Charity organizations step forward to help millions

Chinese foundations and other nongovernment groups have rolled out more than 90,000 programs to help curb rural poverty in recent years with a total input of 124.5 billion yuan ($19.2 billion), the Minister of Civil Affairs Li Jiheng said on Friday.

The central government earmarked 1.58 billion yuan to help such groups implement social programs and their direct beneficiaries surpassed 13 million, he told a news conference held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing to brief the ministry's work in turning China into a "moderately prosperous society in all respects" over the last eight years.

Central authorities last month called on the charitable sector to play a bigger role in closing the wealth gap, expanding the size of middle-income groups and helping achieve common prosperity.

Li said by the end of last year, the ministry had approved 9,480 charities nationwide, whose assets were worth around 200 billion yuan.

They helped raise 39.6 billion yuan and more than 1 billion items in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic last year, the ministry said.

The ministry issued more than 1.7 trillion yuan worth of welfare lotteries between 2012 and last year.

The number of social workers has reached 1.57 million and the number of registered volunteers has crossed 200 million, about 10 times the level in 2012, he said.