"In the face of such a terrible snow disaster, Bank of China donated RMB 300,000 to help us fight the disaster. On behalf of the cadres and the people of the county, especially those farmers and herdsmen in the severely affected areas, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to and show our respect for Bank of China for its care, love and devotion!" The Qinghe County Red Cross Branch of Xinjiang written in the letter of thanks to Bank of China Head Office.
From December 30, 2009, heavy snow hit northern Xinjiang for days, with an average snow depth of 54.71 cm, the highest of the region for the first ten days of January since 1951. The severely affected Qinghe County in the Altay region suffered a snow depth of 74 cm and a lowest temperature of -42 ℃, which seriously affected the production and living of nearly 11,000 local persons, 18% of the total population. In addition, more than 10,000 livestock froze to death or had cold injuries; many houses and hundreds of livestock sheds and vegetable green houses were damaged or collapsed, resulting an economic loss of nearly RMB 10 million.
Upon the unprecedented natural disaster hit Qinghe, the bank's Xinjiang-aiding cadres reported it to the Head Office, and the leaders there made a rapid decision to donate RMB 300,000 to the Qinghe County Red Cross Branch. Guided by the principle of sparing no effort to support disaster relief and offering practical assistance to the farmers and herdsmen in need, the relevant departments of the bank quickly carried out specific tasks and paid the money in time for disaster relief as soon as possible.
Over the years, while offering high-quality financial services to enterprises, public institutions and customers of different ethnic groups in Xinjiang to push forward the economic development of the region, the bank has also launched various public benefit activities in northern and southern Xinjiang by taking it as an obligation to aid the poor and actively fulfilling its social responsibilities. From 2006 to 2009, the bank has donated RMB 446,000 to four villages in two townships of the Shufu County in Kashgar for construction of bilingual kindergartens, anti-seepage canals, anti-seismic housings, and other projects related to the livelihood of local people. In July 2009, the bank donated RMB 500,000 for the relocation of farmers and herdsmen in Qinghe and another RMB 500,000 to the poor students of the Fifth Agricultural Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. In November 2009, four Tier-2 branches of the bank in Kashgar, Tacheng, Hetian and Altay donated a total of RMB 118,000 for poverty alleviation projects.
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