The China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) and the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda jointly launched a charitable initiative, titled "Safeguarding the Country's National Treasure, Giant Panda," at the center's base in Dujiangyan, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, on December 28, 2023.

The event was attended by staff members of the CCTF and the center, representatives of charity-minded enterprises, children with special needs, migrant children and their parents. 

It was the first time for those children from special education schools to visit the base. They held closer interactions with pandas, peeled bamboo shoots, made foods, cleaned the living places for the pandas, and drew paintings of pandas' ideal habitats.

"Cleaning the living places for pandas has allowed me to obtain interesting knowledge that an adult panda can produce about 150 pieces of excrement per day and that their feces can be used as organic fertilizers and made into eco-friendly paper," said a child during the visit.

Meanwhile, experts talked with visiting children about the growth and habits of pandas as well as the importance of their work concerning the protection of pandas' habitats and ecological environment.

Another child said that he was deeply impressed with the heroic stories of staff workers at the base to save and protect pandas in the earthquakes, adding that all children must join the cause of protecting pandas and the earth. 

At the opening ceremony of the charitable initiative, Shi Long, director of Corporate Planning Department in Shengbang Corporation, donated 1 million yuan (US$ 140,845) on behalf of the caring firms and charity-minded individuals to the project.

The CCTF accepted the donation and presented to the company a certificate of donation. A public welfare painting collection activity themed on the protection of pandas' habitats was also launched during the ceremony.

In the years ahead, the CCTF will work together with the center to hold more publicity and education activities associated with panda protection in schools and residential communities, further raise the awareness of children and their families about environmental conservation and the protection of bio-diversity, and pool the strength of children towards the protection of pandas and the earth as well as the building of a beautiful world.