I went to the Fund raising event today, organised by GetActive and several other organisations (see post in Dimsum).
Me and a few other members from Dimsum joined the volunteering team and took actions to help raising funds for the Sichuan Earthquake. Only in about an hour and half, five of us raised about £150. People were very active and most of them were Chinatown residents and Chinese students. One old man brought his cheque book and wanted to donate £70 on behalf of his family. I was moved but felt very happy to see people’s active responds.
A concert-like event was held in the middle of China. Singers and committees from Chinatown were gathering together to encourage people to donate for the earthquake. They were singing in Cantonese and give speeches to audiences and people passing by. But to those who don’t know what’s going on and can’t understand Cantonese, eg. tourists, it might be a bit like a party.
While we were walking toward Leicester Square with our donation box, we saw a Buddhist group were holding a celebration for Buddha’s Birthday, which was the same day when the earthquake happened. I talked to one of the staffs there, she told me they also encouraged their community and audiences to give donation. In China, they even sent their own team to Sichuan with donated funds and human resources to help.
I think there will be candle memorial gathering today at 8PM in Chinatown. I couldn’t make it there but if there are anything worth to share, I will put them here.
Some of the photos I took today are uploaded to my Flickr, you can have a look there.