News Details

Saturday May 17, 2008
 7:30 – 8:30 p.m.
 Rudder Fountain, Memorial Student Center
 Texas A&M University

College Station, Texas – The Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), the International Programs for Students (IPS) and the Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University (CI) are co-hosting a candlelight memorial and donation drive to help the earthquake victims in Sichuan, China on May 17 (Saturday) at 7:30 p.m. at the Rudder Fountain.

A magnitude 7.9 earthquake, the worst to hit China in 30 years, hit the southwestern province of Sichuan on Monday May 12. According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, it was expected that the death toll will exceed 50,000, and the latest confirmed death toll in the Sichuan province has risen to 22,069, as of Friday morning.

There are currently over 700 Chinese students enrolled at A&M, and many of them have families and friends in Sichuan. However, because of the remoteness of the areas affected by the quake, communications to that part of the country has been very difficult.

“I was able to talk to my parents 2 days after the quake, and I could finally get some sleep myself,” said Han Jiang, Ph. D. student at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M. “I couldn’t talk for too long because phone calls were limited to 5 minutes. But I was so relieved that they are doing fine, although they lost their home.”

The candlelight memorial is part of CSSA’s voluntary drive to collect donations from the campus and local community to help the thousands of survivors who have lost their homes and loved ones. All money collected will be used to provide food, medicine, shelter and other life-supporting services.

Donations may be made directly through the Chinese Consulate General in Houston, via checks, payable to “Chinese Consulate General in Houston,” mailed to Jun Tang, Chinese Consulate General, Education Office, 811 Holman Street, Houston, TX 77002.

Donations can also be sent through CSSA, which will send the checks to the Chinese Consulate General in Houston.

Facebook Link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=13096984217&ref=share

Updated information on the earthquake and other donation information are available on the Confucius Institute website at http://confucius.tamu.edu/ and http://cssa.tamu.edu/.

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Organized by

• Chinese Students and Scholars Association
• International Programs for Students
• Confucius Institute at Texas A&M University

For more information or enquiries, please contact Carmen Suen at 979-845-3099.