Volunteers help make Hainan a better place

A charity sale launched by a volunteer service association of HNA Holding Group in Haikou, Hainan province attracted a large number of volunteers and residents to raise money to support lonely elderly people at a local nursing home.

Most of Hainan's local residents are familiar with these HNA Holding Group red-waistcoated volunteers. They are becoming a common sight on the streets, spreading the spirit of social concern for the needy and the well-being of the environment.

Typhoon Rammasun, the strongest in 41 years, hit Hainan and left chaos in its wake in July 2014. More than 70,00 volunteers from the company joined city sanitation workers in Haikou, capital city of the province, to clean up the streets and beaches within three days.

The volunteers also expressed their giving spirit in remote places in the western parts of the country, by joining the HNA Brighten Action to provide help for the patients requiring eye surgery.

Huang Qiu, COO of the company, said the volunteers are being called Xiao Hong Dou, which means heart-warming, adorable little red bean in English. He added it has become a well-known identity after years of helping to improve local society.

"We encourage more staf and society members to join us to make the world a better place," Huang said.

The volunteer team of HNA Holding group was set up in 2014, aiming "to do good for society". It has seen rapid growth in numbers, with 11,008 volunteers registered. Many of the company's staf members from all around the country are among the registered volunteers, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Qingdao, Wuhan, Changsha, Haikou and Sanya.

So far, the company has launched more than 80 volunteer service activities, such as tree planting, river cleaning and donating books to needy primary school children. The activities involved 19,000 volunteers who donated a total of 91,000 hours, or more than 3,790 days, to do good for society.

(China Daily 11/30/2017 page12)