Qinghai Red Cross Society Takes Active Part in Disaster Relief Activities

Since its foundation over 100 years ago, the Red Cross has given great help to victims of disaster worldwide. It provides human life with the protection and respect it deserves, according to latest China Today.

The Red Cross Society of China emerged in 1904. Since then, its symbol a red cross on a white background has spread to many places in China, even to frigid Qinghai Province, located high on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the ``Roof of the World."

The natural conditions in Qinghai are harsh, and its medicine and hygiene are backward. Therefore, the tasks faced by the local Red Cross workers are arduous. In 1988, Nima was elected vice president of the Red Cross Qinghai Branch, and has instilled great vitality into this organization.

Nima is Tibetan. She loves her hometown very much, and has always sincerely wanted to do something for victims, both in her hometown and elsewhere, of natural calamities. She is therefore devoted to her work at the Red Cross, and says that the Red Cross is a lofty undertaking to which she will devote her whole life. Nima always takes the lead in donating money and goods during disaster relief activities. She once told her fellow Red Cross workers, "It does not seem much if you only donate one brick. But if everyone donates a brick, we can put up a wall. The purpose of the Red Cross is to pool the power of the general public to help the relatively few who are suffering." By working hard herself, she inspires the Red Cross workers around her with her self-sacrificing spirit. "Since Nima came, people have began to realize the importance of the organization. She puts a sense of mission into people's hearts," said Li Yuning, the deputy secretary-general of Qinghai Red Cross Branch.

Under the leadership of Nima, Qinghai Red Cross Branch has been developing rapidly. It used to have only one office, but it now has 20, and the number of workers has increased from five to 33. The organization once had no administrative funds at all, but it now has accumulated fixed assets of more than one million yuan. It has also established the Qinghai Red Cross Training Center for Disaster Prevention and Relief, the Qinghai Blood Transfusion Center, and has opened the Qinghai Red Cross Drugstore. Now, all the counties in Qinghai Province have established local Red Cross branches, with 538 primary organizations and more than 75,000 members, including 25,800 young people and 400 full-time and part-time cadres. It has trained 300,000 people in first-aid, of whom more than 40,000 now work in the fields of transportation, national defense, mining and construction.

An undertaking like the Red Cross calls for the concern and participation of as many people as possible who have a sense of mission and responsibility. Contributions, no matter how small, are pooled together and sent to those who need them. Let's have a look at the following scenes：

Young Red Cross members actively publicize the purpose and nature of the Red Cross to passers-by on the streets, while soliciting donations.

In the blood transfusion center, Bai Enpei, secretary of the Qinghai Provincial Committee of the CPC, takes the lead in rolling up his sleeve to donate blood

Inside tents in remote pastoral areas, Red Cross members work tirelessly, giving treatment to herdsmen who have been hurt in natural disasters.

In residential quarters, people voluntarily donate money, quilts and clothes at Red Cross relief supply collection stations.

Located in a remote and economically backward area, Qinghai Province itself is badly in need of aid. However, in the knowledge that people in other places hit by natural calamities have a greater need, the people of Qinghai do not hesitate to give their help. In recent years, the local people organized by the Red Cross have made great contributions to the victims of forest fires in the greater Hinggan mountains and earthquake-stricken areas, including Zhangbei and Hualian in Taiwan. When the Yangtze, Songhuajiang and Nenjiang Rivers were flooded in 1998, the Red Cross Qinghai Branch donated 600,000-yuan-worth of money and materials, the largest donation it has ever made.

The Red Cross Qinghai Branch also participated in the rescue and relief work in Guoluo Prefecture, when it was hit by heavy snow, and the earthquake-stricken Tanghe area. Having seen convoys of trucks loaded with medical workers and relief materials rushing to their rescue, the people in these disaster areas will never forget that beautiful and sacred sign the red cross.

Since 1988, Qinghai Red Cross Branch has on average received and distributed 10 million yuan-worth of relief money and materials each year. More than 20 Red Cross and other charity organizations in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and overseas counties, such as the Hope Foundation America, the American Civilian Eden Foundation and the Red Cross Society of Canada, have donated approximately 20 million yuan-worth of funds and materials. In 1999, the first-aid program aided by the Red Cross Society of Canada was started, which includes two first-aid stations constructed along national highways 109 and 315. Various foreign foundations and projects have given a great deal of support to Red Cross undertakings in Qinghai.

To carry out effectively humane relief work and further establish friendly relationships with charity organizations in other countries, the Red Cross Qinghai Branch takes the initiative in holding foreign exchange activities, both introducing its own work and inviting all possible resources to support the Red Cross work in Qinghai. In June 1999, Qinghai Province sponsored an activity entitled Qinghai Week in Europe. During that week, the Red Cross branch and the Foreign Cultural Exchange Association of Qinghai jointly published special articles in the European Times, publicizing Qinghai Province and its Red Cross undertakings. In October 2000, a Japanese Red Cross delegation came to visit Qinghai, and was received by Baima, the vice governor and president of the Red Cross Qinghai Branch. This exchange helped to promote mutual understanding between the Chinese and Japanese Red Cross organizations.

Following the principle of "protecting people's lives and health, carrying forward the spirit of humanitarianism, and promoting peace and progress," the Red Cross Qinghai Branch is making steady progress.

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