Planting trees in the rain 

On March 7, a group of volunteers planted trees despite of the rain. Meanwhile, they called for more pubic participation in the volonteer work in an effort to make our city greener.

International Women's Day celebration kicks off

In celebration of International Women's Day on March 8th, Zhenhai District launched a one-week campaign on March 6.

Migrant kids learning with volonteer teachers

Volunteers are teaching kids how to build an electric toy car in a primary school for migrant children in Jiangdong District.

National Ear Care Day sets in Ningbo

With the coming of the 13th National Ear Care Day on March 3, Yinzhou District held various activities to publicize awareness about taking care of ears.

Charity sales in Ningbo University

Students of Ningbo University are selling their books to collect money for "Hope Project" schools.

Plum in flower

Plum in flower

The 9th Plum Flower Festival of Jiufeng Mountain in Beilun District opened.

My paper cut portrait of Lei Feng

My paper cut portrait of Lei Feng

Pupils of a primary school in Jiangdong District are learning paper cutting, in celebration of the 50 anniversary of Lei Feng

Let's learn from Lei Feng

Let's learn from Lei Feng

Recently a team of volunteers named "Lei Feng Team" was set up in a community in Jiangdong District.

Public call for organ donations

Today marks the seventh World Kidney Day, the theme of which this year is "Donate-- Kidneys for Life --Receive". Public support for organ donation is vital so that more patients with kidney failures can have the opportunity to receive kidney transplants and more lives can be saved.

According to Bao Beiyan, director of Nephrology Division in No.2 Yinzhou Hospital, chronic kidney disease is proved highly prevalent in China, with one patient out of ten people. A large number of patients with chronic kidney disease worsen into uremia. There are more than two million uremic patients in China now, and chronic kidney failure has become one of the leading causes for death. In Ningbo, the number of patients with chronic kidney disease is on the rise. Statistics show that in 2011 Nephrology division in No.2 Yinzhou Hospital accepted 21,829 outpatients, an increase of 18% over 2010.

Although hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis are able to renew the lives of patients, they suffer great pains from long-term dialysis. Usually, a patient needs to receive 4-5 hour hemodialysis two or three times a week, which is both time-consuming and costly for their families. There are still a lot of inconvenience although some patients are able to conduct self-operation at home under professional guidance.

Kidney transplant is proved the most successful one among all organ transplants. A uremic patient can be cured after transplantation and lead a normal family life again. Yao Xuping, head of No.2 Yinzhou Hospital, said kidney transplant is a relatively mature technology. They have carried out 1020 kidney operations since the first kidney transplant in 1992, the success rate being 99%.

However, due to the severe shortage of human organs in China, every year less than one percent of uremic patients are fortunate enough to receive kidney transplants. Since the implementation of the Human Organ Transplantation Regulation in 2007, organ donation becomes the only source of organ transplants in China.

In December 2011, Ningbo became the pilot city of the human organ donation. A year later, Sun Yonghai from Northeast China became the first donor by donating his liver, two kidneys, and cornea, bringing new life to five people. His noble act has inspired more citizens to join the voluntary organ donation. According to the Ningbo Red Cross, the number of organ donators has risen from 32 in December 2011 to the current 169, with three become actual organ donors. However, with hundreds of thousands of uremic patients who are waiting for kidney transplants, organ donators are still in desperate need.

Foreign Lei Feng in Ningbo

On March 4, a newspaper in Zhejiang Province published a report titled "foreign Lei Feng who support 15 poor children in China ". The story is about a foreign professor who funded 15 needy students within a few years. The professor's good deeds have won him wide respect and admiration.

Days ago, many readers called the newspaper or left messages on their microblogs to express their admiration to Professor Craig Fleming from University of Nottingham in Ningbo, and their willingness to help him in his charity work. Yin Xiaoguo, a high school teacher in Fenghua, was among the first callers. Having been a teacher for 25 years, Mr. Yin is also a charity volunteer who has funded three university students and two pupils.

At 9:00 on the 7th, Mr. Yin had a brief telephone conversation with the personal assistant of Professor Fleming. According to the assistant, Professor Fleming plans to support another 10 needy girls in Ningbo. Mr. Yin has promised to offer help by finding the needy children and emailing the information of these children to Professor Fleming.

The story of Professor Fleming, which has been reprinted by both Ningbo Daily News (Sina microblogging) and the Ningbo Daily network (www.nbrb.com.cn,), has immediately aroused great concern of among the netizens.

