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Ladies and gentlemen, The Chinese Red Cross at all levels are mobilizing resources from home and abroad to respond to the “5.12” earthquake. The Red Cross relief operation is carried out based on the needs of communities affected and in line with the overall national plan for emergency response as well as long-term recovery. 1. Emergency response Immediately after the “5.12”earthquake happened, the Chinese Red Cross activated its top contingency plan. Relief items including 557 tents and 2,500 quilts and other materials were released at 16:00 the same day from its Chengdu Disaster Preparedness Center . Distributions were made in Dujiangyan, Mianzhu, Beichuan and Pengzhou overnight. A national emergency appeal was launched. On May 13, the Chinese Red Cross set up earthquake response coordination center and sent assessment team to the field. The same day, 6 medical teams from Shanghai Huashan Hospital , Armed Police General Hospital , Beijing Red Cross, the Hebei Red Cross, Anhui Red Cross, Hunan Red Cross were deployed. On May 15, Chinese Red Cross sent 10 staff to set up a coordination office based in Chengdu and another 28 staff based in 6 prefectures of Dujiangyan, Deyang, Aba, Mianyang, Guangyuan, and Ya'an. These relief coordinators are from National HQs and some other Provincial Red Cross. They are responsible to coordinate the transportation and distribution of relief items. They are also working on the recovery planning together with local people. Chinese Red Cross Executive Vice President Jiang Yiman, Vice President Su Juxiang, Vice President Guo Changjiang, Secretary General Wang Haijing have traveled to 8 affected counties in Sichuan and Shaanxi to direct and coordinate relief operation on the spot. 2. Resources mobilization Chinese people donate generously to the Red Cross through banks, post offices, Internet, mobile phone, etc. On May 15, a preliminary international Emergency Appeal was launched through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, seeking 20 million Swiss francs (about 130 million yuan) which has been fully covered. A revised international appeal is going to be launched soon. As at 18:00 on May 29, the Chinese Red Cross at all levels have raised RMB 10.332 billion in cash and in kind. The National Office has received RMB 3.605 billion in cash (excluding contributions from International Appeal and from Hongkong, Macau and Taiwan ) and RMB 335 million in kind. According to the report from branches, local Red Cross branches have received RMB 5.09 billion in cash and RMB 1.302 billion in kind. So far, Chinese Red Cross has allocated RMB 2.019 billion for operations in Sichuan , Gansu , Shaanxi , among which RMB 660 million is from the National Office. The relief items worth RMB 331 million dispatched by the National Office include: 38,639 tents, 89,394 quilts, 240,100 clothes, 7,490 boxes of medicines, 65,929 boxes of food items, and 70,534 pieces of other items. A big airlift operation is ongoing to send 100,000 tents from other Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, among which 9,000 have arrived and another 91,000 are in pipeline and will arrive in Chengdu by the end of June. Following the overall plan of the State Council, Chinese Red Cross has committed RMB 500 million from the domestic donation to the transitional building of schools and clinics. The balance of donation received by Chinese Red Cross will be used for long-term recovery, including building new permanent houses, clinics, schools, and other community based recovery programs. 3. Health and Psycho-social support Six medical teams from Shanghai Huashan Hospital, Armed Police General Hospital, Beijing Red Cross, Hebei Red Cross, Anhui Red Cross and Hunan Red Cross are working in An county (Anchang town), Pingwu county, Mianzhu stadium, Mianzhu Jiulong town, Shifang city, Mianyang Jiuzhou stadium. As of now, the medical teams have provided basic health care services to 16,732 sick and wounded people. Two teams of psychological supporters are working in Mianyang City providing counseling services. Olympic champions Deng Yaping, Yang Yang, Gao Min, Xie Jun, Mo Huilan, Sun Haitao, and other celebrities also joined the team to encourage the people affected, young students and rescue workers in particular. Chinese Red Cross coordinated and facilitated the operation of Taiwan Red Cross search and rescue team (mission ended), Taiwan Red Cross medical team (mission ended), German Red Cross Field Hospital (started on May 27 in Dujiangyan), Russian medical team (based in Pengzhou), Japanese medical team (based in Huaxi hospital in Chengdu), as well as Italian medical team (based in Mianzhu Xiaode town). These medical teams have 162 members, by now have treated 2,885 people, provided psychological support to 314 people. 