Cosmetics company lends helping hand to fight cancer in China
Amorepacific, a leading cosmetics firm from South Korea, will invest 30 million yuan ($4.75 million) over the course of three years to support the prevention and treatment of breast cancer and cervical cancer in China.
The special fund, formed in collaboration with the China Women’s Development Foundation, builds upon an existing partnership that debuted in 2016, the company announced earlier this month.
The initiative, dubbed ”Make Up Your Life”, has sponsored and organized medical checkups for more than 30,000 women in rural areas, with 120,000 receiving knowledge related to such diseases in the past two years, said Charles Kao, president of Amorepacific China.
“This three-year partnership aims to ensure our devotion to the wellbeing of Chinese women is wellplanned, financially guaranteed and highly predictable,” he said.
The social welfare program has effectively helped raise awareness of such diseases for women in remote counties and villages where medical resources are scarce, said Zhu Xuemei, vice-dean of the Working Committee on Children and Women of Guizhou province.
“The project also greatly improves the medical facilities and examination standards of local hospitals,” Zhu noted.
Cervical cancer is the secondmost common malignant cancer threatening Chinese women aged between 15 and 44. According to Cancer Statistics in China 2015, there were nearly 100,000 new cases and the disease cost over 30,000 lives that year.
In 2017, women from seven counties in Hunan province, Guizhou province, and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region have benefited from free screening and treatment of breast cancer and cervical cancer.
From this year, the project will also sponsor research on after-surgery recovery for cervical cancer and breast cancer. It aims to combine Western medicine with traditional medicine so as to trim patients’ recovery time and consequently lower their financial burden.
In addition, the company has been helping women who have undergone surgery build up their confidence by teaching skin care and makeup skills through a series of training courses.
According to Kao, the company will hold two events ahead of the annual checkups. From March, it is holding a monthlong charity sale for eight of its brands — including Sulwhasoo, Laneige and Innisfree — and some of the revenue generated from the designated products will be funneled into the charity fund.
It will also host a charity run in Shanghai, through which it will provide useful information about female health and raise awareness of the importance of self-examination. Participants’ entry fees will be donated to the special fund to finance the screening and after-surgery recovery procedures.
“The project is in accordance with China’s goal of targeted poverty reduction put forward by the central government,” said Zhang Jianmin, vice-secretary general of the China Women’s Development Foundation. “It is a successful demonstration of philanthropic partnerships among charity organizations, the government and the private sector.”