The Chinese Red Cross Foundation (CRCF) received 165 million yuan (about US$23 million) worth of donations from home and abroad in 2007, up 75 percent over the previous year, a CRCF official said.

CRCF has distributed 98.7 million yuan (about US$14 million) of the donations to its two programs which benefited more than 1 million Chinese, according to CRCF secretary-general Wang Rupeng.

About 83 million yuan (about US$11.5 million) were used in a healthcare program, known as "The Red Cross Angel", which helped 4,223 children with leukemia and congenital heart diseases in medical treatment past year.

The other program, "All-love education assistance program", used 15.2 million yuan (about US$2.1 million) for building 34 primary schools, training 100 rural teachers and assisting 788 poor university students in 2007.

Wang said CRCF planned to raise 100 million yuan (about US$13.8 million) for the two programs in 2008.

(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2008)