With the support of Project HOPE and the Abbott Fund, China's first nutrition development program for children was set up last week at Shanghai Children's Medical Center.

The program will provide leading-edge nutritional therapy training and enhance research into increasing healthy food standards for children.

Established in 1951, the Abbott Fund is a private non-profit organization and is funded primarily by Abbott, a globally based health care company.

It supports and partners with a broad range of organizations, including community-based non-governmental organizations (NGO), academic institutions, medical and health professional associations, international relief agencies and non-profit organizations.

Catherine Babington, the fund's president who joined Abbott in 1987 and has gathered a great deal of management experience in the fields of marketing, branding and public affairs over the past two decades, spoke about its activity.

Q: What is Abbott Fund's main role?

A: It has three major tasks: providing access to health care, developing science and medical innovation, and sustaining community values.

Q: How much has it invested in the new clinical nutrition center?

A: Abbott Fund has invested approximately US$3 million in the project and is considering investing more with the cooperation of Project HOPE, the NGO foundation managing it.

Q: What other support will the fund give the center?

A: It will sponsor visits by some world leading medical experts to share nutrition expertise and provide ongoing financial support.

In addition, the institute will continue to educate health care professionals and conduct research and training about pediatric nutrition, thus using our resources to help create healthier communities.

Q: How many programs does Abbott Fund have in China and what have they achieved?

A: Apart from the nutrition center, it is involved in Operation Smile, which offers free medical help for children with facial deformity, by donating anesthetics and providing financial support for Operation Smile to conduct training at hospitals throughout China.

Also, the Abbott Fund and Abbott played a strong role in donating supplies and medical training in the aftermath of the earthquake in Sichuan Province last year. It has also worked with Project HOPE to establish a medical program dealing with victim rehabilitation research in China.

With the support of the Ministry of Health, the three-year program offers further education for medical staff in Sichuan and victims of the earthquake.

Of the 60,000 people injured in Sichuan, about 9,000 need proper and long-term rehabilitation therapy. A third of them haven't yet received such health care.

(Shanghai Daily July 6, 2009)