Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

NEARLY 300 entrepreneurs, artists and socialites gathered for a charity party to raise funds to address the uneven distribution of educational resources in the country’s underdeveloped areas.

The charitable event featured an auction to solicit funds for a nonprofit organization called the Shanghai Adream Foundation.

Forty-five items, including paintings, calligraphy, sculptures, jewelry and other works of art, were auctioned off at the party, collecting a total of 68.53 million yuan (US$9.85 million).

The funds will be used to provide kids with a competence-based education system that integrates hardware and software, according to the Shanghai Adream Foundation.

The foundation will build Adream Centers, which are special classrooms designed to facilitate childhood education, and implement a literacy curriculum to help cultivate independent thinking and creativity in kids in underdeveloped areas. It will also provide training programs to help teachers develop their skills.

“Thank you to all the philanthropic enterprises for joining us in pursuing public welfare. I hope more and more people can act together to promote quality education in China to achieve balanced development,” said Pan Jiangxue, founder of the foundation.

The charity event has been successfully held for nine consecutive years, according to the organizers. The party, hosted by the foundation and supported by CITIC Bank Credit Card Center, was held at Shenzhen Marriott Hotel Nanshan on Saturday night.