On Dec. 1, Avene, the French skin care brand owned by the Pierre Fabre Group, and Elle China, a French fashion magazine, raised and donated 300,000 yuan ($43,384) with the help of China Children and Teenager’s Fund for 225 students from three elementary schools in Jiangsu Province.
Avene and Elle China have been working together for three years to raise and donate money for left-behind children.
Those children were needy either because their legal guardians have passed away or the guardians do not have the ability to raise them. Those parents have no choice but to leave their children to the care of their grandparents.
Based on a report by All-China Women’s Federation in 2015, there are more than 60 million abandoned children who are suffering all kinds of predicament during their younger years because of the absence of their parent’s love and affection.
In 2014, Avene and Elle China, with the help of Couluers de Chine, went to Mountain Damiao in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region where they helped educate children in the region.
In 2015, they showered love and sunshine to the homeless children in Beijing Guang’ai School.
"Though in the past three years we have had three different themes, our focus is still the education problems for children," Francis Canet, general manager of Pierre Fabre China, told the Global Times. "These left-over children who don't have care from their parents need care from the whole society."
Xiao Xue, the chief content officer of Elle China, said: "Our team visited students at each of the three schools for this year's project. We listen to their teachers' introduction and their own problems as well. Except for the donation that we made, what we can do is limited.
"What they really need is more care and for their parents to return home and be with them. Each time we go, everyone on the team and in the office has been touched by videos that our team has brought back, and many of them offer to help."
Canet said that on behalf of Elle China and Avene, he extends special appreciation to French Ambassador to China M. Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, for his support and acknowledgment of the charity gala, which was held at the ambassador's residence.
He also said the biggest challenge facing them is how to reshape the children's personalities and to help them regain confidence, in turn making them feel like valuable members of society.