The staff of AAL China – its Shanghai, Beijing and Qingdao offices – have raised money through sponsorship of physical training activity for the Labu Hope Primary School in Yongning Town, Lijiang City in the Yunnan Province of China. The funds raised enabled AAL’s team to purchase and donate school uniforms, bed sheets, quilts, pillows and school stationery to the school. The Labu Hope Primary School, part of the nationwide ‘Project Hope’ initiative, is located 3,000 kilometres from Shanghai in a remote mountain region, where 120 underprivileged local children are provided with safe living accommodation and an education.
Project Hope is a Chinese public service project launched in 1989, to build schools in poverty-stricken rural areas of China and help children whose families are too poor to afford an elementary school education. Project Hope also seeks to improve educational facilities and teaching quality in poorer regions.
Jack Zhou, General Manager of AAL China, explained, “For the past few months, we have been running a staff project across AAL globally to get ourselves fit after extended COVID-19 lockdown, called ‘The AAL Amazing Race Around the Globe’. As part of the initiative, the Management is kindly donating money for every KM run by every member of staff to a local charity designated by each regional office worldwide.
‘AAL has been active in China since 1996 and we are part of the fabric of this society – with all our team raised and educated locally. We could think of no more worthwhile beneficiary for the charitable funds raised by AAL China, than the Labu Hope Primary School and the well-being and education of our most vulnerable children. At this time of the year, when the cold sets in, we could also imagine no better gift for these children than that of warm clothing, bedding and school supplies.’
