A nationwide program to boost charity for Chinese children was launched on Wednesday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The campaign will kick off on June 23 with a charity evening ball in Shanghai, with Chinese celebrities attending. Television and cartoon series will be produced to educate Chinese children and teenagers in traditional moral values.

Mo Wenxiu, vice-chairwoman of All China Women's Federation and also vice-president of China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) said at the opening ceremony that donations will be collected to build libraries and music teaching classrooms in poor villages, to help children suffering from asthenia - a debilitating disease which causes abnormal weakness -, to financially support poor middle school students and to train poor girls in practical life skills.

At the launch, two local companies donated a total of 7 million yuan (around 875,000 U.S. dollars).

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of the CCTF, and it is the fifth year the CCTF has launched a national charity campaign of this kind.

The CCTF, founded in 1981, was the first fund for civil affairs in China. Over the past 25 years, the fund has been dedicating to charity programs especially for poor girls and families. By July of 2005, the CCTF collected more than 600 million yuan (around 75 million U.S. dollars) to help 1.5 million poor girls to return to school.

Source: Xinhua