centres with 800 staff and 500-600 volunteers. Its charity work extends beyond the city boundaries, to Anhui province, Bangladesh, and East Timor. In 1995, the government of Hongjiang, Hunan province, invited Father Ruiz to establish a center for HIV and AIDS patients in the Chinese province. He would found other centers for AIDS patients in mainland China, including one in Hunan province in 2006 for HIV/AIDS terminal patients and Joy Children's Home in Lufeng, Guangdong in 2007. After 2005 his efforts extended to helping lepers in Vietnam and Burma. He was widely known for his ability to appeal to people for help, with his list of benefactors estimated at about 2,500, as he made appeals in places like Hawaii and the US, He used silk screen prints crafted by refugees to help raise funds. While Caritas Macau worked mainly in the city, Ruiz founded the Ricci Social Service Foundation to foster the widespread work of Casa Ricci Social Services, "to help the people living in the Chinese mainland and the Macao SAR on the margins of poverty and society, ... and contribute to the development of the country as a whole." For the Ricci Social Service Foundation, the revised text of the "articles of association was filed in the Department's 2010/ASS/M2 file group on May 6, 2010". On a personal level, Father Ruiz was said to be an ardent fan of Formula One, Real Madrid and Rafael Nadal. Father Luis Ruiz Suarez died in Macau on July 26, 2011, at the age of 97. Chief executive of Macau, Fernando Chui, in his condolences described Ruiz as "a great philanthropist and citizen of Macau ...(whose) work was worthy of recognition and respect by the entire society. ... (He) will remain an example of the great values of solidarity and unconditional dedication to others." He was buried at San Miguel cemetery on August 3, 2011. In 2015 the Ricci Social Service Foundation was running 50 programs distributed in 13 provinces of China with 64 leprosy centers for a total of 4,000 patients and 5 HIV homes with a total of 300 HIV+ mothers/adult. It was also caring for 1500 students from poor families. References External links Caritas Macau 1913 births 2011 deaths Macau Jesuits Macau people of Spanish descent 20th-century Spanish Jesuits Jesuit missionaries in China People from Gijón Spanish Roman Catholic missionaries Spanish expatriates in China Jesuit development centres Non-profit organisations