China's State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) held a national conference to promote poverty alleviation in Sandu County, Guizhou, on November 1, 2017.
Leaders of religious organizations including YMCA & YWCA and the bureau's poverty relief officials attended it. The participants shared the poverty relief work and successes in Sandu County and studied current problems and difficulties. The future work plan was made.
Since 2016, the government and religious communities have achieved demonstrable results in poverty reduction in the county. In the past two years, 86 poverty relief projects were carried out nationwide by the domestic religious circles. The total fund reached 52.86 million yuan and the actually invested fund 21.4 million yuan.
The government and religious groups launched 60 investigations, and career coaching and technical training for 1200 people and offered training opportunities for 600 locals from January to October 2017. The funds amounted to 25.63 million yuan for 47 related projects. The religious organizations invested 286.34 million yuan in eight of the projects.
- Translated by Karen Luo
