Lang Lang helps left-behind kids

Chinese piano virtuoso Lang Lang has given a concert to raise funds for rural left-behind children in Gansu province. The internationally acclaimed pianist played works by Debussy and Chopin at the two-hour concert on Sunday in the Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture. Hundreds of local primary school students, many “left-behind” themselves, and entrepreneurs from across the country were in the audience. The term “left-behind” describes rural children whose parents are away from home, usually working in the cities, and who are usually left in the care of grandparents. The entrepreneurs donated 6 million yuan ($870,000) to public welfare projects for the children, including free music lessons. Codeforge, a source-code sharing website, shows that in 2014 only 20 percent of programmers in China were female. Rails Girls, a campaign started in Finland by two programmers, one male and one female, aims to provide women with the tools and a community to help them understand technology and develop their own ideas. The organization hosted its first Chinese workshop in Beijing on Dec 15, 2012, before arranging a further 17 in six other cities. Wen Yang, who helped to host the Beijing event and later became a part-time volunteer with the organization, said Rails Girls has now provided free programming workshops to more than 1,000 women in China. organizers will provide a total relief fund of 845,000 yuan ($122,501) through the program to help 169 local povertystricken families, giving each household 5,000 yuan. During the event, Qiu Xiaoxu, deputy Party secretary of Kang Xian county, welcomed the arrival of the program’s inspection team led by CWDF official Guan Chunmei and thanked CSCE for its donation. The event was hosted by the government of Kang Xian county. Over 80 people, including officials from local women’s federations and beneficiary representatives, attended. en’s federations, health and family planning commissions and maternal healthcare institutions have compiled and handed out nearly 3 million guidebooks on cancer prevention and treatment.