Red Cross raises £83m for China earthquake

Fundraising | Becky Slack | 4 Jun 2008

The Red Cross has raised over £83m to help those affected by last week’s China earthquake, including $9.8m (£4.9m) from the United States.

To date, the British Red Cross has pledged £265,000 but is expected to raise £2m.

Over 30,000 people were killed and 220,000 injured by the earthquake which hit the Sichuan province on 12 May.

The Shanghai Daily newspaper has reported that as much as US$1.3bn (£600m) has been donated by domestic and overseas donors in total, with Chinese citizens donating 85 per cent of the total – a figure unprecedented in a country where organised philanthropy is almost non-existent.

It has also been reported that in order to counter public mistrust in the way the Chinese will distribute money donated to its Ministry of Civil Affairs, all funds will be publicly supervised and an audit process confirming money was distributed correctly will take place once the relief effort is over.

Meanwhile, the £8m donated so far by the British public to the DEC Myanmar (Burma) Cyclone Appeal is beginning to trickle through to those who need it, with aid agencies reporting a 50 per cent increase in the amount of people they are able to reach.

Relief teams have now distributed aid to some 900,000 people.

However, Brendan Gormley, chief executive of the DEC, said: “The situation is still desperate and without more international help over the coming weeks the death toll is bound to increase. We urgently need more funds if we are going to continue to reach more people.”

Directory: British Red Cross | Disasters Emergency Committee
Who's Who: Becky Slack

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.