Golf tournament stumps up funds to help oral hygiene

Arrail Group Ltd, the high-end oral healthcare provider, recently raised nearly 70,000 yuan ($10,493) in the Beijing section of the sixth national Arrail Cup Charity Golf Tournament. The event aims to help improve the oral hygiene of orphans and disabled children in Henan, Guizhou and Hubei provinces, and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

The tournament, a joint effort between Arrail Group Ltd and the China Oral Health Foundation, is the only charitable golf competition in the domestic dental industry.

Arrail said it is using its advanced resources to contribute to society, enhancing people's awareness of oral health and drawing society's attention to orphans and disabled children's oral health. After the tournament, the company offered donors medical service stored-value cards for the value of the amount they donated.

"Over the past five years our customers, employees and partners have been enthusiastic about participating in the charitable project for orphans and disabled children in western China. And we will work closely with the China Oral Health Foundation, encouraging the community to focus on the project," said Arrail Founder and President Robert Zou.

Early in 2011, the foundation established the Comprehensive Orphans and Disabled Children Oral Disease Prevention Project. And since then, every year the company has donated all the money raised from the tournament to the project, enabling those children to make regular dental checkups.

"The oral disease prevention project is the only public health project for vulnerable children in China," said Zheng Shuguo, a professor at China Oral Health Foundation.

"In the future, our foundation will work together with Arrail, protecting those children's dental health."

Zheng added that up until now the project has covered 23 provinces and cities in China, providing oral health services for over 20,000 orphans and disabled children. He said the company wanted to offer comprehensive treatment services for those with severe oral disease.

According to company statistics, money raised from the annual charity golf tournaments normally totals around 150,000 yuan. Last year, the company raised more than 50,000 yuan in the tournament on the Beijing leg of the tournament.

At the end of October and early November, the company will hold the Arrail Cup Charity Golf Tournament in Shenzhen and Shanghai, aiming to involving more people in the charitable donation program.

ouyangshijia@chinadaily.com.cn