Tibet Foundation Earthquake Appeal 2008

Update 21 July 2008

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Tibet Foundation has so far sent £24,000 to schools in the disaster area inside Tibet.
This is around RMB 325,000 Chinese Yuan or $ 48,000 US Dollars.

There remains an urgent need for long term rehabilitation work particularly in schools.
Our second stage target is to raise £50,000 for rehabilitation and relief work in the Tibetan areas in which we have been working since 1993 through our Aid to Tibet programme.
Our current identified priorities remain for community level interventions where we can make a real difference through local action.

Donate Now:
http://www.justgiving.com/tibetearthquake
Other Ways to Donate:
http://www.tibet-foundation.org/tf/donate.php
One of the best ways of helping is to set up a standing order:
http://www.tibet-foundation.org/tf/forms/generic_tf_boform.pdf

Money Distributed so Far

We have supported schools with food and blankets to a total of £9,000.
We have committed £13,000 to furniture and equipment for schools.

We have supported an orphanage with an immediate grant of £2,000 for children with special needs. This has doubled its numbers to over 100 needy children and we will make a series of small grants to schools and longer term education sponsorships for children in the earthquake areas.

The Ark - Longkang Orphanage has 43 children aged 3-12. They are of Tibetan background, with mental and physical special needs. Some minor, some more serious.
They have one doctor and rely on their own resources, with a lot of volunteer, labour, materials and benefit in kind support from local communities. It is located 2 miles north of Jiuzhaigou National Park. The plan is to take in another 60 young people with special needs from the Quake area in the next weeks.
However there isn’t the capacity long term to house and feed over 100 children, especially given the extra needs of these young people.
Therefore this is likely to be for the short term (less than 1 year). Although there is currently a great deal of uncertainty in the aftermath of this huge disaster.

Contributions have come in from our supporters and many Tibetans from across the world.

We are very grateful for this and are committed to working to help the vulnerable who will bear the consequences of this terrible natural disaster.


My sincere appreciation for your generosity,
Karma Hardy

Director
karma.hardy@tibet-foundation.org
Switchboard +44 207 930 6001

Previous Updates:

http://www.tibet-foundation.org/news/newsitem.php?NewsStory=130
http://www.tibet-foundation.org/news/newsitem.php?NewsStory=129
http://www.tibet-foundation.org/news/newsitem.php?NewsStory=128
http://www.tibet-foundation.org/news/newsitem.php?NewsStory=131

One of the best ways of helping is to set up a standing order to Tibet Foundation, please contact the office to find out the best way to do this or click on the link below and print out the form and return it to us.

http://www.tibet-foundation.org/tf/forms/generic_tf_boform.pdf

Tibet Foundation is a registered UK charity founded and managed by Tibetans to work both in exile and inside ethnic Tibetan areas in China.
The area in which we have been working is Kandze is all within 300km of the epicentre of the earthquake near Yingxiu.
Kandze is the name given both to the region (Kandze Autonomous Prefecture) and a county (Kandze County) in the north west of Sichuan Tibet Foundation is continuing to approach other funders and we welcome the opportunity to discuss our appeal and would like to make the offer of being available by email, telephone and meeting in person.
The 12th May 7.9 earthquake hit the Sichuan Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Wenchuan County and affected more than half of China and beyond to neighbouring countries.
The epicentre was in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture.
Aba is also known as the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture.
Aba Tibetan Prefecture has been affected mainly in terms of infrastructure, roads, bridges and transport hubs in the region.
Tibetan areas adjacent to Wenchuan (which in Tibetan language is called "Lung Kuo") were badly affected by the quake. But Wenchuan and the surrounding towns and cities are mainly Han Chinese. The Tibetan areas lie further afield. For that reason, the damage may prove to be less extensive there than closer to the epicentre. As Tibetan homes tend to be traditionally made of wood, they are better able to withstand quake damage. Although the effects of the quake were felt very powerfully above 3000m, the damage was greatest in the zone of 500m to 1000m with the higher population.

Fax +44 207 930 6002
office@tibet-foundation.org
Tibet Foundation (Charity No. 292400).
2 St. James's Market. London SW1Y 4SB