Macao to Deliver Relief Supplies to Quake-hit Qinghai

A total of 89,400 clothes collected in Macao will be sent to China's quake-hit Qinghai province, the Macao Red Cross said on Wednesday.

The clothes, mainly sweaters, coats and scarves, were donated by a local civil group and several local enterprises and textile factories.

These relief supplies will be delivered to the Yushu County, northwest China's Qinghai province, on April 30 and was expected to arrive in the county in two days.

This was part of the Macao Special Administrative Region's (SAR) effort to help the people in the quake zone.

Yushu County was hit by a 7.1-magnitude quake earlier this month, leaving over 2,000 dead and more than 12,000 injured, according to official figures.

After the occurrence of the disaster, the Macao Red Cross provided a sum of 300,000 patacas (37,500 U.S. dollars) as emergency funds for the quake relief operation in Yushu, and later dispatched staffers to Xining, the capital of Qinghai, to purchase relief supplies, which has been delivered to the quake zone.

In addition to the clothes, the disaster zone is also in great need of medical equipment and the Macao Red Cross will purchase these things and sent them to Yushu after it received the list of the specific equipment from the Qinghai authorities, the charity said.

Aside from relief supplies, the charity has by far received total donations of over 11 million patacas (1.4 million U.S. dollars) from local communities for the quake victims in Yushu.

The government of Macao SAR has also announced its decision to provide an amount of 100 million yuan (15 million U.S. dollars) as quake-relief fund for Qinghai, and has promised to give full support to the Macao Red Cross's effort to assist Yushu's post- quake reconstruction.

(Source: Xinhua)