http://www.redcross.org.hk/china_earthquake/eng/supporting_groups.htm

Photo Captions:

Mrs Selina Tsang visited the HKRC Medical Post in Yanmen town, Sichuan province and showed her support to the medical volunteers.

Mrs Selina Tsang visited the elderly home in Yanmen town, and expressed her deepest regards to elderly people.  The other representative in the picture is the Director of HKRC, Lady Wu.

Mrs Selina Tsang and Lady Wu visited Yanmen town, one of the earthquake struck areas in Sichuan province.

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