Every September, RX people come together during RELX Cares Month to undertake all kinds of volunteering and fundraising activities in support of our local and global communities around the world.
Being part of RELX, RX offers two days of RELX Cares leave each year to employees worldwide to encourage their participation in volunteering and charitable activities. This past September, RX Greater China employees spent 184 hours of their RELX Cares time supporting a range of charitable organisations and communities close to their hearts.
Accompanying children with autism
The first stop for RX Greater China’s Cares Campaign was the Beijing Stars & Rain Educational Institute, China's first private, non-profit organization dedicated to providing educational services for children with autism and their families.
RX Beijing has supported the Institute for the past three years by providing volunteers to accompany the children, who are fondly referred to in China as ‘Children of Stars’. On September 15, 10 team members from RX Beijing went to Stars & Rain to receive an hour of professional training and then spend a meaningful afternoon with the children.
Depending on the different personalities and interests of the children, the volunteers accompanied them to read and play games, paying close attention at all times to ensure their safety. Some of the children were just reluctant to talk, and all they needed was a genuine and encouraging smile.
Caring for sick orphans
Shanghai Baby Home is a charity center that provides medical assistance and rehabilitation care for severely sick orphans.
Since the pandemic, Baby Home has ceased all visits to ensure the children's health. As an alternative to providing physical companionship, 16 volunteers from RX Shanghai continued the care initiative launched in 2019 by hand-stitching baby drool towels.
On September 22, a representative from the Baby Home visited the RX Shanghai office to tell the volunteers about the Baby Home and the routine life of the children, as well as to tutor the volunteers in sewing the drool towels. She also shared a moving video highlighting the children’s resilience, and the love and warmth they return to their volunteer mothers. RX China donated a total of RMB 9,600 to the Baby's Home to buy material kits for the drool towels.
Fueling children's dreams with knowledge
“In hope that their childhood will not only have the green of the mountains and the yellow of the land, but also the black words and the white paper in books." This was the initial wish of the Da Shan Xiao Ai Guizhou Mission Association when they started to collect books for the Qiaohe Library in Qianxinan, Guizhou Province.
Throughout September, the RX Greater China team collected a total of 452 children's books from friends, family and their own homes and donated them to the Qiaohe Library. They hope that their contributions to this rural library will help to provide the children with the power of wisdom and the peace and knowledge to fulfill their future dreams.
Walking for autism
In the midst of a busy work schedule and in keeping with the concept of low-carbon fitness, people throughout RX Greater China participated in a WeChat step donation campaign to support Stars & Rain's school wish fundraising campaign for autistic children.
RX participants in different cities actively invited their family, friends and even clients to join the campaign. The more steps they accumulated, the more money they raised. Many increased the time and frequency of their exercise, walking to and from work instead of taking public transport.
In all, 508 participants took more than 23.25 million steps. As a result, RX Greater China donated 5,000 RMB to the children of Stars & Rain to support the training of autism teachers and the families of autistic children, helping them to attend school as soon as possible.