Both domestic and overseas donations are being sought to fund the "Lifeline Express" medical-service train to help poverty-stricken cataracts patients in China, a newsletter said yesterday.
The newsletter, released by the Chinese Foundation for Lifeline Express to various companies and communities, called on the companies' staff members to each donate 10 yuan (US$1.20) for the needy.
In return, people receive a red fortune packet to bring good fortune to themselves and their families in the new year, said Nellie Fong, vice-chairman of the foundation.
"Lifeline Express" is a train that offers ophthalmic surgery on board. It carries doctors to remote and impoverished regions on the Chinese mainland and brings relief to those rendered poor and helpless by cataracts.
Two Lifeline Express eye-trains have been dispatched to 31 remote areas and have helped 27,000 patients regain their eye sight since 1997 when the project was first sponsored by the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
A total of 130 million yuan (US$15.7 million) has been donated by people from various fields in Hong Kong since 1997.
This year a third train was bought by the foundation.
(China Daily January 8, 2003)
