Overseas Chinese and foreign citizens of Chinese origin continue to donate money to help victims of the deadly earthquake that hit southwest China last Monday.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the 43-strong Chinese peacekeeping medical staff donated 24,300 RMB (about US$3,470) to aid the victims.

Although they are unable to directly participate in the relief effort, "a great fight" as they described, it is their responsibility to help the country in overcoming the difficulty, they said.

In Los Angeles, Chinese Americans and Chinese citizens have paid a close attention to the aftermath of the disaster and relief progress and expressed their condolences in various forms and raised fund for China's relief efforts.

People drove to the Cathay Bank branch in San Gabriel to donate money or checks after a local Cantonese radio station announced the event through its programming overnight.

Dozens of Chinese medical experts and researchers called for donation in the medical center they are working for, while over 300 Chinese students at the University of California in Los Angeles held a candlelight vigil for the victim. The association for the Chinese immigrating to the United States from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos also appealed for donation to help the quake-hit Chinese people.

In the Philippines, various Chinese communities and Chinese newspapers have called for donation and spoken highly of the Chinese government's relief measures.

In Indonesia, Xiong Delong, chairman of the board of directors of Guojiribao, the country's leading Chinese newspaper, donated US$10,000, while several Chinese newspapers such as Mianlanzaobao in the country called for fundraising to aid the victims.

In Albania, a dozen of Chinese vendors donated US$19,000. "We can not do much, we just want to send a piece of brick, or just a tile to help the reconstruction efforts in the disaster-hit region," said Ye Sanghua, one of them.

The Chinese people in Germany, Iceland, Albania, Costa Rica, Venezuela Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have also joined the donation efforts to express their wish to help.

The quake, measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale, has claimed the lives of over 32,000 people.

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2008)