‘Free lunch for children’ campaign to raise funds overseas for international projects

A Chinese-initiated campaign to support underprivileged children will soon start fundraising in the U.S. and Europe to support its overseas projects, after a 1-million-RMB project kicked off in Kenya in March.

This announcement was made by Deng Fei, founder of the “Free Lunch for Children” campaign, on Sina Weibo late on June 19. Deng also reassured his followers that all domestic donations would stay in China to support Chinese children.

Meanwhile, the Chinese campaign has spread to Africa, where it currently serves 1,103 children at five Chinese-supported primary schools in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, Kenya. The slum is home to some 700,000 people, half of whom are children living on one meal per day, according to CCTV.

Deng proposed his campaign's role in Africa as early as 2016. The international project gradually took shape after Deng got in touch with Yin Binbin, founder of Dream Building Service Association, which helped to construct two primary schools in the Mathare slum.

The project in Africa is operating on a 1-million-RMB donation from Beijing-based NGO Pearl Humanitarian Rescue Institution. The institution – with rich experience in child nutrition, disease control and prevention and medical rescue – pledged the money in 2017.

“Free Lunch for Children” was launched by Deng, together with China Social Welfare Foundation, 500 journalists and dozens of mainstream domestic media outlets, in April 2011. By the end of March, it had raised 28.3 billion RMB, and partnered with 757 schools.