Eleven organizations and individuals from Jiangsu Province won the China Charity Awards issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs on September 5.

Volunteers from JORU Group

The winners included a group of 56 volunteers from JORU Group, which went to take care of 202 elderly residents in Wuhan, epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak last year.

David Chu (C) poses with students at a school built with his donation.

Also recognized by the ministry is 89-year-old David Chu En-yue, a native of Suzhou. A well-known entrepreneur and philanthropist, he has been committed to supporting China’s education for three decades, with schools built with his donation across the country.

Living a frugal life, he has donated over 400 million yuan to projects on the Chinese mainland. This included donations totaling 61.53 million yuan to Jiangsu Province from 2017 to 2019.

Zhang Jianbin (R), visits a patient at Zhongda Hospital Southeast University.

Zhang Jianbin, founder of WINFAST Charity Foundation, was also named on the list. The foundation has the largest starting fund in the province from both Zhang and his investment firm. In three years, Zhang has personally donated about 850 million yuan. The foundation also commits about 60 million yuan a year for healthcare relief programs and assistance to orphans and elderly people.

Jiangsu has 686 registered charitable organizations, among which 524 have assets above the threshold of more than 2 million yuan, and 19 charitable trusts with a fund of over 31 million yuan, according to the province’s Civil Affairs Department.

In 2020, Jiangsu’s charitable organizations received about 5.61 billion yuan in donations and about 4.93 billion yuan were provided for various charitable services.