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A fundraising campaign that aims to put school bags and stationery in the hands of primary school students has been launched in Beijing recently.
The mall developer and manager CapitaMalls Asia Limited opened this year’s My Schoolbag Programme at Limin Primary School in the capital on Sept 1. The campaign was first held in 2010, and nearly 80,000 primary students have benefited, organizers say.
Tan Tze Wooi, a regional general manager for CapitaMalls in North China, said the campaign will run throughout the country. About 16,000 pupils of about 200 schools nationwide will receive their first bags and learning supplies, including at 22 CapitaMalls Hope Primary Schools.
Tan said the campaign aims to make vulnerable children feel loved and to build their self-confidence so that they grow up with a sense of love and responsibility.
In an appeal for funds through the WeChat app, 140,000 yuan ($22,800) has already been raised to buy bags and stationery, which will be added to the bags and stationery worth 1.45 million yuan that CapitaMalls Hope Foundation (China) is donating.
Jiang Shaogao, vice-president of the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, said at the opening ceremony that the foundation is happy to work with CapitaMalls in providing children in poor families with their first school bags.
Lim Beng Chee, chief executive officer of CapitaMalls, said helping vulnerable children is one of the main ways that it can contribute to society and the local community.
Bags are necessities for schoolchildren, Lim said, and in donating them. CapitaMalls hopes the children receiving them will "absorb knowledge and power" and grow up to be people who make a valuable contribution to society.
