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Three years ago, a British couple in south central China's Hunan province set up a charity
called Butterfly Children's Hospices to help children who have less than six months to
live. One of those children is now here in Shanghai waiting for a heart operation. This
weekend, some children here raised more than 100,000 yuan in a charity t-shirt auction
to help that boy and others. Our reporter Xu Fangliang has more.
After six months of preparation, more than 200 T-shirts went up for auction this weekend.
The artists were between three and 18 years old. Their teachers and parents had told them
that many abandoned children at the Butterfly Children's Hospices need their help.
"After I told her the story about how much those kids need help from us, my daughter
asked me why their parents can't help them. My explanation was that sometimes when things
are too difficult, people need more help. And then my daughter understood," said Ao
Beibei.
"Children over three years old are capable of understanding what they are doing this
for. And they seem very happy to help," said Susanna Peng.
Peng said most children were very dedicated to the task, and said many of them talked
about their feelings as they painted.
"I want to make money for the children," said *** Xinxin.
"I think the ones that I like the best are the ones that you can see where a child has
tried really hard to do a beautiful T-shirt, with lots of color, lots of paint.// To me,
it's just like those little T-shirts, well you know the little children have done them,
they really tried so hard. That touched my heart enormously," said Lyn Gould.
And Gould was not the only one - lots of people bought the t-shirts, to the tune of more than
110,000 yuan. Organizers say all of the money will go to help the little boy who's now at
the Shanghai Children's Medical Center because of his heart problems. Doctors there say the
three operations he needs will cost 150,000 yuan. Anyone wanting to offer help can check
the organization's website for further details. Gould also said Shanghai is only the first
stop for the charity sale, which will also be held in Beijing, Guangzhou, and more than
two dozen other cities around China.