Sinopec sponsors a 'health train' to put rural lives back on track

Meng Zhaowen holds a thank-you note she wrote to Sinopec Group after she received her cataract surgery sponsored by the company on Sunday on a train in Yantai, Shandong province. [Photo/China Daily]

Meng Zhaowen, 24, a college student in Shandong province, wrote down a thank-you note right after she received her cataract surgery on a hospital train sponsored by Sinopec Group, China's largest petrochemical company.

She lost the sight in her right eye when she was a child, but her family's financial circumstances meant they could not afford the surgery to help restore her vision.

She always hoped that one day she could see the world clearly again but in the meantime she studied hard using just her left eye.

"I am grateful that Sinopec has fueled up my life," said Meng.

She is not the only one to feel grateful.

On Aug 24, Meng became the 30,000th recipient of Sinopec's "health train", a program that employs a hospital train to take ophthalmologists from hospitals in first-tier cities to poor rural areas to provide free cataract surgery.

In the past ten years, Sinopec has spent 120 million yuan ($19.5 million) to sponsor the program, which has been to Gansu, Guizhou, Yunnan, Qinghai, Sichuan, Jilin provinces and Xinjiang Uygur, Tibet, Ningxia Hui and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous regions.

In July, it went to Shandong, and so far has provided cataract surgeries to 484 patients.

The "health train" visits three poor areas every year and stays at one place for three months, conducting around 1,000 operations.

China has about 5 million cataract patients and the number is growing on average by 10 percent each year, according to the company.

Most of the patients are usually poor people, living in rural areas without good medical equipment and doctors.

Sinopec started the program in 2004. The company not only provides free surgeries but also donates medical equipment to those rural areas and trains local doctors in order to raise the level of medical care.

The company has donated nine cataract medical service centers in provinces including Sichuan, Qinghai, Henan and Yunnan.

The "health train" is equipped with advanced medical equipment for operations and Sinopec also provides financial assistance to upgrade the level of facilities in areas it visits so that people can continue to be helped once the train leaves.

"Sinopec aims at providing a better life for the public not only in terms of oil products but also through social responsibility," said Zhang Jiaren, former deputy general manager of Sinopec and head of the program.

He said the program is one of the many ways the company contributes to charity. It also sponsors education programs and makes donations to disaster relief funds.

Since 1998, the company has donated 2.8 billion yuan to charity projects.