Benevolent act: Director of Home Affairs Pamela Tan (centre) joins representatives of international relief organisations to urge the community to help the victims of the tsunami disaster areas by making generous donations at a Government fund-raising event on New Year's Day.

Director of Home Affairs Pamela Tan urges the community to help the victims of the tsunami disaster areas by making generous donations at a Government fund-raising event on New Year's Day organised in response to the United Nations' appeal.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Mrs Tan said she had been in touch with many warm-hearted citizens, community and charity organisations, and members of political parties who were all eager to make a contribution.

She expected that the fund-raising activity would help raise a substantial amount of money, adding that more than $10 million in donations had been received by the Home Affairs Department.

Representatives of a number of international relief organisations also said they had received huge amounts of donations from the public.

So far, Hong Kong Red Cross has received more than $32 million in donations while Oxfam Hong Kong has raised over $10 million. World Vision Hong Kong has also raised over $29 million and United Nations Children's Fund has received over $5 million.

Meanwhile, a grant of $14 million from the the Disaster Relief Fund has also been approved for World Vision Hong Kong and Oxfam Hong Kong.

Local pop singers to perform

The fund-raising event, a television show produced by Television Broadcasts Limited, will be held from 3pm to 5pm tomorrow at Hong Kong Stadium. Local pop singers will perform to appeal for donations.

TVB Jade will broadcast the show live. Admission to the show at the Hong Kong Stadium is free on a first come, first served basis. Donation boxes will be set up at the venue.

A hotline 1872 345 with 100 lines will also be set up to accept donations from 3pm to 6pm.

Expecting that a large number of residents would go to the stadium to watch the show tomorrow, Mrs Tan said the stadium gates would open at 1pm.

Police to conduct crowd management

"The seating capacity of the stadium is 35,000 and Police will deploy adequate manpower to manage the crowd," the director said.

A committee will be set up to handle the distribution of the money raised, Mrs Tan said, adding funds raised would be passed to five international relief organisations - the Red Cross, World Vision, Oxfam, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Salvation Army, for emergency relief operations.

Hongkong Post helps collect donations

Meanwhile, Hongkong Post will make use of its one-stop payment service, "PayThruPost", to collect donations from the community on behalf of five international relief organisations starting from Sunday.

The five organisations are Hong Kong Red Cross, World Vision Hong Kong, Oxfam Hong Kong, Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF and The Salvation Army.

Donations can be made by cash, EPS or cheque; if paying by cheque, please make it payable to one of the above organisations. The "PayThru Post" will issue a receipt immediately. No administration fee will be charged.

For enquiries, call Hongkong Post's 24-hour enquiry hotline 2921 2222.