The General Administration of Sport signed an agreement at
Peking University on Thursday to
donate 4 million yuan (US$495,000) in the coming 10 years to the
"New Great Wall Students-aid Fund" to assist more than 1,000
university students from very poor families.
The signing ceremony, for monies raised through the
Sports Lottery, was attended by about 200 people, including Peking
University students who had benefited from the fund in the
past.
The fund was launched by the China
Foundation for Poverty Alleviation?in September 2002 and
over 18,000 students in 537 universities throughout the country
have since been assisted. It aims to provide recipients with 2,000
yuan (US$247) annually.
Previous donations from over 2,000 organizations
and individuals have amounted to 80 million yuan (US$9.9
million).
In order to direct funds to those who need it most,
the Sports Lottery’s motto, the lottery administrators said they
decided to assist the poorest students in their education.
One hundred students from Beijing, Shanxi Province,
and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will become the first group of
recipients of the new donation.
The lottery administrators have been involved in
several large donations, including for public sport buildings in
Yunnan Province and over 2 million yuan (US$247,000) to Project
Hope’s work in Anhui Province, but the new funds are for a
particularly specific use and long time.
(Xinhua News
Agency,?China.org.cn?November 18, 2005)
