Micro-Charity On the Way.docVIP

Micro-Charity On the Way“We got the folded beds and put them all into tents. Thank you so much！” said a phone call to Vivian Li， 29， a housewife in Beijing， on April 28.The voice at the other end was Xue Chunzhi， a teacher at Tianquan Middle School in quake-hit Ya’an City， southwest China’s Sichuan Province， some 2，000 km away from Beijing. Later that day， Li also received the pictures that Xue took on the scene.A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Ya’an on April 20， leaving 196 dead， 21 missing and more than 13，400 injured.It took Li and her friends six days to complete the relief mission―from finding Xue to confirming she had received the first batch of relief goods.“What a relief！” Li told Beijing Review. “I hope the rest of the goods will be transferred and received smoothly， too.”Point to pointUpon receiving the quake news， July Gu， Li’s high school classmate who has lived in Macao since 2011， donated 200 yuan （$31） to One Foundation initiated by Chinese movie star Jet Li. “Despite donating money， I still feel that I should do something for them，” Gu recalled.Among the most needed relief goods including food， water and tents， Gu noticed that sanitary napkins are important but often neglected.“I talked to Vivian to see whether we could raise money from friends via microblogging sites or WeChat， a social messaging service， and then send it directly to the quake zone via express delivery，” she told Beijing Review.Li agreed with Gu’s idea without any prior consultation.In fact， point-to-point donation was not new to Li， who launched her very first relief mission last summer， after 79 people were killed by strong rain and landslides in Beijing.Li and her friends raised money and used their vehicles to ferry relief goods including food， water， mosquito repellent and disinfectant directly to affected people in south Beijing.“I started to realize that point-to-point donation was really helpful for disaster relief，” Li noted.“A lot of friends supported her move last year.