Hong Kong stars Charlie Young and Gigi Leung gave a press conference on Friday, April 14th at the Kempinski Hotel in Beijing to share their achievements as UNICEF Ambassadors on their field trip to Guizhou province to help poor Children.

The Hong Kong stars and United Nations Children's Fund Ambassadors Charlie Young and Gigi Leung visited a UNICEF pilot project with the Chinese Government to improve the health and nutrition of mothers, called "The mother and baby package."

The two Ambassadors, in cooperation with the Hong Kong UNICEF Committee, spent four days in Guizhou province, seeing first hand how project activities are directly benefiting mothers and their babies. The project includes obstetric care, infant care, and care for sick children as well as the promotion of childhood growth and development. Training is being provided on parenting and child injury prevention in the home, while wider access to essential commodities such as nutritional supplements and iodized salt is also being promoted.

Although this is the third time Gigi Leung has visited this mountainous area of the Chinese mainland as UNICEF Ambassador, Gigi said it's still nonetheless difficult:

"It is very hard for me to calm my heart down every time, as the scenes we saw were so terrible. I hope we can do what we can to help the poor children. I hope we can bring our love and care to the pillars of our country."

But what do the children need most: money, education, or something else? Charlie Young had this to say:

"Honestly I think it is love, because love includes a lot of things. Under love there is education, because we all love them so we would like to educate them. You can also say it is money because when the children need to go to school or they need something else which we are able to provide for them to make them become a better person, that maybe money is involved, so I feel the most important thing is love. But actually love is not only for the kids. I feel that in the whole world, between friends or even your parents in the families, the most important thing is still love."

Regarding what the general public can do to help the poor children, Charlie Young said:

"I think as long as you have the heart to help them, you should always bear in mind that the mix of generations is so important, and they deserve a chance. We all have to remember this. And as for a way to help them, there are many ways: as parent, as friends, or as a teacher. The most important thing is you have to provide them with education, a good education system, to give them the correct knowledge. I think this is the most important thing."

Gigi Leung was moved when she net a 15 year old boy who looks more like 9 because he lacked nutrition and medical care.

"After the Guizhou visit, I plan to work on my new album. I'll also try to write songs, and include the experience of love between the poor brothers and sisters in my songs."

Representative of the Hong Kong UNICEF Committee, Long Hon Biu, also attended the press conference, in which he briefed more on the project's mission: 

"The maternal and children's health project aims to achieve three objectives. The primary objective is to ensure that every pregnant woman has access to the mother and baby package of essential health services, including guidance, medical and health services for expecting mothers before, during and after delivery of her baby. It will also cover children aged five years or under."

"Number two, is to ensure that young children may receive proper care through good guidance and household practices at different stages of development. The best way to achieve this aim is to educate families."

"Number three is to ensure that mothers and children may gain access to essential commodities. This project will be implemented as a five year plan in 13 provinces 50 counties, including Chongjiang in Guizhou, starting this year. And this is indeed the honor of Hong Kong Committee to participate in this very worthwhile project, as we know that UNICEF China will be working closely with the Chinese government in improving the health condition of women and children in China."

"Last but not the least, on behalf of the Hong Kong Committee, I would like to especially thank our two ambassadors, Ms. Gigi Leung and Ms. Charlie Young, for their dedication and unconditional love for the children and for making this very special visit to Guizhou. Thank you very much!"

Guizhou is one of China's very poorest provinces with a population of over 30 million and maternal and infant mortality rates which are higher than the national average. Under-nutrition rates are equally high and children are frequently much smaller than their ages would suggest.

UNICEF has been working with the Maternal and Child Health and Community Health Department of the Ministry of Health on developing a mother and child package of interventions in 50 counties in 13 provinces.