Donations sponsor liver transplants for poor children

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) teamed up with other partners to donate 5.14 million yuan (US$702,640) to the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation in Shanghai on Wednesday to help poor children undergo liver transplant at Renji Hospital.

It was the 11th round of donation made through the charity project initiated by the company to offer financial help to poor children needing liver transplant and added up the total donation to about 45 million yuan over the past 11 years.

Since 2013, the program has been supporting poor children to undergo liver transplant surgery at Renji Hospital. So far, 792 children with terminal liver failure have been sponsored to have the surgery.

Since it began to carry out children's liver transplants in 2006, Renji Hospital has completed the largest number of such surgeries in the world for 10 consecutive years. The one-year survival rate is 95.5 percent and five-year survival rate 94 percent.

"All these achievements are closely related with social support like the donation from SMIC. We will work harder to help more children with terminal liver failure and give them a chance to have a healthy life," said Min Jianying, a hospital official.

"We will make good use of every penny of the charity donation to help more sick children."