Chinese community donates $300,000 for Venezuela earthquake relief

The Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go has do­nat­ed TT$300,000 to sup­port earth­quake re­lief ef­forts in Venezuela.

The cheque was pre­sent­ed yes­ter­day dur­ing a cer­e­mo­ny at First Caribbean Mar­ket­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (FCMC Ltd.) in Trinci­ty, at­tend­ed by the Am­bas­sadors of Venezuela and Chi­na, as well as the Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al of the As­so­ci­a­tion of Caribbean States (ACS).

Charles Cheng, pres­i­dent of the Chi­na So­ci­ety of Trinidad and To­ba­go and founder and CEO of FCMC Ltd., for­mal­ly hand­ed over the cheque on be­half of the Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ty, in­clud­ing the Chi­na So­ci­ety, the En­ping As­so­ci­a­tion and the Fui Toong On As­so­ci­a­tion.

The do­na­tion will as­sist re­lief ef­forts fol­low­ing the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake that struck north­ern Venezuela on June 24.

Or­gan­is­ers said the con­tri­bu­tion re­flects the long­stand­ing ties be­tween the Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ties in Trinidad and To­ba­go and Venezuela, many of whom trace their roots to Chi­na's Guang­dong Province. They said the funds are in­tend­ed to as­sist all com­mu­ni­ties af­fect­ed by the dis­as­ter and demon­strate re­gion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty dur­ing a time of need.

Ad­dress­es were de­liv­ered by Cheng; ACS Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Am­bas­sador Noemí Es­pinoza Madrid; Venezue­lan Am­bas­sador Al­varo En­rique Sanchez Cordero; and Chi­nese Am­bas­sador Ren Hongyan.

The cer­e­mo­ny con­clud­ed with Cheng pre­sent­ing the TT$300,000 cheque to Am­bas­sador Sanchez Cordero, joined by Am­bas­sador Ren and Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Es­pinoza Madrid.