Community Corps Help Promote Poverty AlleviationThe non-governmental China Community Corps (CCC) have played a vigorous role in carrying out poverty alleviation projects in China in recent years.Poverty alleviation is a long-term and arduous task for the Chinese government and one of the top priorities of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in China. Since 1993, China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE), in collaboration with UNDP, has launched 12 poverty alleviation projects in 48 poverty-stricken counties of 17 Chinese provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. During the 2nd China CCC Conference, which opened today, over 50 outstanding CCC members will exchange experiences and explore new approaches for strengthening community corps. They will also receive comprehensive training, which will better equip them for future work after the UNDP projects are completed. All these CCC members are from poverty-stricken counties themselves. They are mainly engaged in organizing mutual help groups among the poor farmers, implementing poverty alleviation projects by providing microfinance management and technical assistance and coordinating between the government and the farmers. Representatives from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), All-China Women's Federation, UNDP Beijing Office and other Chinese and international organizations attended this morning's opening ceremony. Sun Yongfu, director of CICETE, hoped the four-day event will call for more attention from China and the international community to poverty alleviation in China as well as the development of China's vast western region. The 1st CCC Conference was held last year in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province. |
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