(13 January 2016 – 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, organized sport-themed voluntary activities in Christmas for the second consecutive year. Over 150 volunteers across the country played table tennis-inspired games to celebrate Christmas with over 650 under-resourced children, contributing a total of over 400 service hours.

Christmas is a time for celebration. However, due to financial constraints, many families in Mainland China are incapable to make proper arrangements to celebrate the festive with their children. These circumstances motivate NWDS Volunteer Team to host Christmas parties across the country for under-resourced children starting from 2014. NWDS attaches great importance to children’s holistic development. Thus, this year’s Christmas party used table tennis as the theme and organized a nationwide voluntary activity called “Busy Ping Pong”. Table tennis, a healthy sport for people of all ages, can help improve the coordination and agility of body as well as fostering interaction among players. In December 2015, the volunteer teams of NWDS stores across the country transformed themselves into Santa Claus and carried gifts to numerous destinations across the country, namely Tianshan No.2 Primary School, Chongqing Love Manor and Panlong Special School where they played table tennis games, such as “Ping Pong Relay”, “Happy Ping Pong Driver” and “Trembling for Fitness”, with under-resourced children. Volunteers and children were very committed and worked closely together to complete the games. In addition, the volunteer teams also accompanied children to create table tennis-inspired handicrafts which they transformed ordinary table tennis balls, paper and paper cups into creative pieces such as Santa Claus, helicopters, flower bouquet and pop-up pictures. More than 150 volunteers participated in the event and contributed over 400 service hours, benefiting over 650 under-resourced children.

To drive more people to join its alliance to care for migrant children in the cities, NWDS launched a WeChat game called “Busy Golden Ping Pong” at its official WeChat account NWDS from 17 to 31 December 2015. It managed to draw over 8,000 online users to join the game to send their best wishes to under-resourced children.

Ms. Violet Chan, Assistant General Manager of Corporate Affairs and Chairman of Sustainability Steering Committee of NWDS, said, “The true meaning of Christmas is all about sharing. Upon the reception of blessings from friends to others, one should pass it on to others to make the festival more meaningful. It is exactly the reason why NWDS has hosted this festive-sports hybrid voluntary activity across the country in Christmas for two consecutive years to encourage volunteers to share their festive joy to under-resourced children. In this new year, I hope everyone can enrich their and others’ lives by caring for under-privileged groups in society in their spare times.”

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