Seventeen Chinese social groups and public welfare organizations jointly launched a nationwide campaign Monday, in an effort to encourage public welfare activities in the country.

A series of activities are scheduled for this year to further spread the concept of public welfare, regulate the performance of social organizations and facilitate renovation of China's public welfare system, according to the organizing committee.

In one program, ten people who did good deeds for the sake of the public are to be selected before October, the second of its kind since the nationwide poll last year.

Beginning this year, ten demonstration public welfare projects will also be selected across the country on an annual basis, to popularize advanced administrative experience and seek new methods for the sustainable development of public welfare and charity activities.

To support the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the organizing committee said the 17 organizations will launch a large-scale program in June aimed at collecting 20.08 million yuan (US$2.42 million) in donation by the end of May 2008. The donation will be used to cure 2008 children who were born with illnesses or physical deficiencies but were too poor to pay for medical fees.

Statistics offered by the China Association of Social Workers (CASW) show that among China's 16 million new-born babies every year, 4 percent were born with deficiencies and about 32,000 babies were born in impoverished families.

The program to solicit public donation will be placed under supervision of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Audit Office, and public comments and suggestions are welcomed, said the Secretary-General Zhao Fengqi of the organizing committee.

Other activities of the public welfare campaign include publishing the annual list of Chinese charitarians, setting up public welfare websites and launching a forum on public welfare in China, he added.

The social organizations include the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, Red Cross Society of China, and CASW.

Regular and effective social welfare activities will play a key role in realizing social equality while keeping efficiency, helping the needy people, and cracking down on illegal activities that have begun to emerge in this field, said Zhou Tienong, chairman of the organizing committee.

Zhou, also vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, or the top advisory body in China, stressed that the campaign should be built into a transparent, unfeigned and credible, and normative brand and model for public welfare undertakings in China.

Zhang Yinzhong, an official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said that more efforts should be taken in doing research into, publicizing and spreading the modern concept of public welfare, and attention should be paid to the protection of human rights and promotion of humanitarianism.

(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2005)