Chinese internet search engine Baidu has raised US$800,000 in just an hour in a charity project aimed at helping seriously ill orphans.
Baidu teamed up with 800,000 websites and 50,000 app providers to kick off this year’s “One Hour,One Click” campaign on May 29. Within just one hour, the campaign attracted 4,978,267 online users, raising4,978,267 yuan (approx.US$803,492) for orphans with serious illnesses, creating a high-speed vehicle for the collection of welfare donations via the internet inChina.
Orphans with serious illnesses, targets of this campaign, are a special group, categorised as minors who have been diagnosed by their physician as having no more than six months to live.
According to data, more than 80,000 people online had participated in the campaign within one minute of the May 29, 11 a.m. Beijing time kick-off time and nearly 5 million yuan (approx. US$807,000) was raised within the first hour.
On the basis of an orphan with a serious illness needing 100 yuan (approx.US$16) of nursing and medical care fees (including 33 yuan (approx. US$5.25) in medical treatment fees) a day, the funds raised in such a short interval can provide 50,000 orphans with serious illnesses with nursing and medical care fees for one day. The campaign raised on average 83,000 yuan (approx.US$13,400) per minute, an amount sufficient to provide medical treatment for 2515 orphans with serious illnesses a year. The average amount raised per second is 1,388 yuan (approx. US$224), enough to provide medical treatment and care for one orphan with a serious illness for more than one month.
Launched by Baidu together with over 600,000 website partners in 2012, “One Hour, One Click” now boasts a network of 800,000 websites (nearly one fourth of all websites in China) and 50,000 app providers, and has become the largest internet public welfare platform for pediatric healthcare.
From free lunches in 2012, free catastrophic medical insurance policies for children in Ya’an in 2013 and support for children with congenital heart diseases in 2014, to this year’s saving the life of orphans with serious illnesses, the program continues to demonstrate the power of campaigns for the public good.
