Voices turned into hope for visually impaired

One of China's most successful new companies has been spearheading an initiative aimed at helping the lives of the country's 12.63 million blind and visually impaired citizens.

WeChat, the social-networking platform owned by e-commerce giant Tencent Holdings Ltd, launched the Voice Donor project last month, encouraging users to donate their time, and their voices, to doing voiceovers for reading books to be offered to those in need.

Cui Huiping, director of the Information Center of the China Disabled Persons' Federation, which is involved in the initiative, said: "Braille books are difficult to learn from, and still too expensive for many people."