Business Traveller (BT) and Chi Heng Foundation (CHF) are working together to bring reading and education facilities to villages in the Anhui and Henan provinces of China that have been impacted by AIDS.
The Reading Rooms, designed by students of Beijing’s Tsing Hua University Architectural School, are based on blueprints of a two-room, fully furnished hotel suite with books, games, teaching aids and audio-visual equipment.
Rooms can be used for art appreciation sessions, music or film shows, and a variety of educational therapy sessions, and school and CHF staff will monitor facilities for at least a year.
Funding comes in the form of bids collected during BT’s 2007-08 Silent Auction, and a total of four Business Traveller Reading Rooms will be built using that auction’s funds. The first BT Reading Room has already opened at Fuyang, Anhui, on May 19 at a ceremony attended by BT managing director, Asia, Peggy Teo. News footage on Sina.com available here.
News Video: Sina.com
This year’s Silent Auction is set to launch on November 1, 2009 and will run through to February 28, 2010. Bids and donations will go to the funding of more Reading Rooms.
Joshua Tan
