Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts has announced its official partnership with the Beijing-based charity organisation Care for Children. Shangri-La is Care for Children's first and only hotel group corporate partner.
Focusing on fostering Chinese orphans into Chinese families, Care for Children's slogan is "One in Ten", a vision of placing one million Chinese orphans into foster families by 2010.
Shangri-La will support Care for Children by leveraging its substantial network, providing financial assistance through guest donation programmes, sponsoring venues for the charity's events and workshops, and launching a series of grassroots initiatives through 2006.
As part of a fundraising campaign dubbed "Dare to Care," donation envelopes designed in the traditional style of Chinese "hong baos" ("red packets") are now placed in restaurant bill folders and on nightly guestroom turndown trays in Shangri-La's mainland China and Hong Kong hotels. Donations can also be made directly upon guest check out. The programme will be rolled out in the group's non-China hotels in the first quarter of 2006.
"We have partnered with Care for Children due to its great work in China, where Shangri-La is the largest luxury hotel group in the country," said Giovanni Angelini, Shangri-La's chief executive officer and managing director. "We further look forward to supporting Care for Children as it expands its efforts to other Asia Pacific areas."
"The chance to grow up in a family of their own offers children the best start in life. It is with the help and support from caring companies such as Shangri-La that we can eventually transform the lives of thousands of children in China," said Robert Glover, executive director of Care for Children.
A registered charity in China, the United Kingdom and the United States, Beijing-based Care for Children works in partnership with national and local governments in China to introduce foster care and other strategic initiatives to relieve hardship, distress and sickness and to enrich the lives of orphans and other needy children.
