|
SINGAPORE: Relief efforts for Myanmar's cyclone victims are continuing among Singapore organisations, although one ran into a hurdle.
There has been an outpouring of donations at Peninsula Plaza in aid of Cyclone Nargis victims, but packages started piling up on Monday and the management office asked for their removal, citing fire and security hazards.
Although volunteers complied, packages piled up again on Tuesday night. Zeyar, a volunteer, said: "We have no other place to collect the things... That's quite sad to have this situation right now."
The building officers have offered a temporary storage area, but volunteers, unsure of the longer-term storage prospects, have decided to cut short their donation drive to the end of this week.
At the Singapore International Foundation, staff decided on a small fundraiser. They brought food to the office to sell to fellow tenants on all nine floors of the office building, with proceeds going to the Red Cross for the cyclone victims.
Fast Facts
Cash donations are also pouring in. So far, S$1.8 million has been collected by organisations such as Mercy Relief, the Salvation Army, World Vision and the Red Cross.
Singapore's Ambassador to Myanmar, Robert Chua, also handed over to the Myanmar authorities Singapore's first tranche of a S$100,000 humanitarian assistance package, which was contributed by the Khoo Teck Puat Foundation. This will be followed by subsequent tranches over the next few days.
Emergency relief items from the Singapore Red Cross (SRC) - which include 1,000 tents, 35,000 ready-to-eat food packs, over a million water purification tablets and 10 units of hand-powered water purification systems - are expected to arrive in Myanmar on Thursday.
They will be handed over personally by SRC's liaison officers, who had arrived on Tuesday, to the Myanmar Red Cross Society - which will then distribute them to survivors. - CNA/ac/ms
|
