The Shanghai Education Commission teamed up with the Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Charity Foundation to donate 50,000 books yesterday to students at 100 schools for migrant children across the city.

 

 

Students at Li'an Primary School explore books yesterday at the school's new library, one of the first 15 branches of Shanghai Children's Library opened for migrant schools.

 

All of the books donated as part of the "Soong Ching Ling Love Bookstack" program were purchased with 300,000 yuan (US$39,232) the foundations raised in donations.

 

Gu Xiulian, vice chairwoman of the National People's Congress, also donated 10,000 yuan to the program, officials said.

 

The foundation plans to extend the program to cover all of the 277 migrant schools in the city within the next three years. Those schools have a combined enrollment of about 300,000 students.

 

"As books are critical to one's progress, sending books to these migrant children will be more meaningful for their growth than simply granting food and clothes to them," said Zhang Shaojun, the foundation's deputy office director.

 

Also yesterday, Shanghai Children's Library set up small branches in 15 migrant schools. Each of the schools will be allocated 3,000 books each semester.

 

(Shanghai Daily May 31, 2007)