Zhang Quanling, a famous host on CCTV, posted her video and photos on weibo on August 20, and she nominated China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission to take the challenge. Forty minutes later, the NHFPC’s official weibo account “Healthy China” responded to the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness for rare diseases and patients. Mao Qun’an, director-general of the department of communication at the NHFPC as well as its spokesman, donated to the CCRD, which makes NHFPC the first Chinese ministry to participate in the challenge.

According to “Healthy China,” the morbidity rate of rare diseases is 0.65‰ to 1‰, and there are no effective treatments for them at present. The NHFPC has taken measures to standardize clinical techniques and strengthen the clinical pathway for years in order to upgrade medical diagnosis and treatment capacity for rare diseases. It also covered phenylketonuria under the new rural cooperative care system. In the future, the NHFPC will do its best to bring more hope and opportunities for patients suffering from rare diseases.

Zhang said in her weibo that help for rare disease patients fundamentally depends upon the government; that’s why she nominated the NHFPC. “They responded within 20 minutes, and promised to strengthen doctor training; their spokesman also made an individual donation.” This is the power of the public. Any governmental policies that need to be implemented well need the support of the public.

According to Wang Yi'ou, founder of CCRD, it has received about 1.4 million yuan ($227,569) in donations as of August 20. Actually, CCRD has made a lot of promotions in the past six years, but it failed to attract many people to pay attention to rare disorders and patients. She wants the public to learn more about rare disorder patients through the activity, making sure the group can get attention on healthcare, education and employment.