On October 17, the Walt Disney Company (Shanghai) Ltd. and the China Red Cross “Jet Li One Foundation Plan” inaugurated its first collaboration-“The Disney Fun House” in Shanghai’s Children’s Palace.  Mr. Zhang Zhizhong, Executive Vice-President and Director General Manager, and Mr. Jet Li, founder, respectively, were joined by NBA legends George Gervin and Rick Barry who donated their time to nearly 100 children. 

Wearing the red scarves of China’s “Young Pioneers,” presented to them by the children, Zhang Zhizhong, Jet Li, George Gervin and Rick Barry all joined hands with them to inaugurate “The Disney Fun House”. Here, children are given an interactive environment with stimulating books, movies and cartoons, all kinds of games, and new media where they can hang out and play with their parents and other children.

As opposed to the initial “Fun House” established by Disney, this first collaboration with One Foundation has another goal: to provide help to the children suffering from mental health challenges.  By inviting doctors to carry to analyze and treat children with ADD and autism,  “Fun House” hopes to provide some professional guidance to parents and guardians.  In recent years some of these issues have been on the rise.  Statistics show that the percentage of children  between the ages of 4 and 16 suffering from mental health issues in both urban and rural areas reaches as high as 14.89% and growing. Disney’s “Fun House” aims to help the children who need help by providing an environment of care and happiness, and cultivating their responsibility to help others in return.

As the world’s leading company for family entertainment, Walt Disney has been dedicated to implementing the social responsibilities of the enterprise, focusing on children and family, and has expanded its charitable activities in China, and so it made sense for them to collaborate with the One Foundations concepts. A

Talking about the first cooperation, Mr. Zhang Zhizhong, executive vice president and director general manager of the large China Region of Walt Disney Company (Shanghai) Ltd., introduced that “the tenet of charity activities of Disney is to ignite the children’s hope.  The company carries out charity activities in different forms every year to give back the society.  The “Disney Fun House” provides an environment full of care and love so as to let them learn new knowledge from outside and enhance their abilities in all aspects.  We are proud that we are bringing happiness to children through this. We hope that through our cooperation in the future, we will continue to see more Disney Fun Houses”.

Jet Li, founder of One Foundation Plan, is also proud on the mutual cooperation.  “Before we established the care centers with the Red Cross in colleges nationwide, and today we expand that care to younger children.  The reason to choose Disney as a partner was not only because of their consistency in caring for children but also because of their continuous dedication to charity and its unique influence in children’s hearts.  Today we have two more volunteers to One Foundation, NBA superstars and role-models, George Gervin and Rick Barry. Through them we are spreading the message of care to more people.

After the ceremony, the sponsors invited five kids with infantile autism to play with Zhang Zhizhong, Jet Li, George Gervin and Rick Barry. They read and told stories with the children, spending the good time together.  In addition, One Foundation invited four children that have leukemia to watch the the first game of NBA China held in Shanghai on the same night, a match between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic Team, with Mr. Jet Li and Mr. Zhang Zhizhong.