(17 September 2014 – Hong Kong) New World Department Store China Limited (“NWDS” or the “Company”; Hong Kong stock code: 825), one of the largest owners and operators of department stores in Mainland China, is always concerned about the well-being of under-resourced children. Acknowledge the fact that long-term hospitalized children long for extra care from the public, the Company followed the successful step of toy recruitment activity held earlier this year and partnered with the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center again to kick off the second phase of “@Soul– Wish upon a Star” campaign in all Shanghai stores prior to the new school year. Over 1,500 pieces of school supplies and toys were successfully collected from the public for the sick children of the Center. The campaign aims to encourage them to fight against illness and continue to pursue their studies. 

Co-organized with the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center, “@Soul– Wish upon a Star” campaign was carried out in two phases: the first activity, asking for toy donation, took place from January to March while the second activity, seeking school supplies donation, took place from 6 to 31 August. Altogether, 204 pieces of toys and over 1,300 pieces of school supplies were donated by customers, VIP members and employees. Most of the collected resources were brand new and all of them have been passed on to the sick children of the Center. Besides, NWDS Volunteer Team paid two visits to the hospitalized children, which they spent time telling stories and playing games with them, along with the donations in February and August respectively. Children and their parents, and volunteers involved enjoyed themselves a lot in the activities, which have successfully increased the mutual understanding and cohesion among them and delivered some warming care to children in their recovery journeys. 

“@Soul– Wish upon a Star” campaign belongs to the soul category of “@Dream Sustainable Development Program”. Believing that spiritual health plays a vital role in children’s development, the Company launched a variety of activities under the soul category to address the diversified needs of children. They include “Distant Calls” campaign, which successfully recruited 418 spare cell phones for left-behind children in Qinghai, and “Santa Claus is Coming” activity, which recruited Santa impersonators from customers and employees to realize Christmas dreams of migrant children in last Christmas. 

Ms. Rebecca Woo, Corporate Affairs Director and Chairman of Sustainability Steering Committee of NWDS, said, “The sick children don’t manage to go to school because of their long-term treatment, but children and their parents have never giving up self-study in the hospital in hopes of resuming studies in school one day. In view of this, we particularly called for school supplies donations from customers, including colored pencils and crayons, prior to the new school year to encourage children and their parents to continue to overcome difficulties in their journey of pursuing knowledge, and help nurture children’s creativity to add some color to their plain life in hospital. We are pleased that two phased recruitment activities were well received by customers and employees, successfully promoting the message of sharing abundant resources with under-resourced groups while advocating for waste reduction and environmental friendliness at the same time.”

- End -