Wednesday, May 01, 2013

A magnitude 7 earthquake left more than 196 dead on April 20

Help the victims of the Sichuan earthquake



Sichuan Province

Two days after a magnitude 7.0-earthquake struck China’s Sichuan province, residents were still awaiting rescue as well as essentials like drinking water, food, medicine and tents. The epicenter of the earthquake was in Lushan, a rural county 160 km southwest of the provincial capital, Chengdu. China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency quoted local officials as saying that there have been at least 192 deaths, more than 11,000 injured and that 23 people remain missing. However, confirming death tolls and damage to buildings has proved difficult.

A house destroyed by an earthquake in Baosheng Township 
in the quake-hit Lushan County, Ya'an City
Fr. Chen, pastor of Yaan, writes about the situation of their community after the earthquake: "We have no water, no food and no shelter. The churches have been destroyed. A little help will be very welcome. " He continues: "Catholics in the region are about 10,000 and of which 6,000 have been affected by the earthquake."
This was one of the Churches

A man recovers his wedding photo from the wreckage 
of his house after Saturday's earthquake
A rescuer looks on as excavators clean up a road 
which is blocked by a landslide after Saturday's earthquake
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Response of St. Benedict parish in Hong Kong
A missionary working near the affected area send us the message for urgent help. The message came after the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Fr. Rossa in the cathedral and the launch of the book on the Pope. One of the members of our Community, Fr. Jose who works in a parish in Hong Kong was with us that night, along with his parish priest Fr. Simon Li . And Fr. Li had a suggestion: "On the coming Sunday, we distribute the book on Pope free of cost in our parish of St. Benedict and ask for a donation to the people, so what we can collect, we send to the victims of the earthquake."  The suggestion was well accepted and we immediately got in touch with a Catholic NGO with which we already work in China. We have advanced an amount immediately.
Our contribution was acknowledged within a few hours in the Chinese Catholic news portal: chinacatholic.org

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