China has sold a total of 336.4 billion yuan (49.18 billion U.S. dollars) of welfare lottery since it was launched in 1987, and has so far raised 112.5 billion yuan for the national public welfare fund.

The fund was mainly used for the development of social welfare facilities, education and health care for orphans, the elderly and the disabled, the China Welfare Lottery Management Center said.

The money has been used to fund more than 150,000 social welfare projects, and create about 300,000 jobs for the disabled nationwide. Tens of millions of other people have also benefited from the fund, the center said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2009)