At a ceremony held in Beijing yesterday China, with the assistance of UNICEF, donated school kits valued at US$5.5 million to the Indonesian government for children whose education had been stalled by last year's devastating Indian Ocean tsunami.

 

Yi Xiaozhun, vice minister of commerce, said that the 850,000 school kits purchased from 12 Chinese companies represented the largest proportion of a US$20-million aid commitment made by China to countries hit by December 26's earthquake-triggered tsunami.

 

As part of the second phase of Indonesia's 2005-2006 "Back-to-School" campaign, 500,000 children who have been out of school in the regions of Aceh and Nias will receive the kits and resume their schooling.

 

Yi said most of the aid China promised had been sent to the countries concerned, except that reserved for helping to rebuild schools.

 

Jan Egeland, deputy secretary-general of the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, praised China for its donation, saying China has rich experience from handing disasters at home.

 

He said he hoped that China would become "one of the leaders" in disaster relief in emergencies, such as the recent earthquake in the Kashmir region.

 

The first of the two hundred containers of school kits -- schoolbags with pencils, ball pens, erasers and notebooks?-- is due to be shipped from east China's Ningbo harbor to Indonesia in mid November.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2005)