In order to offer effective and practical solutions to the difficulties encountered by the handicapped orphans in social welfare institutions, so as to help them strengthen their abilities to take care of themselves and live on their own and to meet their desire to return to family and to society, it is determined by the Ministry of Civil Affairs that a nationwide three-year campaign will be launched in urban and rural areas from this year to provide orthopaedic surgeries and rehabilitation treatment to the handicapped orphans ranging from 0 to 18 years of age, who have operational indications. This campaign is titled as Tomorrow Plan for Rehabilitation of Handicapped Orphans through Operations(shortened as Tomorrow Plan). On May 21st, the Ministry of Civil Affairs held a press conference to declare officially the start of this campaign. On May 24th, a national working conference on the startup of the Tomorrow Plan was held in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, where Li Xueju, Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, made a speech and Li Liguo, vice Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, gave a mobilization talk and laid out an arrangement in light of the Tomorrow Plan.

In order to safeguard the implementation of the Tomorrow Plan, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has established a leading group with Li Liguo as chief of the group and the leaders respectively from the relevant departments and bureaus as the Ministry of Civil Affairs, China Center of Adoption Affairs, China Welfare Lottery Issuance and Administration Center, China Charity Federation and China Social Work Association, etc. as members. They are responsible for the organization, guidance, command and coordination of the plan. Under the control of this leading group, an office is set up to take charge of the daily work., which is located in the China Center of Adoption Affairs.

As statistics tell, the handicapped children in welfare institutions all over the country have accounted for 49.6%, with 14,000 among them who can possibly recover through orthopaedic surgeries and rehabilitation treatment. Operations can be classified into types as follows: General Surgery(12 types ), Osseous Surgery (10 types ), Otolaryngology (15 types ), Thoracic Surgery (5 types ) . In addition, based on the number of the annually accepted new children in the welfare institutions around the country and the proportion of those who have operational indications among them, it is estimated that the number of the handicapped children in need of operational treatment in hospitals will be about 14,000 from 2004 to 2006. Tomorrow Plan is intended to ensure that up to 28,000 handicapped orphans, better 30,000, can receive operations for rehabilitation within three years.

Tomorrow Plan should be implemented practically through the following steps:

1. Welfare institutions are supposed to file medical treatment scheme and fill up Rehabilitation Operation Application Form for the children fit for operations.

2. After collecting the applications, Tomorrow Plan executive agencies at provincial level are supposed to submit them to the Tomorrow Plan Office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

3. Experts are assembled by the Tomorrow Plan Office of the ministry to evaluate the operational schemes and the budgets in concern.

4. Funds appropriation notice will be issued by the leading group of the Tomorrow Plan on the basis of the experts' recommendations. In line with the notice, the office will, in the first place, appropriate 50% of the operational fees to the provinces.

5. Tomorrow Plan executive agencies at provincial level should send the appropriation provided by the ministry to the welfare institutions together with provincial matching funds to enable them to arrange the performance of the operations.

6. After the operations, relative information should be submitted to the persons in charge at different upgoing administrative levels. Experts will be organized by the Tomorrow Plan office to check the postoperative situation before another half of the operational fees is appropriated.

The raising of the money required by the operations will be realized through various ways mainly by the government, with society and individuals as supplementation. The Ministry of Civil Affairs allots part of the welfare fund raised through the issuance of welfare lottery tickets for the plan every year with part of the public welfare funds of lottery tickets kept by provinces drawn locally. With the fund contributed by the people of all walks of life home and abroad as well, the Tomorrow Plan has been guaranteed with not less than 600 million RMB within three years.

In order to obtain broad support from society and for the sake of donors' convenience, the Ministry of Civil Affairs decided to open three bank accounts respectively for the China Center of Adoption Affairs, the China Charity Federation and the China Social Work Association to receive the donations from the people of all walks of life home and abroad. The China Center of Adoption Affairs mainly receives the donations from the adoption organizations and adoptive families in the foreign countries. All the donations in the name of this project are all under the management of the leading group of Tomorrow Plan.

Bank account for the China Center of Adoption Affairs to collect donations:

Name: China Center of Adoption Affairs
Bank Account Number: 11001014600053000272
Bank: Xinhua Subbranch of the China Construction Bank

Tomorrow Plan office: Tel:83510121 Fax:83510161
Contact person: Tie Ling, Liu Kangsheng