Macao to help quake-hit area to recover from disaster
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Most Macao people might not hear about the distant Yushu County in northwest China's Qinghai Province before, but after a deadly earthquake flattened a large part of the place local communities are eager to tell their compatriots in the disaster zone that they would like to help.
Joining the nationwide mourning of those killed in the earthquake last week, officials of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), students, employees of local casino hotels and many others paid their silent tribute to the quake victims on Wednesday morning.
This was the second mass mourning in the SAR's history since its establishment in 1999, and the last time was in 2008, when local people held similar activities to mourn those killed in the earthquake in China's Sichuan province.
Macao SAR's Chief Executive Chui Sai On extended his heartfelt condolences to the quake victims, saying the SAR government will fully support the disaster-relief and post-disaster reconstruction in Yushu, after the mourning activity in the SAR Government Headquarters.
The SAR government has announced its decision to provide an amount of 100 million yuan (15 million U.S. dollars) as quake- relief fund for China's Qinghai province after the disaster occurred.
This is not the first time that the Macao SAR government financially support the disaster-relief operations in the Chinese mainland. When the 2008 Sichuan earthquake took place, the SAR government not only offered funds for emergent disaster-relief operations, but later funded several reconstruction projects in the province costing millions of dollars.
In addition to the government's effort to help the disaster victims, local residents also want to contribute to the cause through donations, said Io Hong Meng, president of the Union General of Community Association of Macao, the largest local civil group.
He also said that the Union has opened a donation-dedicated bank account and set up donation boxes in a number of local supermarket to collect money from those who are willing to help the quake victims.
Aside from the Union, several local non-governmental organizations have also opened donation-dedicated bank accounts, including the Macao Red Cross, which has received over 3 million patacas (375,000 U.S.dollars) in donations from local communities.
Donations and mourning activities were also held in local schools. Although most of the students have never been to the Yushu County before the earthquake, they had no hesitation in making donations and they closely followed the news concerning the disaster zone, said Yau Tuen Yeung, principal of Macao's Hou Kong Middle School.
Macao has accumulated a large fortune thanks to the gaming boom in the past decade and the financially-rich Macao SAR government has the responsibility to help the disaster victims in the Chinese mainland since "we are compatriots", said Leo Lei, a student of the University of Macao.
To show respect to the quake victims, some of the local newspapers and the SAR government Portal webpage turned black and white on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, most of the local casinos also joined Wednesday's mourning activities. Two casinos expressed their condolences in words displayed on the large outdoor screens, while Wynn Macao canceled its opening celebration of a new casino hotel, as the government has said public entertainment would not be allowed during the national mourning day.
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