BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhaunet) -- Fourteen-year-old Meng Xinyu described her recent trip to the Shanghai Expo Garden as not only an eye-opener, but also something that helped to set her future career goal as well.
"We visited the Expo Axis, and the Life and Sunshine Pavilion (a pavilion specially dedicated to the disabled). I was so touched by the various forms of architecture there that I hope to become an architect when I grow up to design more buildings for the expo," said the excited youngster.
Meng is one of four children from families stricken with HIV/AIDS to be sponsored by French hotel operator Accor for a trip to Shanghai to tour the expo garden.
Accor, Europe's biggest hotel group, is hoping to pay back the local community through a program called "Empowerment Builds the Future," a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative that provides educational assistance to children from HIV/AIDS-hit families in Central Henan province.
The program, launched in November last year in partnership with the Hong Kong-based Chi Heng Foundation (CHF), is specifically designed to help people affected by HIV/AIDS. The initiative is aimed at raising awareness of those suffering discrimination because of the illness among guests at Accor hotels in Shanghai during the six-month expo.
In November last year, a small bag-making workshop was established in Henan as an initial part of the sustainable CSR program. Proceeds from the bags, to be sold at all Accor hotels on the mainland and in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, will be used to provide educational opportunities and scholarships to children in the province under the administration of CHF.
Special Report: World Expo 2010
