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City charity bonanza during festival

SHANGHAI will invest 500 million yuan (US$73.2 million) in a campaign to help the poor during the coming Spring Festival, covering 1.5 million residents with financial difficulties and 4 million retirees.

According to government officials, the new campaign will for the first time cover a new group - people who had no money worries until disease or disaster struck and exhausted all their savings.

Vulnerable groups such as low-income families, poor university students, the disabled, retirees and victims of the Sichuan earthquake may also enjoy subsidies from the government.

The campaign runs in three phases – donation of quilts and clothes, fund-raising activities and visiting families.

The first phase last September saw about 11 million yuan and 2.87 million clothes and quilts sent to Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces.

"To safeguard and improve people's livelihood is the ultimate goal of economic development," said Hu Yanzhao, the deputy mayor.

"We will try hard to ensure that all residents with financial difficulties may also enjoy a happy and harmonious Spring Festival."

Hu also appealed to the civil affairs bureau to offer more space and fresh food for beggars and homeless people during the festival so they could stay in a shelter instead of wandering the cold streets.




 

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