Funds sought to help Chinese earthquake victims

By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff

Stunned by the devastation of Monday's powerful earthquake in China, immigrants, students and advocates are mounting fundraising campaigns to provide food and shelter for the victims and to help them rebuild their homes.

In Chinatown yesterday, Cathay Bank urged customers to donate by check, cash, or wire transfer as part of a nationwide campaign to raise funds. Across the river at MIT, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association pledged to collect money at a table in the student center all week. On Sunday, the Boston Sichuan Association will drop donation boxes at Chinese-language schools across eastern Massachusetts.

"We are trying to use all our force to help them to survive these devastating earthquakes and the reconstruction afterward. It's terrible," said Huajian Yao,an MIT graduate student and chairman of the Chinese Association of Science and Technology, which planned a meeting last night of 30 student and community organizations to raise money.

On Monday night, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New England -- an umbrella group for Chinese organizations in the region -- will hold a meeting on Tyler Street in Chinatown to plan yet another fund-raiser.

Gilbert Ho, president of the association, said he had fielded multiple phone calls from people who were astonished by the death toll and images of destruction beamed in from China.

"They are very eager to help," he said. "It's hard to try to find an area where they can do something. Because of the language barrier, they don't know where to turn to help or to get information."

Across the metropolitan area, Chinese residents e-mailed and telephoned one another, and constantly checked the news for updates about the quake.

For many residents, the relief effort was deeply personal.

Johnny Ip, senior vice president and general manager at Cathay Bank in New England, said customers shared urgent stories of their efforts to find relatives. Yesterday, he called a press conference of English- and Chinese-language media to announce that the bank would partner with the Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation to collect donations for victims.

"We have talked with some of our customers and friends who have relatives in the Sichuan area," he said. "Some can find relatives and some have not."

Yao, the MIT graduate student, is majoring in geophysics and has visited the fault lines along Sichuan province many times in recent years for his studies. But yesterday, he was more worried about a former classmate in China, who has not answered his cell phone.

Hong Jiang, vice president of the 500-member Boston Sichuan Association, was able to reach her uncle, who lives near the provincial capital of Chengdu, but not her two cousins, who live closer to the center of the earthquake.

Since the quake hit, she has alternated between calling China and fielding dozens of calls and e-mails from local residents eager to help their relatives back home. On Sunday, they will collect money at Chinese-language schools in Acton, Newton, Cambridge, Sharon, Andover, and Boston.

"I really want to help," she said yesterday. "The only thing we can do is donate money."

James Vaznis of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com

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