Society

Red Cross pours 18.7b yuan into Sichuan

By Wang Qingyun (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-05-06 16:46

The Red Cross Society of China has transferred 18.7 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) of relief funds and supplies to Southwest China's Sichuan province which was hit by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake in 2008, the Beijing Times reported Friday.

Related readings: Red Cross in dire need of image transfusion  China's Red Cross responds to scandal  China's Red Cross donates another 20m yuan to Japan

In a news conference held in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, Wang Wei, vice president of the Red Cross Society of China said the organization has helped restore and build 183,179 apartments, 2,114 schools and 5,123 hygiene stations in the disaster-hit regions.

The organization has also funded several local recovery centers and welfare homes.

About 96.7 percent of the restoration projects the organization has participated in are finished or have been put into service.

By February, the Red Cross Society of China had received 19.9 billion yuan in donations for the relief work since the earthquake, including 16 billion yuan in funds and 3.9 billion yuan in supplies. Till then, it had put 6.4 billion yuan into an emergency response, and another 12.3 billion yuan into restoration of the area.