Tsao Chung-gih, a 95-year-old man from Taiwan Province, has donated more than 160,000 wheelchairs to handicapped mainlanders over the past 16 years.
Tsao, a native of Changzhou City, east China's Jiangsu Province, went to Taiwan in 1949. In 1977, after he retired from business, Tsao set up the Tsao Chung-Gih Foundation. In 1990, Tsao donated the first lot of 136 wheelchairs to mainlanders,
Tsao has donated the wheelchairs through a "joint-funding" scheme, under which Tsao and mainland donors made equal donations to the recipients through arrangements with the China Disabled Persons' Federation and its subsidiary branches at all levels. The scheme aimed to encourage mainlanders to donate to people in need.
Over the past few decades, Tsao has donated wheelchairs not only to the mainland but also to dozens of foreign nations. He has also donated money to mainland areas that were devastated by natural disasters.
(Xinhua News Agency December 5, 2005)