4. Financial management and accountability Chinese Red Cross works in line with Chinese Red Cross Law and other regulations. On May 15, the National Office issued a notice to all branches, requesting that Red Cross at all levels must strictly follow the financial rules and use the donation effectively. On May 18, the National Office issued another notice and stressed that all funds earmarked for earthquake operation should be used according to donor's wish. Any form of detention, embezzlement, interception or misuse is prohibited. On May 22, the National Office once again issued a notice, making it clear that all donations for the earthquake will be used in relief and recovery operation, including relief materials procurement, transportation, distribution, temporary housing, reconstruction of permanent houses, schools, clinics, recruitment of relief volunteers, relief personnel(including medical teams, relief teams, psychological support teams) and other related expenditures. All earmarked donation should be used according to donor's wish. The National Office reiterated that the Red Cross at all levels shall not charge management fee from "5.12" earthquake contributions. Meanwhile, Chinese Red Cross will regularly publicize information on how the relief funds are being used. At present, the National Audit Office has started to monitor the Chinese Red Cross operation. The audit report will be updated and publicized each month. 5. The role of volunteers Chinese Red Cross have recruited more than 10 million volunteers in its relief operation. Red Cross volunteers have played an important role in evacuation, relief distribution, services provision and fundraising. On May 12th, students from Beijing Electronic College and Beijing City College came to Chinese Red Cross National Office to help answer the phones. Since May 13th , about 100 Red Cross volunteers work at National Office. Industrial and Commercial Bank and Construction Bank Beijing also provided staff as volunteer working at Chinese Red Cross. To address the problem of hotline congestion, Netcom Beijing added a new hotline for Red Cross: 4006139999 and provided 68 professional staff on duty. Since its opening on May 16th , the hotline received 56,607 calls by May 28th . The get-through rate is 93.02%. By May 21st, Sichuan Red Cross has sent 5,600 relief volunteers in 68 teams. Red Cross volunteers across the country took action as well and participate in the rescue, relief distribution, blood donation, and other services. In the days ahead, Red Cross volunteers will continue to be actively involved in the earthquake relief and recovery. 6. Clarifications of some rumors Recently, there are some rumors on the Internet about the integrity of Chinese Red Cross. Some issues we have clarified, and some cases are reported to the Police. For example, Shanghai Police has cracked down a fundraising fraud using the name of Red Cross on the internet. Eight suspects from Loudi , Hunan Province were arrested in Guizhou . Another fraud case is a store owner in Chengdu put Red Cross logo on his commodities to get privilege of free transportation. According to the local authority, there is no report of misconduct of Red Cross people. There are also false news spreading, such as this one: "Zhongjiang County Red Cross purchased medicines for RMB 10,000, but request invoice of RMB 50,000". According to the investigation report of Zhongjiang County government, the story is not true. As for the price of tents we procure, I would like to clarify here again, Chinese Red Cross National Office has so far distributed 18,510 tents (excluding tents donated from outside China ). The total value is RMB 21.75 million, or RMB 1,175 per tent on average. The tents we distributed are of various specifications, some are winterized, some are bigger. .. The procurement rules and procedure are strictly followed. We have never purchased tent for RMB 10,000. Chinese Red Cross has repeatedly issued statement that we have never authorized any individual or entity to conduct fundraising on behalf of Chinese Red Cross National Office. The misuse the name of Red Cross to raise funds, make profit as well as spreading false news are disturbing and regarded as criminal acts. I hope that the public will keep vigilance and help us report these cases to the related government department. With these brief remarks, I will now take your questions. Thank you very much.
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