Chinese company helps Pakistan orphans, donates Rs 8.5mln

ISLAMABAD: A Chinese company, constructing the Karakorum Highway in northern Pakistan, has donated over Rs 8.5 million to an orphanage of the SOS Children's Villages in Mansehra.

According to the Chinese media, the  amount of  donation would be used to renew the orphanage's dormitories, living appliances such as water heaters, uninterruptible power systems and solar panels to improve the orphans' lives.

While admiring the step of Chinese company towards betterment of the orphanage and its contribution to brighten the orphans' lives, board member of the SOS Children's Village Pakistan Khola Mustafa said that the orphanage was built in 1982, now adopts about 160 local children and its finance source mainly depends on donations from local community, but the amount collects is very few to run the system due to Mansehra's remote location and poor economy.

"I'm very grateful for the donation from our Chinese friends. China is a time-tested friend of Pakistan," Mustafa told Xinhua on the occasion.

"The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is at the governmental level, but what the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) is doing is to help the country's orphans, the most vulnerable in the society. If they can help them build a future, it will further cement the Pakistan-China friendship," Khola added.

The CRBC is the operator of the current Karakorum Highway phase two project under the CPEC.

Hu Junquan, the project's general manager, said the CRBC is not only to build roads in Pakistan, it also plays a role in improving friendship between the two countries by taking social responsibilities for the local community during their project.

According to Hu, the CRBC has already donated more than 1 million U.S. dollars in cash and goods since 2008 to help local Pakistanis overcome disasters, subsidize poverty-stricken students and build cricket fields, among others.