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Charity woos more netizens

By Qiang Xiaoji (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-24 08:03

One Foundation, a philanthropic project founded by international martial arts and movie star Jet Li, recently launched its official platform on kaixin001.com, one of China's more popular social networking websites.

In the past few days, more than 130,000 registered users have become One Foundation fans at kaixin001.com.

Registered users can follow One Foundation's updated news bulletins and interact with the foundation's staff and Li's fans.

Li said he hopes the platform will encourage more Chinese netizens, especially younger people, to participate in volunteer and fund-raising activities.

The One Foundation, founded by Li in a strategic partnership with the Red Cross Society of China, focuses on education, health, environmental and poverty projects.

The foundation is based on the concept that "one person plus one dollar/yuan plus one month equals one big family".

After the May 12, 2008, Sichuan earthquake, the One Foundation made headlines by raising more than 63 million yuan for disaster relief just two weeks after the earthquake ravaged the area.

The foundation has since spent money on a variety of charitable projects that include post-earthquake reconstruction, environmental protection and efforts to promote philanthropy in China.

At this year's World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, Li and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined efforts to promote the One Foundation on the social networking site Facebook.

Though Li's Facebook page soon attracted millions of fans, he discovered that only 2 percent of the Facebook users were Chinese.

To promote the One Foundation to more people in China, Li decided to work with kaixin001.com.

"The website now has more than 40 million registered users, and if only 10 percent of them could become a member of One Family, they would generate big changes," Li said.

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By interacting with people at kaixin001.com, it is easy to promote philanthropy in a simple, interesting way, he added.

Cheng Binghao, founder and CEO of kaixin001.com, said the partnership between the One Foundation and his website is expected to provide a convenient platform for Chinese netizens to participate in charity projects.

Li said the One Foundation in the next six months will focus on aid to areas stricken by natural disasters.

The foundation also is building a platform to help domestic non-government organizations (NGOs) to become more skilled at attracting financial aid and other assistance.

The foundation established "One Foundation Philanthropy Awards" to honor Chinese NGOs that exceed international operating standards.

Award recipients receive 1 million yuan in financial assistance, as well as technical support from the One Foundation's corporate sponsors.

After the Typhoon Morakot swept Taiwan and East China recently, the One Foundation provided fast aid to the disaster-suffered areas with 300,000 yuan in cash and materials valued at 50,000 yuan.