Lottery fund-supported program benefits over 11,000 severely ill Chinese children

BEIJING, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- A total of 8,649 children with leukemia and 2,807 with congenital heart disease have received proper medical care in China thanks to a Chinese Red Cross Foundation program supported by the central government-allocated public welfare lottery fund over the past year.

The funds allocated to the program in 2021 amounted to 329 million yuan (about 51.61 million U.S. dollars), said the foundation.

The program was launched in the second half of 2020. It focuses on helping children with severe diseases, such as leukemia and congenital heart disease.

To help as many children in need as possible, the program saw medical professionals working as volunteers travel deep into China's western regions, including Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang, and screen more than 400,000 children for congenital heart disease.

Green passage for emergency assistance applications has opened, driving the number of child applicants to increase 14-fold.

Also, to the benefit of applicants, applications can now be submitted online starting from 2021, allowing applicants to receive funding support much faster than before, according to the foundation.