Under the 10-year project, dubbed as “Life Belongs to Love -- Mother and Infant Safety 120 Action”, the network, with a data bank on the women, keeps a close watch on mothers who have been classified by doctors as having a risky delivery.

First-aid teams will be sent to pregnant women when they are in danger, said He Daofeng, director of the foundation, at a briefing on the project.

This indicates that China’s poverty-stricken areas will, for the first time, have access to high-tech methods in medical services for mothers and infants, he said.

According to a World Bank report, Chinese make up six percent of the 500,000 maternity deaths in the world a year. In addition, about 700,000 Chinese infants die a year.

The foundation, set up in March 1989, has raised funds and collected goods worth about 500 million yuan for its poverty-eradication projects over the past 11 years.

(People’s Daily 10/17/2000)