Charity dinner aids homeless children

Fashion magazine Elle and skin care brand Avene co-host event

Avene, the French skin care brand owned by the Pierre Fabre Group, raised 500,000 yuan ($78,100) for homeless children after co-hosting a charity dinner in Beijing with fashion magazine Elle China.

The cash has been given to Beijing GuangAi School - a nonprofit, non-governmental facility which is home to about 100 children aged between 6 and 8.

"My first visit to the GuangAi School was a very emotional experience, especially when I looked at these children's faces," said Francis Canet, general manager of Pierre Fabre China.

"It is a desperate situation that these children find themselves in, after being so sadly abandoned by their parents."

Last year, Avene and Elle China partnered with the charity Couleurs de Chine, which supports the building of schools, dormitory blocks and annexes in the Damixao Mountains in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

With support from Couleurs de Chine, set up by French woman Francoise Grenot-Wang in 1990, 3,600 children, especially girls in the region, have been able to complete their primary studies. And 1,080 girls have moved on to junior school, 296 to senior school, and 91 entered university in 2010.

Canet said the children at Beijing GuangAi School had been abandoned by their family, either because their legal guardians have passed away or the guardians do not have the ability to raise them.

There are just 10 teachers at the school, all volunteers, who act as educators and adopted parents, but there is no guarantee how the children stay at the school.

Lena Yang, chief executive officer of Hearst Magazines China, the owner of Elle China, said: "During my last visit to the school, one 5-year-old girl still insisted she would soon go back home, even after staying at the school for three months. It's very sad."

"It really doesn't cost much to show them how much you care, but a donation could mean a lot to their lives," said Yang.

Canet said the biggest challenges facing the school lie in how to reshape the children's personalities and to help them regain confidence, and in making them feel valuable members of society.

The significance of the charity dinner, she said, was not the money raised, but its value in lifting the general public's awareness of the school.

"It's located in the suburbs of Beijing, and people nearby are largely unaware of all these homeless children living nearby."

huangying@chinadaily.com.cn