Bangkok, Thailand, July 18, 2010 -- FIVB President Mr. Wei Jizhong arrived in Bangkok Sunday morning to preside over the inauguration ceremony of schools and outdoor volleyball courts worth 35-million baht for the tsunami-hit children in five provinces of southern Thailand.

The 74-year-old Wei, the third president in the history of FIVB (the International Volleyball Federation), and his wife were welcomed at the Suvarnabhumi Airport by Shanrit Wongprasert, an executive member of the Thailand Volleyball Association and Sports Events member in the world's volleyball-governing body. Later in the evening, the welcome dinner was held for the Chinese duo by the TVA's executive board members at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Bangkok.

On Monday, Wei and his wife, TVA's executives and local media representatives will fly to Phuket, a southern province which was hardly affected by the tsunami on December 26, 2004, to participate in the inauguration ceremony of newly-built schools, fully-equipped with classroom facilities and with both outdoor and beach volleyball courts for the tsunami-affected primary school pupils in Phuket and Ranong. The ceremony will also take place the following day in Krabi, another southern province tens of kilometres away. Representatives from Trang, Krabi and Satun provinces will take part in the inauguration.

The task force of the construction for those new schools, chaired by Wei, at that time FIVB first executive vice president and president of Asian Volleyball Confederation, had worked with Olympic Committee of Thailand, Sports Authority of Thailand and the TVA.

On Thursday, Wei will preside over the official handover of the schools and volleyball courts to OCT, which will be held at Parichart Room in Radisson Hotel in Bangkok.