Guangdong, 18­­thOctober, 2013:The Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Foundation—BEA Charity Fund (the “Fund”) held the opening ceremony for its 28thFirefly Centre in Hecheng Primary School, Heshan Municipality, Guangdong Province. This is the 7thFirefly Centre in Guangdong Province. Mr. Cartier Lam, Deputy Chief Executive of BEA China, as well as a number of honored guests from the local region attend this ceremony.
　　
　　Heshan Primary School was founded in the 1960s and has 12 classes with a total of 528 students. Given its location in a disadvantaged area, the school has suffered from a lack of funding and support, leaving teachers and students alike without the comprehensive facilities and equipment they require.
　　
　　To improve the education conditions and meet the needs of the students and school, the new Firefly Centre offers access to advanced computing facilities, internet connections, audio-visual equipment and a library of more than 2,000 books valued at around RMB400,000. Moreover, at the opening ceremony for the Firefly Centre, the Fund donated a Firefly 60 Backpack containing a range of stationery to every one of the 528 students at the school.
　　
　　The Fund was established in November 2009 and was the first charity fund to be established by a foreign bank in Mainland China. The Firefly Project is one of the principal projects of the Fund, and is focused on donating and building Firefly Centres with advanced facilities such as computers, internet access as well as reading rooms with study desks. With the establishment of the Firefly Centre at Hecheng Primary School, the Firefly Project has now established 28 Firefly Centres nationwide, and provided nearly 18,000 Firefly 60 Backpacks to disadvantaged students.