I&U Charity Gala dinner mobilizes funds for UNICEF

Beijing, November 28,  2011 – A star-studded charity gala dinner organized by ifeng.com in partnership with UNICEF has raised a massive RMB 4,980,000. The funds will be used by UNICEF to improve mother and baby health in 35 poverty counties in Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou. Funds were raised at the I&U charity gala through auction of donated artistic and cultural items. The event was sponsored by ifeng.com, a NYSE-listed media company based in Hong Kong.

The glamorous dinner was attended by over 400 local celebrities, artists and dignities such as Xu Jialu, former Vice Chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, Gu Xiulian, former NPC Vice Chairwoman and former Director of China National Committee for the Well-being of the Youth, famous Taiwanese actress Lin Chi-ling, heavyweight director Han Sanping, CEO of ifeng.com Liu Shuang and Gillian Mellsop, UNICEF China representative.

Funds will be channeled toward improving health during the first 1000 days of life from conception, including ante-natal care, safe childbirth procedures, improved infant and young child feeding practices and disease prevention in selected rural poverty counties where UNICEF supports the Ministry of Health's maternal and child health services.

Before 2000 many of China's rural poverty counties had low hospital delivery rates and quite high maternal mortality rates. UNICEF introduced a package of interventions and incentives to encourage better health-worker performance and better uptake of mother baby health services in 50 rural poverty counties. By 2010 the UNICEF model had increased hospital delivery to 97% and reduced maternal mortality by 45%.