Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@

SHENZHEN Project Care, a campaign that advocates benevolence, has selected 22 biggest events over a span of 20 years. The list was released at a press briefing hosted by the Information Office of the Shenzhen Municipal Government on Thursday afternoon.

In February this year, the Shenzhen Project Care Organizing Committee Office launched a campaign to solicit opinions from the public on its biggest events over the past two decades. The office received over 2,000 recommendations. The results were determined after rounds of reviews combining polls from media outlets.

The 22 events cover a wide range of sectors, including health care, social assistance, education, and culture.

For instance, the Fuel Action, which aims to care for children with the blood disorder thalassemia, has raised 12 million yuan (US$1.64 million) in donations and supported more than 80 children in successfully undergoing bone marrow transplantation surgeries. The action also prompted the city government to include thalassemia as a covered condition under child medical insurance in 2007.

The Dreams Come True Program has invested a total of 230 million yuan to help 23,270 employees complete undergraduate and vocational education.

Ding Shizhao, director of the Shenzhen Project Care Organizing Committee Office and president of Shenzhen News Group, said the list is a “summary of highlights” of the campaign’s achievements over the past 20 years.

A volunteer teacher project has also made the list.

Sun Ying, one of the project’s leaders, said the project involves private funding to recruit volunteer teachers to assist with education in remote mountainous areas.

According to Sun, the project has recruited more than 1,300 volunteer teachers since 2006. It covers over 800 rural schools across the country and has benefited over 300,000 students.

Liu Hengjing, senior product manager of Tencent Foundation, said this year marks the ninth anniversary of Tencent’s 99 Giving Day. The campaign, held annually in September, sees the tech company match any donations made by users via its online platforms.

“The number of participants has increased from 2 million in the first year to over 60 million, and the amount of donations has increased from 127 million yuan to 3.8 billion yuan,” Liu said.

Launched in 2003, Shenzhen Project Care has organized over 34,000 activities and attracted millions of people to participate.