Actress Zhang Ziyi participated in the grand opening of the Shangri-La Hotel, Chengdu to support Care for Children, Shangri-La's corporate charity 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. As the "face of Shangri-La," Zhang Ziyi has provided support for the charity, first by visiting Care for Children families in Kunming in March 2007 followed by personal appearances at Shangri-La's CFC fundraising events.
The backbone of Shangri-La's fundraising is a guest donation program called "Dare to Care". Guests are invited to donate to CFC through red packets placed in all guestrooms at night and in restaurant bill folders. Donations can also be made directly by guests upon check out.
"I'm thrilled to be celebrating the opening of this beautiful hotel, but even more, to help commemorate the launch of ‘Dare to Care' in Chengdu," said Zhang Ziyi. "I've seen for myself how this foster programme can change the lives of not only the children, but their foster parents too. I want to help create happy families in China."
In Chengdu, Care for Children has helped place 140 orphans into foster families since 2001 and works with the Chengdu Children Welfare Institution.
The Shangri-La group has globally raised almost RMB4.4 million for Care for Children since 2005. A significant portion of this was generated by Shangri-La China hotels donating RMB40 for every box of Mid-Autumn mooncakes sold in 2007, accounting for RMB1.6 million.
In addition to "Dare to Care," Shangri-La supports Care for Children through creative fundraising activities, which have included everything from a Maserati and Ferrari car rally through China to a global online "Journey to Shangri-La" auction on eBay, for which Shangri-La hotels and resorts donated luxury travel experiences. The hotels also help subsidize venues for the charity's events and workshops.
Beijing-based Care for Children works with local and national governments 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.
