Cui Li, vice-minister of National Health Commission, visited Ji’an city in East China's Jiangxi province, a station of the Lifeline Express, to inspect the charity program's poverty relief work on Oct 13.

Lifeline Express, founded in 1997, is a mobile eye-hospital train offering free operations to cataract patients.

Cui Li, vice-minister of National Health Commission, talks with cataract patients on the Lifeline Express.

Cui visited cataract victims and had an informal discussion with relevant medical and local health officials. 

She greeted medical workers on duty and asked the process of cataract victims’ screenings and surgical operations.

Cui said that over the past 21 years the Lifeline Express stopped at more than 100 stations in 28 provinces and provided free surgical operations for nearly 200,000 cataract patients in poverty throughout China. 

The charity program not only helped patients see the world again, but also helped them get away from poverty caused by diseases. Therefore, the Lifeline Express is also an important part of poverty relief, said Cui.

Cui Li, vice-minister of the National Health Commission, visits medical workers on the Lifeline Express on Oct 13 in Ji'an, Jiangxi province.