Oxfam Hong Kong will spend HK$100 million on relief and rehabilitation projects in Sichuan province over the next five years, the relief group announced yesterday.

The group's China unit director Howard Liu said HK$20 million will be spent on relief aids, and the remaining HK$80 million will be for rehabilitation work, including building temporary schools and village roads.

The group is planning to build 10 temporary schools at the cost of 3.6 million yuan which will cater for 10,000 students in Sichuan.

The first among these schools opened on Tuesday, three weeks ahead of schedule, in Pengzhou to 932 students.

Liu said re-building Sichuan requires long-term planning, and the group will liaise with mainland authorities and other non-governmental organizations to ensure resources are used effectively.

He reiterated that all donations to quake victims in Sichuan will be used for the victims, no administrative cost will be deducted.

As of June 10, the group has raised HK$93.22 million.

It has already spent 17 million yuan on relief materials and 3.5 million yuan on building schools.

Nearly 280,000 victims have benefited from the group's relief work, of which 216,682 of them are living in Sichuan, the group said.

Meantime, Liu said risk assessment should be conducted before the commence of reconstruction.

For example, geological risk should be assessed in order to decide if residents need to be relocated first.

In case relocation is required, the government should consider whether the residents are moving to areas that are capable of receiving them.

"Some of the victims are from ethnic minority groups, and they have their own unique lifestyle and culture," Liu said. "Considerations should be taken to ensure that they can live with the others in harmony."

Meanwhile, microbiologist Lo Wing-lok, who visited the devastated area with the group, said rehabilitation centers are needed in remote villages.

Some of the victims were treated in Chengdu but when they returned home, they had no access to further medical care at all, he said.

In another development, the SAR government has approved two more grants totaling HK$4.25 million from the Disaster Relief Fund to Oxfam Hong Kong and Cedar Fund to undertake relief projects for earthquake victims in Gansu, Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces.

(HK Edition 06/12/2008 page1)