Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) will team up with Chinese health authorities to build a national training center for China's public health and disease control professionals.

The center will offer courses and distance learning to thousands of public health workers.

John Howe, the president and CEO of Project HOPE, an international health education and humanitarian assistance organization with operations in China since 1983, said the experience that HOPE has gained from its worldwide health education programs would be useful to China.

The goal of Project HOPE in China is to enable people in both rural and urban areas to benefit from health education and medical services, according to Howe.

Howe and the members of HOPE's Board of Directors discussed the training center project this weekend in Beijing with Ministry of Health (MOH) and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) leaders, including Vice Minister of Health Wang Longde.

The training center is expected to function next year as a part of the CDC.

Health education among the Chinese general public, especially in the rural areas, is backward and increasing the number of trained health workers would give it the urgent boost that it needs, said Mao Qun'an, an MOH spokesman.

Founded in 1958, Project HOPE is dedicated to providing lasting solutions to health problems. Its mission is to train professionals to provide people with the tools to help themselves.

HOPE has carried out many national health education programs in China relating to a range of diseases and conditions including diabetes and heart disease, and cooperates with nearly 300,000 doctors throughout the Chinese mainland.

Howe said that the Chinese are very caring people, and he feels good that HOPE's work can make a difference in their lives.

(China Daily April 3, 2006)