Xinhuanet.com, 22 November, Beijing China—China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF) and Ministry of Finance jointly launched “Sunshine Home program” in Beijing on Nov. 22, 2009. The Program is dedicated to foster care and household services for people with intellectually disabilities, mental disorders, and severe physical disabilities. From 2009 to 2011, the central government of China will allocate RMB 600 million (about US$ 87 million), i.e., RMB 200 million (about US$ 29 million) each year, to subsidize the social care centers and those providing household services for severely disabled people, including intellectually disabled people, so as to establish and improve the social care system for disabled people.

Commenting on the program, Mr. Cheng Kai, Vice-President of CDPF said, “the purpose of the ‘Sunshine Home Program’ is to promote the foster care services for disabled people across China through funding support from the central government, so as to establish the system and long-term mechanism for community and home based services for these people.”

The program focuses on providing financial subsidies for the dedicated foster care centers and families providing home-based services for disabled people, including public care centers set up by local government and disabled persons’ federations, and other non-profitable foster care institutions operated by other organizations and individuals. To receive the government subsidies, applicants need to reach certain criteria such as the facilities, staff, regulations and accessibility of the organization.

Relevant official said that the RMB 200 million funding for 2009 has already been distributed to all provinces across China according to their respective disabled people population and financial resources.

According to official statistics, China has over 830 million disabled people, among whom over 180 million people having intellectual disabilities, mental disorder and severe physical disabilities that require foster care services. Currently only around 100,000 people can get adequate care services, accounting for 0.56% of the total population that having such needs.