Spring tea available in the market

On March 7, despite the rainy weather, people could still feel the warm atmosphere in greenhouses in Fuquanshan tea plantation located in Ningbo East Lake tourist resort, where tea-picking workers were busy picking the tender buds on the tea tree.

The Fuquanshan tea plantation is the first profit maker in this spring. Due to the rainy and cold weather this year, the spring tea grown in open farmland will arrive on markets late than usual. With a total investment of 60 million yuan, the plantation built as an agricultural technology demonstration park last year is a modern steel frame greenhouse with 5,000 square meters in area. The harvest in the greenhouse comes more than 10 days earlier than the ordinary tea plantations.

The head of the plantation said, “we only picked 15 kilograms of fresh leaves yesterday, which means we can get 5 kg fried tea. It is known that tea grown in greenhouse tastes not as good as those grown in open farm in flavor, so the price is a little bit lower. However, being so rare in market, the tea can still be priced as high as 4,000 yuan per kilogram.

Govt employees participate in voluntary tree-planting yesterday

On the morning of March 6, the government employees in charge of publicity, construction and agriculture, together with PLA troops stationed in Ningbo, participated in a voluntary tree-planting work in East Lake Park in Ningbo. The volunteer work, which is expected to last for three days, has attracted more than 700 participants.

This is the 22nd year for the Ningbo municipal government to organize voluntary tree-planting activity

NPC Deputy: Tengtou to monitor PM2.5

According to the Xinhua News Agency, Fu Qiping, deputy of National People's Congress, and Party Chief of Tengtou village in Fenghua, Zhejiang Province, voiced the villagers’ concern on environmental protection.

Fu said the local government has submitted an application of PM2.5 monitoring to the local environmental department. Besides an air monitoring station previously built, the local environmental department will add more equipment on PM2.5 monitoring in this village

UNDP seeks co-ops with Ningbo

"We hope to share Ningbo's experience in developing micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and social integrated management with the whole world, and let the world know Ningbo." Ms. Renata Dessallien, deputy from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), told a reporter from Ningbo Evening News on the afternoon of March 6.

Ms. Renata Dessallien, UNDP Resident Representative for China, is in charge of coordinating more than 20 UN branches in China. She said, "The  manufacturing industry in Ningbo is so developed that it goes far beyond my imagination. Encouraged by the policy of opening and innovation, Ningbo has really made remarkable progress in areas like sustainable development, social harmony and public service. "

It is learned that UNDP and Ningbo municipal government has reached an agreement on  co-operation projects of the integrated management of medium and small-sized rivers.

"Currently, most of the small and medium-sized rivers suffer from mismanagement, water deterioration and low standard of disaster prevention, thus it is extremely urgent for China to manage and control the small and medium-sized rivers." said Ms. Renata Dessallien. UNDP aims to summarize the experience of domestic and international river management and create a typical small and medium-sized river pilot project for showcasing. They also are committed to set a standard for the management of small and medium-sized rivers in China under the impact of global climate change. Meanwhile, they plan to carry out personnel training program on international cooperation in an effort to improve the technical level and management capabilities in Ningbo and other areas in China. In addition, Ningbo is located in southeast coast in China, showing there is much room for cooperation between Ningbo and UNDP in the field of marine development and environmental governance.

Ms. Renata Dessallien also shows great interest in Ningbo's experience in the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. She expressed her wish to bring Ningbo’s experience to the world while introducing international advanced technology and experience to Ningbo

Grads with doctor degrees compete for village officials

The recruitment of college graduates to serve as village officials has come to an end recently. According to statistics released by the Organization Department of Ningbo Municipal Party Committee and Human Resources and Social Security Bureau on March 5, two candidates with Ph.D have applied for the positions in rural area. This is the first time to see Phd candidates to apply for village positions.

According to statistics, a total of 6,000 people have applied for positions in villages, among which 910 people choose to participate in the merit-based hiring and 5023 in the public selection. Much to the amazement of the examiners, many candidates are graduates from well-know universities with high degrees. There are 348 candidates from universities of 211 Projects and 985 Projects who choose to attend the merit-based selection. 493 candidates are honored graduates on provincial level or honored students in their schools, including 118 with master degrees and two with PhDs.

It is learned that Ningbo plans to employ 200,000 students-turned village officials, including 50 by merit-based selection and 230 by open selection. Besides, 20 candidates will join in the "Go West University Student Volunteer Service Plan" organized by the CYL Central Committee and " University Student Volunteer Service in Underdeveloped Areas Plan" launched by Zhejiang Province