Mercedes in front seat on charity drive

This temporary township hospital in Baoxing county was built with assistance from Mercedes-Benz. The automaker has promised to rebuild four hospitals in quake-stricken Ya'an.

Heritage protection

The April 20 earthquake not only damaged the sanctuaries but also destroyed the houses of local residents surrounding the reserves, as well as the monitoring and service facilities of the World Heritage site.

In response, UNESCO initiated a post-earthquake assistance project in Ya'an, supported by a donation of 2 million yuan from Mercedes-Benz through the Star Fund.

As part of this, training will be given to the management of the reserves to improve their capabilities with a special focus on disaster prevention, disaster risk management and post-disaster management.

Some reconstructed villages will also be selected for demonstrations of best practices for ecologically sustainable development.

Medical care

Mercedes-Benz and the China Youth Development Foundation - or CYDF - jointly decided to donate 6 million yuan from the Star Fund to rebuild four hospitals in each of the four earthquake-stricken towns in Ya'an, and to provide extensive training for local hospital practitioners.

The project will be carried out in cooperation with the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation.

Aimed at improving medical care in the rural disaster areas, the project will benefit more than 36,000 local residents when fully completed in 2015.

And the all-new hospitals will be able to resist an earthquake as strong as magnitude 8.