Representatives from more than 50 Chinese media agencies and e-commerce platforms pledged to donate proceeds from the sale of red dates manufactured by Xinjiang Tianran Fruit Products Co. Ltd. at a gathering held at the headquarters of People's Daily in Beijing on March 11.

Proceeds will go to the "Free Lunch Action for Spring Bud Girls" project, which was launched by the China Children and Teenagers' Foundation (CCTF) and sponsors of the Poverty Alleviation Initiative this February to provide impoverished school girls across the entire nation with nutritional meals.

Organizers say that each purchase of red dates will equate to a consumer donation of 0.5 yuan (U.S. $ 0.08). The dates are produced in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

At the gathering, deputy-secretary of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Committee and vice-commander of the 14th Division of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Zhi Xianwei, made a donation of 200,000 yuan (U.S.$ 30,000) on behalf of the military. Meanwhile, representatives from attending media agencies and e-commerce platforms said that they would raise at lease 100,000 yuan (U.S.$ 15,000) through the sales initiative by the end of this year.

The charity event is expected to promote local poverty alleviation work.

(Source: cctf.org.cn/Translated and edited by Women of China)