[Warm Heart Initiative] Bring Warmth to the Snowstorm Victims in China

[暖心贴] 为中国雪灾捐款倡议书 （中文内容在下面）

Dear fellow Chinese,

This is a letter from several Chinese students studying in the U.S.

As you have already heard, East and South China have been suffering from severe weather conditions since mid January. 80 million people are affected, about 150,000 houses collapsed, power lines are damaged, and many provinces and cities do not have electricity supply… As overseas Chinese, we might not be able to offer direct aids, but there are many alternative things we can do, as long as we care for our home country and her people.

We have started an initiative called "Warm Heart" and have built a group called "Snow Storm in China" on Facebook as a preliminary site to update news and information about the snowstorms and seek ways of donations. Now, you are invited to join us and do the following things:

1. Let the world know about this!

Please forward the message to your friends, your community or group email lists, post this message on your own blog, post it on the BBS forums you go to. Try to let everybody around you know, no matter they are Chinese or not.

2. Join the "Snow Storm in China" group on Facebook

Please click here (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7861447275) or go to Facebook.com, log in your account (sign up if you don't have one), go to 'Groups' in the navigation menu on the left and search for "Snow Storm in China". In-depth news articles and the donation information are posted on the group homepage.

3. Donate

Yes, this is the most effective way to offer our help, given that we are living overseas. Unfortunately, we have not found any trustworthy charities in the States which receive donation for the Snowstorm victims in China. However, we do think the World Vision (Hong Kong) is a trustworthy and efficient NGO that we can count on so far. As one of the most influential charities in the world, World Vision has already made a quick response to this disaster by committing HK$400,000, and plans to carry out rehabilitation works in the worst-hit provinces such as Guizhou, Hubei, Shaanxi and Jiangxi.

For details, you can consult their webpage at http://www.worldvision.org.hk/eng/appeal/china/emer_frame_e.html.

Donate to World Vision in Hong Kong online - go to this page (https://www.worldvision.org.hk/donation/i-donation.asp?type=otherdonation&ID=160〈=e) for online donation using credit card. Select at least the first item "China Snowstorm Appeal", enter the amount of donation (in HK Dollars), and click "OK" on the bottom then click "Continue" to enter personal information. Make sure you enter "Warm Heart Group" in the Institution area, so that we might be able to track effectiveness of our action. Then select your language to pay by credit card. Please note that usually there will be a charge of 1% - 3% for international transactions depending on your credit card companies.

To make it clear, we don't have any personal connections with the World Vision Hong Kong. We will keep searching for other charities and keep you posted on this.

Again, as students living far far away from home, our input might not be substantial enough, but there are no excuses for us to stay out of troubles on our homeland. We shall never give up in front of any difficulties, because love is what makes us strong.

May you have any inquiries, please email us at snowstormchina@gmail.com or leave your message on the Facebook group.

 

Warm Heart Initiative

Feb 1 2008

五十年不遇的大雪彻底把中国震撼了。原本订火车票回家的朋友都换成了飞机票……还未必能成行。Firefox插件上看到的卫星云图上，整个中国和两周前没什么区别，还是被白色笼罩。冷暖空气在中国的南方连开了n场盛宴，代价是数十个断水断电的孤城和上百万无法返乡的民众。原本以为雪总是美好的，看到暴风雪，总觉得那是西半球美帝们的事儿，想不到有着喜马拉雅山脉庇护的中国这回也遭了殃-据说是拉尼娜惹得祸。

在香港有一个好处，就是新闻比较真实些。如果光看看网上各类“和谐网”的新闻以及电视里转播的“和谐五星台”是意识不到雪灾的严重的。根据星岛日报今日的报道：重灾区贵州、湖南两省，有数十个被大雪包围的孤城，断路，断水，停电，且正濒临断粮。中国的总受灾人数为一亿三千万，死亡超过120人，直接经济损失五百亿。 贵州主力电网瘫痪，倒塌电塔逾千座（看看下图就知道了，这冰层附上去，可比电线沉多了），停运电站470座。44个县市停电停水。
贵州的都匀、雷山，湖南的郴州变为孤城……

很震撼，这样的暴风雪就发生在身边（也影响到了我回家的问题……杭州机场今天关闭，希望后天宁波机场别关……）。啰啰嗦嗦的说了这么多，就是希望大家遇到赈灾捐款的时候别吝啬，力所能及，也算是行善吧。