A senior United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) official on May 29 praised China for its remarkable achievements in children s welfare. A. H. M. Farook, UNICEF's operations area officer for China and Mongolia said that China "can be very satisfied to tell the whole world what can be done with limited resources to help its children to grow healthily and happily." China's child population makes up one-filth of the world's total. "The reason behind the tremendous achievement is China's long tradition of caring for children home at home and in society." he said. "What's more is that Chinese people have always given special attention to children who are in special need." The UN official made the remarks when addressing a group of 50 children and staff from the Beijing Children's Welfare Home at the Shangri-la Hotel, Beijing. The hotel invited the orphans to share snacks, sing, dance and play games at a park inside the hotel for a "Share the Sunshine" party, as a prelude   to celebrations to mark the Children's Day. The Beijing children s Welfare Home, set up soon after New China, was founded in 1949, has at present more than 400 children. A leading official of the welfare institution said that the children live a happy life and that the agency spends about 400 yuan a month for an average orphan. An average Chinese worker earned 440 yuan a month during the first quarter this year. Gu Xiaojin, deputy secretary-general of the China Youth Development foundation (CYDF), said people from all walks of life had contributed to the welfare of the Chinese children. She said that CYDF set up the Project Hope in 1989, which calls on people across the country to donate money to help poor children to continue their schooling. By the end of last year, she said, CYDF had collected nearly 700 million yuan in donations, which has helped the establishment of 2, 074 Hope primary schools and enabled more than 1.25 million dropouts to return to school classrooms. Three "Hope Stars" also attended the party. They were model teenagers chosen among students who are economically supported by the Project Hope to further their nine-year compulsory studies in the poverty-stricken regions. They will be torchbearers for the Chinese Team for the upcoming Atlanta Olympic Games this year. Every year the Beijing Children's Welfare Home spends   _   on the orphans.
1,920, 000 yuan or so 2, 160,000 yuan Over 2,400, 000 yuan 2, 200,000 yuan