Top shopping center serves as flood-relief hub in Bangkok

Top shopping center serves as flood-relief hub in Bangkok

 A well-known shopping center in downtown Bangkok began its service on Friday as a flood-relief hub by running a regular truck caravan in the coming month to help distribute donations to waterlogged districts of the city.

At the launch event in an open space in front of the Siam Paragon shopping center, relief bags were packed and delivered to an aid truck caravan by more than 100 volunteers and celebrities. With green lights on, the caravan set out, signaling the start of the project dubbed "Siam Ruam Jai Thai Shuay Thai," or "Thais work together to help Thais."

The project, initiated by Siam Paragon and Thai Army, receives support from many public and private organizations such as NGOs, banks, hospitals and educational institutes. It offers free daily caravan services to transport money and items donated by those organizations as well as mobile medical teams to flood-harrassed areas of Bangkok. The caravan consists of more than 20 trucks, running over four different routes from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the coming month.

"We will be doing this for the whole month. We will be receiving donations and helping to distribute. Because the main problem when you are in a flooded area is that you cannot access to get all the necessary items," Khunying Chada Wattanasiritham, chairman of Siam Paragon Development Co., Ltd, told Xinhua at the launch event.

"We hope that this project will spread goodwill and moral support to all Thai citizens who are affected by the flooding so that they can get back on the feet and enjoy their lives again," She added.

Editor: Bi Mingxin

English.news.cn   2011-11-18 21:53:53    FeedbackPrintRSS
BANGKOK, Nov. 18 (Xinhua)