IN BRIEF (Page 10)

'Fertility risk' training

The China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation has joined with dairy powder maker Mead Johnson to host a medical training program in Beijing for medical staff from disaster and depressed areas in rural China.

The program will invite medical staff from underdeveloped areas to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing for professional, maternal and child healthcare training to reduce fertility risks and increase the quality of life in impoverished regions.

'Personalized health'

The Roche Molecular Diagnostic Center for Personalized Healthcare, the first of its kind in China, has begun operation in the Shangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, sponsored by Roche in cooperation with the Shandong Gallo Institute of Virology.

The center will provide technological advancements in the fight against infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and other viral diseases, as well as offer personalized healthcare.

Free cancer drug

To help more Chinese women with breast cancer and to improve their quality of life, US-based Abraxis Bioscience said it will offer a newly developed breast cancer treatment drug free to some rural patients in China.

The company will also provide training to Chinese doctors to use advanced technologies, research results and new treatments for the disease.

Low energy lamps

Thanks to donations from Zhejiang province's Yankon Group, one of the world's largest lighting equipment manufacturers, the Shanghai municipal government plans to offer 540,000 energy saving lamps to low-income families in the city.

Yankon announced that the first batch of 1 million high efficiency energy lamps have been installed as part of its efforts to celebrate the 2010 Shanghai Expo.

Migrants' child aid

A special organizing committee led by the All-China Women's Federation announced in Beijing that it will join with Unilever China for a special program in 10 Chinese provinces to care for the children left behind in rural China by migrant workers. The 10 provinces include Sichuan, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Hubei, Guizhou, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Hunan, and Anhui. The program is expected to benefit 600,000 families each year.

Under the program, report cards about children's education and parent-child telephone cards will be issued along with practical guidance.

Parents, supported by Unilever, are encouraged to make at least one telephone call each week to their child, mail at least one letter to them each month, send at least one inspiring book to them each quarter and mail one gift on special occasions such as Children's Day, Mother's Day, the child's birthday or around examination time.

(China Daily 06/29/2009 page10)