The project, sponsored by the China Disabled Persons Federation and China Disabled Persons Welfare Fund, was set up to fund the education for disabled children in central and western China by raising money from society.

To help the project, the Civilization Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has announced that it will donate 25 million yuan (US$3 million) for the first phase of the project, running from 2002 to 2006.

Statistics show that only 77 percent of disabled children, including the blind, deaf and mentally disabled, have the opportunity to get the basic compulsory education.

Currently, 320,000 of China's 400,000 disabled children who are not in school live in central and western China, home to many impoverished families. The cost of study for a disabled child in a special school is much higher than that of a healthy child in an ordinary school.

All the donated money will be held in a special bank account set up by the federation.

It will then be allocated to meet the fees of those selected children and strictly in accordance with the regulations, Liu Xuedong, spokesman of the federation, said.

For people wanting to make donations, the bank account number of the "Spring Rain Project" is 086-10-304564722.

(China Daily September 27, 2002)