Chinese actor Li Yapeng is set to bring a medical team to his
remote hometown in Xinjiang, embarking on a new mission to aid
rural children with cleft palates.
Li Yapeng (L) and Carina
Lau attend a press conference on Saturday, August 4, 2007,
announcing the founding of a medical team by Li Yapeng's Smile
Angel Foundation.
The medical team was recently formed by the Smile Angel
Foundation, which Li Yapeng and his pop diva wife Faye Wong founded
last year. They hope to provide free surgery to children like their
daughter Li Yan, who was born in May 2006 with a cleft lip.
So far, about two hundred children from poor families have
received surgery through help from the foundation.
The newly-founded team of 17 medical professionals aims to help
expand the foundation's ability to reach more needy children living
in rural areas.
Li Yapeng said at a Saturday press conference that the team are
planning to spend one or two years helping 900 children in
Xinjiang, and will also travel to other western Chinese provinces
and autonomous regions, including Yunnan, Guizhou and Tibet.
He also revealed that the foundation's second charity banquet
will be held in Shanghai in December, with the couple's entertainer
friend Carina Lau taking care of the arrangements.
The star-studded banquet held in Beijing last December,
collected 8.45 million yuan (US$1.12 million) through the auction
of items donated by celebrities.
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(CRI.cn August 5, 2007)
