Residents rally to raise funds for quake relief in China
Banks, groups help marshal aid for victims
Stunned by the devastation of Monday's powerful earthquake in China, immigrants, students, and advocates yesterday mounted fund-raising campaigns to provide food and shelter for the victims and to help them rebuild their houses.
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 in the student center all week. On Sunday, the Boston Sichuan Association is planning to 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," said Huajian Yao, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology 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 another fund-raiser.
Gilbert Ho, president of the association, said he has fielded multiple phone calls from people who are astonished by the death toll and images of destruction emanating 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 seeking news 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 stories of their urgent efforts to find relatives. Yesterday, he called a press conference of English and Chinese-language media to announce that the bank would join with the Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation to collect donations for victims.
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 cellphone.
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 epicenter of the quake.
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. The organization hopes to visit Chinese-language schools in Acton, Newton, Cambridge, Sharon, Andover, and Boston during its fund drive on Sunday.
"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 