Huang Jiwen, the president of Health Express, a charity that has helped thousands of people regain their eyesight announced its plans for this year, on March 25.

Huang explained that they will dispatch four trains with medical equipment and specialists to Henan, Shanxi, Guangdong and six other provinces to help 12,000 poor people with cataract surgery.”

According to Ma Xiaowei, a vice-minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), Health Express, which was started in 1997, has achieved a great deal over the past 18 years, and he said he hoped it will continue to help the poor and that society will also pay more attention to disadvantaged people.

The organization uses the train as a mobile hospital, sending doctors to the remote rural areas for free eye surgery and, in their 18 years they have evolved as a charity by combining medical treatments, training, science skills and international exchanges.

Thanks to the program, there are 15 eye surgery training centers across the country, with help from eye doctors from Europe and North America who come to lecture, provide treatments, and give guidance to Chinese medical staff. This year, staff from the China Academy of Chinese Medical Science Eye Hospital, Peking University Hospital, and Peking University People’s Hospital will travel with the Health Express Project.