The Red Cross Society of the Republic of China yesterday announced it would work with convenience store chains 7-Eleven and FamilyMart to collect donations for relief efforts in tsunami-ravaged Japan.
The organization said that starting today, people who want to donate small amounts of money — ranging from NT$100 (US$3.40) to NT$20,000 — could do so through the electronic kiosks found in stores of the two chains.
The Taiwan Fund for Children and Families has also launched a fundraising drive, in part to recognize Japan’s assistance to Taiwan in the past.
Wang Ming-jen (王明仁), the group’s executive director, said that in the wake of the 921 Earthquake in 1999, Japanese groups such as Childfund Japan not only donated money, but sent officials several times to express their concern.
“In appreciation of the hand given by Japanese groups, we want to do the same thing for them,” Wang said.
The money collected will be sent to Childfund Japan and related welfare groups to help children in the areas hardest hit by Friday’s powerful earthquake and the massive tsunami it triggered, as well as provide other long-term care and assistance.
At press time, a Red Cross donation drive on Yahoo had received about 88 percent, or NT$26.5 million, of its goal of NT$30 million in donations. The donations drive closes on April 15.
Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials said the party would ask ranking officials to donate a days’ salary toward relief efforts in Japan. The party also said it would open up a donation hotline by tomorrow.
“The entire DPP expresses its deepest condolences and sympathies to the Japanese people. We will do everything we can to help,” it said in a statement.
Ranking officials in the KMT said that they too would donate one day’s salary to relief work in Japan.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY VINCENT Y. CHAO AND STAFF WRITER
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