Jingyan Philanthropic Partners with Sandu County, Guizhou to Launch Zero Thalassemia Plan Pilot, Building a New Frontline in Thalassemia Prevention and Control

Jingyan Philanthropic Partners with Sandu County, Guizhou to Launch Zero Thalassemia Plan Pilot, Building a New Frontline in Thalassemia Prevention and Control

On June 5, 2025, the Beijing Jingyan Foundation officially signed a cooperation agreement with Sandu Shui Autonomous County, Guizhou Province to implement the Zero Thalassemia Plan. This marks the first nationwide rollout of the initiative in China’s only Shui Autonomous County, following pilot programs in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan and Luodian, Guizhou, aimed at eliminating the harm caused by severe thalassemia.

The collaboration will adopt a three-pronged approach—medical assistance, public education, and policy innovation—to help Sandu County achieve Zero Thalassemia as soon as possible and lay a solid health foundation in key rural areas targeted for revitalization.

Building Love in Sandu: Advancing Thalassemia Prevention and Rural Revitalization in Tandem

Sandu Shui Autonomous County, designated as a key county for China’s rural revitalization program, still faces challenges in certain remote areas, including limited public health resources, low disease awareness among residents, and insufficient professional capacity in thalassemia diagnosis and treatment. Thalassemia, a hereditary blood disorder, poses significant risks: if both parents are carriers, their children have a 25% chance of developing severe thalassemia, requiring lifelong blood transfusions or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. This not only creates a heavy financial burden for families but also impacts local population health and economic development.

In September 2023, Beijing Jingyan Foundation organized a Good Deeds in China campaign in Sandu County, bringing in leading hematology experts to conduct a training program on the diagnosis and treatment of severe thalassemia in Guizhou Province. The experts provided hands-on training for local grassroots medical staff and carried out free medical consultations and screenings to support thalassemia prevention and control. After more than a year of research and exploration, and with the joint efforts of Beijing Jingyan Foundation, the Guizhou Provincial Department of Civil Affairs, and the Sandu County Government, the Zero Thalassemia Plan has now officially been launched in Sandu.

The Zero Thalassemia Plan is a pilot project officially launched by Beijing Jingyan Foundation in 2023. By implementing the dual-track strategy of “supporting existing patients while preventing new cases,” the initiative aims to bring the number of children with severe thalassemia in high-incidence areas closer to zero. Pilot programs have previously been carried out in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, and Luodian, Guizhou. The launch of the Zero Thalassemia Plan in Sandu County represents a critical step in helping ethnic minority regions build comprehensive thalassemia prevention and control systems, while also serving as a practical measure to promote rural revitalization through healthcare support.

From Treatment to Prevention: A Full-Chain Intervention Contributing the “Sandu Model” to a Healthier China

According to the agreement, the collaboration between Beijing Jingyan Foundation and Sandu County covers multiple dimensions, including comprehensive medical support, the expansion of public awareness networks, and policy innovation mechanisms.

The Foundation will provide hematopoietic stem cell transplantation funding for eligible children with severe thalassemia in Sandu County (up to RMB 50,000 per child) and will offer additional medical subsidies (up to RMB 30,000 per child) for patients experiencing severe postoperative infections or transplant rejection. For orphans, families with multiple thalassemia-affected children, and other particularly vulnerable groups, the Foundation will also provide extra living subsidies to help these families overcome difficulties.

In addition, Beijing Jingyan Foundation will collaborate with the Sandu County Health Commission, Women’s Federation, and other local departments, leveraging grassroots personnel such as village doctors, women’s directors, and child welfare officers. Through educational videos and household outreach, the program will focus on newlyweds and pregnant women to promote thalassemia screening and genetic counseling, aiming to reduce the birth rate of children with severe thalassemia at the source.

Sandu County will also establish a Thalassemia Prevention and Control Leadership Group to integrate resources from the health, civil affairs, and education sectors, forming a “screening–diagnosis–treatment–follow-up” closed-loop management system. Over time, this model is expected to generate replicable prevention and control experience for ethnic minority areas nationwide.

At the signing ceremony, Ms. YE Zi, Secretary-General of Beijing Jingyan Foundation, stated that the Zero Thalassemia Plan is not only a medical goal but also an expression of social equity. She expressed hope that the Sandu pilot project will actively explore long-term mechanisms in which government, nonprofit organizations, and grassroots communities work together to break the cycle of poverty caused by disease and help the people of Sandu move toward shared prosperity. Meanwhile, the Foundation will collaborate with Sandu to promote a public health transition in high-thalassemia regions of China, shifting the focus from treating existing patients to preventing the disease before it occurs.

Beijing Jingyan Foundation is currently one of China’s leading nonprofit organizations focusing on thalassemia. Since launching the Building Love for Thalassemia Action project in 2018, the Foundation has actively supported children in need suffering from thalassemia and collaborated with local governments, hospitals, and enterprises to help high-incidence regions establish and improve thalassemia prevention and control systems, advancing China’s efforts to prevent and ultimately eliminate the disease.

To date, the Building Love for Thalassemia Action project has reached all thalassemia high-incidence areas across mainland China, assisting over 1,558 children with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and postoperative care, with total funding exceeding RMB 59.355 million.