Myanmar Cyclone Relief

Cyclone Nargis was sweeping on the 2nd of May across the southern part of Myanmar bringing heavy rain, strong winds and flooding, killing thousands of people and damaging countless homes and Myanmar's infrastructure in that region. MTO immedtiately donated an amount of HKD 10,000.- to the Hong Kong Red Cross (http://www.redcross.org.hk) in order to support the relief efforts by the Red Cross workers.

Sichuan Earthquake Relief

Just ten days after cyclone Nargis hit southern Myanmar another natural disaster stroke in Asia. At 2:28pm on
May 12th, a 7.9 magnitude massive earthquake with its epicentre located at the county of Wenchuan in Sichuan
Province devastated the region. Tremors of this quake could even be felt in Hong Kong. The death toll of this quake quickly rose to around 70,000. Additionally huge damage had been caused to the regional infrastructure making even rescue efforts very difficult.

On May 16th therefore MTO redistributed its internal financial charity planning and contributed
HKD 10,000.- again to the Red Cross Hong Kong (http://www.redcross.org.hk)
HKD 50,000.- to Oxfam Hong Kong (http://www.oxfam.org)
Another HKD 10,000.- had been collected directly from our MTO colleagues in a quick-support internal fund raise
and donated to the Red Cross Hong Kong, leaving the total relief amount at HKD 70,000.-

From our side a Cordial Thank You to the Rescue and Relief Work of the Hong Kong Red Cross and Oxfam Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Workers's Health Centre

The biggest portion of the raised money is spent on a previously planned project in an joint-effort with the Hong Kong Worker's Health Centre (http://www.hkwhc.org.hk/eng/home.htm).
The Hong Kong Worker's Health Centre (WHC) is a charitable organisation based in Hong Kong which is devoted to promote occupational health, prevention of work injuries and the rehabilitation of injured factory workers back into work or their community in China.
Since the success of our own company is also founded on the pillar of factory workers in China we unanimously decided to return part of the collected funds back to workers which had been rendered unemployed due to unfortunate factory accidents. A total amount of HKD 180,000.- is donated to the WHC to provide in actual, tangible projects help to injured workers. Projects include for example the purchase and set up of handicapped-friendly bathroom-installations. Around 50 of those minor projects are planned under the supervision of the WHC and further more specific details will be provided in due course.

On July 31st, a group of five representatives of MTO together with one full time social worker of the Hong Kong branch of the Worker's Health Centre went to Guangzhou to pay a visit to the mainland facilities of the organisation. The first part of the trip was dedicated to the Guangzhou office of the Centre. During a very detailed presentation held by the Guangzhou staff the structure of the organisation and activities in the mainland had been introduced. Some of the recovered workers do themselves now act as volunteers in the centre with administration work or to help others with work-related injuries to recover and cope with their newly faced challenges in life. The second part lead to the actual rehabilitation centre at the Liu Xi Riverside. After personally meeting one worker being paralysed due to spinal injuries caused by a work related accident 10 months ago we have been shown the rehabilitation facilities. The overall impression was very positive with very dedicated medical staff taking care and recovering all kind of work related injuries including severe burns. With the manufacturing industry being huge in Southern China and the number of accidents numerous of course only a small fraction of injured workers will have the chance to get access to this or similar facilities.

Also here again thank you to the employees and voluntary workers of the HK WHC.

Sowers Action - School Construction in China

Despite our genuine belief that one of the best supports in general rests in providing adequate education for all,
we focused our main financial attention for this anniversary to the relief of injured factory workers in China. Nevertheless another HKD 50,000 we will donate to the charitable organisation Sowers Actions (http://www.sowers.org.hk/) in order to provide funding for the reconstruction of a classroom in Gansu Province, which was destroyed by the earthquake mentioned above. Further details will be available in due course. Already in year 2003 to mark MTO's 15th Anniversary, we supported Sowers Action to rebuild a primary school in Yunnan (click here for more information).

atmosfair - Relief against Global Warming due to Air Traffic

With air travel being part of our daily business routine, we are not closing our eyes to the recent discussion and noticeable effects of environmental pollution. Preserving our resources and environment for generations to come should be our utmost priority. Especially in China and Hong Kong the effects of air pollution have become dramatically visible over the last years. Atmosfair (http://www.atmosfair.de) is a charitable organisation based in Germany which allows to calculate the approximate amount of CO2 emitted by air travel for specific flights per passenger. Based on the calculated amount of emitted CO2, a donation can be made directly to atmosfair which will be invested in green projects counteracting the emission of CO2. An amount of Euro 2,500.- (approximately HKD 30,000.-) as a lumpsum had been handed over to atmosfair on July 10th, 2008 (Certificate in German language).

Once more, a last very big Thank You to all suppliers and service providers contributing to our charitable projects as well as to all employees and voluntary workers of the aforementioned charitable organisations.