Home Sweet Home cares for those with special needs, builds their character in a loving home environment and develops their skills through education, training and employment.

Austcham Shanghai supports the Training & Job Placement Program. This program provides transformational opportunities for homeless disabled people to gain life skills, vocational skills and technical skills which enables them to gain employment and independent living after 2 years with Home Sweet Home. Funds will help to cover the rent for training facilities.

Mifan Mama was founded in early 2009 by a group of expatriates visiting a privately run orphanage in rural Anhui. Seeing the need there they returned to Shanghai with a determination to improve the quality of life for the children there. First was food. Rice and other basic staples were delivered monthly and with the support of United Family Hospital Staff, several children received medical assistance in Shanghai and had life enhancing and life saving surgeries. The scope of assistance grew and out of that came other projects - Boxes of Love, Medical Support, Education Support and most recently in June 2012, Shining Star, a residential foster care facility for blind and partially sighted orphans based in QingPu District.

Since opening Shining Star it has been increasingly obvious that many children suffering from visual difficulties also have other problems, many of which are mobility related. Many of these problems can be alleviated with simple physical therapies to ensure the children are able to move around safely and benefit from the training.

Since February 2014 Mifan Mama has been a registered charity in the UK.

AustCham Shanghai provides funding for specialist equipment for pediatric physical therapy. These funds help to improve the physical and occupational therapies offered as part of life skills and self-care programmes and open the door to children residing in other orphanage facilities in Shanghai.

Netspring Social Enterprise is a pioneering social enterprise in China which strives to achieve a sustainable business model in order to educate poverty-stricken children and protect the environment at the same time. This is achieved through the implementation of green IT classrooms building.

Vision:

• Support rural education and help vulnerable groups

• Support environmental protection and circular economy

• Be a pioneering and sustainable social enterprise in China

Mission:

• Build green IT classrooms and train underprivileged children and their teachers

• Recycle e-waste in China by arranging the certified disposal or renewal of obsolete electronics

• Mobilize all stakeholders such as companies, institutions or universities, in our mission

AustCham Shanghai encourages the community to support Netspring Social Enterprise by donating electronic equipment to be re-engineered for use in green IT classrooms.

The Renewal Center, Shanghai is a drop-in resource center and employment assistance initiative for Shanghai’s homeless population. Established in 2008 as a grassroots civil society organization in Shanghai, the center currently receives around 70-80 guests weekly for basic services of showers and laundry. The majority of its guests are male rural-urban migrants and over half were born after 1980. Their soft-skills training program and employment assistance initiative began in 2009 in cooperation with MAYA and also spurred the launch of our citizenship assistance and residency programs.

Shanghai Roots & Shoots advances the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment of all living things.

The goals of all Roots & Shoots programs are:

•To implement positive change through active learning about, caring for, and interacting with the environment;

•To enhance understanding between individuals of different cultures, ethnic groups, religions, socio-economic levels, and nations through our global communication network;

•To help young people develop self-respect, confidence in themselves, and hope for the future.

AustCham Shanghai supports the KidStrong Dental and Eye Care Expansion. Through the program the children from partner migrant schools are educated on the importance of good personal hygiene and healthy eating habits. The children receive eye exams and dental checkups as part of the program.