05/14/2008

Associated Press

The international aid agency Mercy Corps expanded its earthquake relief efforts in China Wednesday, adding its "cash to work" program to the clean water, shelter and food it already is providing.

The program pays people to help with clean-up projects, providing money that can restart or prop up the economy battered by the recent earthquake.

It set up similar programs after the tsunami in Indonesia and during the fighting in southern Lebanon in recent years.

The organization sent Seattle-based Joy Portella to the disaster zone to join two other Mercy Corps workers, Kate Janis and Guo Xin from the Beijing office.

They are coordinating relief efforts with Mercy Corps' longtime local partner, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation.

Officials say the death toll of nearly 15,000 from Monday's 7.9 quake likely will rise.

Janis and Xin will travel to Chongqing, about two hours from Chengdu where a school collapsed and trapped hundreds. In Chongqing, Mercy Corps staff will help CFPA set up a temporary operations office.

Portland-based Mercy Corps is accepting donations for humanitarian assistance to earthquake victims in China. Since 1979 it has provided $1.5 billion in aid to people in 106 nations.

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http://www.mercycorps.org.