Airline helps raise living conditions in rural areas

Company's CSR efforts give poor students in need more opportunities

Cangyuan Va autonomous county in southwestern China's Yunnan province has been the beneficiary of more than a decade of charitable work carried out by China Eastern Airlines as part of its corporate social responsibility.

The Shanghai-based airline has made concerted efforts in the area since 2003 to help lift its residents out of poverty and provide a better future and more opportunities for those growing up there.

On Oct 21, the airline held an event at a primary school in Cangyuan where its employees vowed to donate 91,300 yuan ($13,030) each to the students annually.

The volunteers also promised to hold activities aimed at helping the students achieve at school, the organizer said.

Representatives from global partners of China Eastern - Pieter Elbers, president of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Toon Balm, general manager of Air France-KLM Greater China, and Chen Jie, executive vice-president of Air Lease - attended the event and were among those who donated.

To help make students' dreams come true, Elbers launched a project to select 20 excellent students from poor families in Cangyuan and Shuangjiang counties in Yunnan province to study in the Netherlands.

Elbers said he was delighted to have been able to take part in the charitable activity and looked forward to introducing the students to the Netherlands.

Having visited China more than 80 times, mostly Beijing and Shanghai, Elbers said he was happy to see other parts of the country and witness its rapid changes.

China Eastern and Air Lease collectively donated 200,000 yuan toward a scholarship fund. They, together with Shanghai-based media company Ajmide, built a library in the primary school over the course of 72 hours.

The airline has helped the school since 2007, donating more than 2.02 million yuan.

Executives from the company have funded 110 students' schooling with a total of 142,100 yuan. Some teachers and students have been sponsored to fly to Shanghai for study.

China Eastern is also helping to create jobs for people with disabilities in Cangyuan. Its poverty alleviation team is extending a helping hand to a local costume manufacturer that specializes in designing traditional clothing of the Va ethnic group, one of China's 56 ethnic groups.

The airline has helped the company since 2016 and also cooperated with sportswear company Li-Ning in 2018 to further help promote the county's costume industry. Li-Ning has donated nearly 20 items of equipment to the costume company and offered training in design, sample preparation and management.

As a result, the local company has created jobs for 20 people, including six with disabilities, and there are another 56 people who work for the company remotely weaving traditional clothing.

The annual sales of the company have risen from less than 100,000 yuan when it first started to 800,000 yuan in 2018, and the sales volume is expected to surpass 1.8 million yuan this year.

China Eastern has also launched employment programs in Cangyuan and Shuangjiang, directly from its Yunnan branch.

Its commitment to employing people from impoverished backgrounds has contributed to a rise in social welfare in the area. Local governments in the two counties have helped to recruit, select and train people who meet the airline's employment standards. To date, 105 local people work for the airline.

China Eastern and the China Poverty-alleviation Promotion of Volunteer Service opened a further poverty alleviation project in Cangyuan on Oct 21, which offers free treatment to cataract patients.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in November 2012, the company has spent nearly 10 million yuan on medical aid and helped 33 low-income villages to build and refurbish medical centers as well as buy medical instruments.

In cooperation with medical teams from Shanghai, it has organized several hundred people to offer free treatment and consultancy services to patients in villages, and teamed up with the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to provide supplementary medical insurance for 47,637 poor people.

The airline has long assumed its corporate social responsibilities not only in Cangyuan but nationwide. It has donated more than 370 million yuan to the impoverished areas and implemented more than 40 projects to improve rural living standards.

The company has helped to attract social funds worth nearly 200 million yuan to areas in need, and renovated 754 old or dilapidated houses, benefiting 3,384 people.

songmengxing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/07/2019 page12)