Opportunities introduces significant charitable, cultural, and educational projects that seek American business support and aims to assist companies in identifying programs meriting their assistance. The materials contained in Opportunities are boiled down; our goal is to provide contact information and only the most skeletal description of each organization's interests. I strongly encourage interested companies to make direct contact with the programs contained here, so that each firm can review for itself the more-detailed materials that individual organizations can provide.

The importance of American corporate participation in programs that bring benefit to the people of China and strengthen the bonds of US-China friendship beyond the commercial realm cannot be overstated. We congratulate the many American firms that support a wide range of important and positive efforts in China and hope that Opportunities will help companies to explore new ways of making a difference.

Robert A. Kapp
President, The US-China Business Council

(Note: The purpose of Opportunities is to facilitate direct contact between interested companies and project developers. The US-China Business Council is not a sponsor of any project listed in Opportunities and makes no recommendation with regard to corporate assistance to any specific project.)

US Institution:	Special Olympics, Inc.
Chinese Institution:	Special Olympics East Asia Chinese Programs
Project Description:	Special Olympics' mission is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for individuals with mental retardation.

Special Olympics China is now the world's fastest growing Special Olympics program, with more than 100,000 athletes competing in local events year round. Shanghai will host the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games, one of the world's preeminent events highlighting the gifts and potential of people with mental retardation. Written into government policy and partnered with the country's largest disability group, the China Disabled Person's Federation, Special Olympics China is well o its way to expanding its promotion of volunteerism, education, and health screening efforts as it works to reach a goal of 500,000 athletes by 2005.

US Institution:	US-China Environmental Fund (USCEF)
Chinese Institution:	Wolong (Giant Panda) Nature Reserve Administration, Sichuan
Project Description:	The Giant Pandas of Wolong: Donations for panda educational exhibits and investments for a sustainable development model

The project presents unique donor and investor opportunities at China's Wolong Nature Reserve. Home to the largest populations of captive and wild Giant Pandas in the world, the Wolong Nature Reserve is recognized in China and around the globe as the leading center for sustaining the Giant Panda. Founded in 1963, Wolong will celebrate its 40th anniversary this October. On this occasion, USCEF will present an integrated master plan for Wolong's breeding center, located at the heart of the nature reserve. The State Forestry Administration, which oversees the reserve, just granted Wolong $500,000 to replace old cement panda cages with large, natural enclosures and construct new buildings for educational exhibits based on USCEF's plan. USCEF is now seeking donations to produce educational exhibits and materials for Wolong and for touring exhibitions. The plan also calls for the construction of a conference facility, including a hotel, which will become a model for sustainable development to produce revenue for conservation programs at Wolong. For further information about donor and investment opportunities associated with conserving the Giant Panda, please contact USCEF.

US Institution:	US-China Environmental Fund (USCEF)
Chinese Institution:	Municipal Education Commissions and Environmental Protection Bureaus
Project Description:	Theater for Environmental Awareness: Promoting environmental awareness through the performance arts

This corporate citizenship program provides employee participation and corporate sponsorship opportunities for a youth initiative that not only has a proven track record in Beijing, but has received strong government support and prominent media attention. The Theater for Environmental Awareness (TEA) has a two-step process to help Chinese youth express their environmental concerns. First, TEA trains teachers and community group leaders in improvisational theater techniques and script development in intensive workshops led by US theater professionals. Second, certified Chinese TEA teachers lead students through a series of exercises that enable the students to create and perform their own dramas. TEA enjoys strong support among Chinese officials since it fulfills China's call for educational reform by introducing participatory, interactive teaching methods.

USCEF's Beijing office is ready to extend the TEA program to Chinese communities where corporate sponsors have operations. Contributions are needed for workshops to train and certify TEA teachers, for hands-on teacher's manuals, for summer camp scholarships, and for the "adopt a TEA school" program. Corporations can directly support area schools by funding performances and by funding TEA-certified trainers for after-school programs. TEA activities can also be targeted to specific geographic areas or focus on employee training (to strengthen leadership qualities or team-building exercises). TEA performances can be organized on any topic or theme (public health, science and technology, etc.) for corporate special events. For further information please contact USCEF.

Chinese Institution:	Golden Key Research Center of Education for the Visually Impaired
Project Description:	To provide education for blind children in China to enable them to support themselves as adults

In cooperation with the Education Commission and local governments, the center sets up education centers and trains teachers so that blind children can enroll in their local village schools and study in the same class as sighted children. The center also publishes Ode to Joy, a magazine for blind children, and has held various activities, such as summer camp, for blind children. It also runs a rehabilitation center in Tai'an, Shandong, for adults who have lost their sight.

The Golden Key Center seeks funding to extend successful models developed in Guangxi and Inner Mongolia to other western regions, particularly Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia; broaden opportunities for vocational training for visually impaired students; increase international cooperation to develop community partnerships and academic exchanges; and raise social awareness. Golden Key receives no government funding.

Chinese Institution:	Sheng Gu Temple Restoration Foundation
Project Description:	Restoration of Sheng Gu Temple in Anping County, Hebei

The Sheng Gu Temple Restoration Foundation is a nongovernmental, nonprofit Chinese organization established to raise money for the reconstruction of the Sheng Gu Temple. The original Sheng Gu Temple was built at the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220), in the traditional Chinese architectural style of all-wooden construction--not a single nail was used. It stood on the same site until 1938, when the Chinese army, suspecting that Japanese troops were using the temple to store ammunition, burned the entire complex to the ground.

The organization is unique in that it is the first to unite Chinese citizens and foreigners together to restore a site of Chinese religious and cultural heritage. The foundation will be responsible for fundraising for and overseeing the restoration process. After construction is complete, responsibility for the temple's management and upkeep will be passed to the appropriate bureau in Anping. Because Chinese law prohibits nonprofits from establishing parallel foundations outside China, the foundation has been unable to incorporate or apply for 501(c)3 status in the United States, but tax deductible contributions can be arranged by contacting the organization directly.

Chinese Institution:	Stars and Rain Education Institute for Autism (Stars and Rain)
Project Description:	Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) emergency support

Stars and Rain, founded in 1993 by a parent of an autistic child, is the first educational organization to serve children with autism in China. The organization provides individual therapy for children with autism, ages 3 to 12. Teaching techniques are based on applied behavior analysis (ABA), a method recognized in the United States. The goal of Stars and Rain is to help parents obtain knowledge about autism and the ABA approach so that they can teach and help their children in daily life. Over the last 10 years, Stars and Rain has served more than 2,000 families from across China. It now has a waiting list.

The SARS virus inflicted heavy damage on Stars and Rain. The school had to shut in April when an intern researcher was infected. Fearing the spread of SARS, Stars and Rain canceled the next semester, which more than 50 families were planning to attend. Because of the cancellation, Stars and Rain will lose a quarter of its income in 2003. The school depends on a combination of fees and donations and has no access to government funding. Chinese families with disabled children have no support from the government or social insurance. Help from international organizations has played an important role for Stars and Rain. Because the organization has fallen into special difficulty, it is appealing for donations from international sources.