China Telecom Americas Inspires Chinese Business Community to Help American Students Affected by COVID-19

“The REAL Initiative” sees first batch of donations

WASHINGTON, April 28, 2020 – China Telecom (Americas) Corporation (CTA)’s donation of surplus computers to the George Mason University Foundation inspired a whole new nationwide campaign organized by the China General Chamber of Commerce – U.S.A (CGCC) to help American university students affected by COVID-19 with their “Remote Education And Living” needs – “The REAL Initiative” calls on CGCC’s member companies to donate their company surplus computers and cash to emergency assistance programs in American universities across the country.

Since the Coronavirus outbreak, CTA has launched various donation campaigns to support healthcare providers, essential workers, and local communities in the U.S. Education has been a focal point of CTA’s corporate social responsibility efforts. According to CTA President Xu Tan, “CTA donated tens of thousands of units of medical supplies, but there are many unique communities who need unique kinds of help. The surplus computer donations are an innovative way to leverage untapped resources to help student communities during state-mandated ‘shelter-in-place’, where remote education all of sudden became a necessity. Many students simply lack the hardware.”

“However, we also realized that the strength of a single company was far from adequate.” Tan added, “CTA reached out to CGCC, which is the largest non-profit organization representing Chinese businesses in the US. CGCC embraced this idea and created the REAL Initiative, so all of its 1,500 member companies can pitch in.”

Within its first week, the initiative has gathered more than $33,000 worth of cash and computers. Beside CTA, the donors also included CGCC’s DC Chapter and its member company Sun Fiber.

Rose Pascarell, Vice President of University Life at George Mason University, extended sincere appreciation for these donations, “in less than one month, George Mason University has received applications from over 1,500 students requesting emergency funding totaling over $2.6 million. Mr. Xu Tan has been one of the strong community leaders who came to our aid. The timely and generous support from Sun Fiber, CTA and CGCC-DC will enable us to directly support Mason students, whose emergency financial needs have placed them in academic and personal jeopardy as a result of the pandemic. We are deeply grateful.”