China is aiming to offer free medical treatment to 30,000 handicapped orphans within three years.

The "Tomorrow Plan", funded by the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA), a three-year project that started in 2004, aims to give 30,000 handicapped orphans free operations.

There are approximately 66,000 orphans and abandoned babies living in welfare homes nationwide and about half of them are disabled.

"We have decided to extend aid to more handicapped children, whose families can not afford to pay for the operations," said DouYupei, Vice-Minister of Civil Affairs, when visiting hospitals that will perform the operations.

So far, about 16,000 disabled orphans have received surgery and rehabilitation. Compared with the country's total number of 573,000 orphans, with a large number of disabled ones yet to be counted, there is a lot of work to be done.

(Xinhua News Agency June 1, 2006)