Kan Lijun gives a public lecture to children in a mountainous area. [Beijing Youth Daily]

Kan Lijun, president of the China Foundation of Culture and Arts for Children (CFCAC), won the China Charity Award issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs on September 13, along with 27 others, where she was named as a Charity Role Model.
On hearing the news, Kan said: "Doing charity is good medicine for me. Everything I do is purifying my heart. I am willing to devote my life to children's public welfare."
Kan worked as a famous TV host in the 80s. At the New Star Concert held at the Capital Stadium in 1980, she faced 18,000 spectators and interacted with the audiences in such an intimate and natural way that she received high praise.
Kan, a household name, also served as assistant to the head of China National Song and Dance Ensemble and chief producer of the program "Celebrity Interview" on Beijing TV. She participated in planning, production and presenting many large-scale performances. Owing to her accomplishments, she was awarded outstanding expert by the former Ministry of Culture and enjoyed special allowances from the State Council.
In the past 10 years, Kan has gradually faded away from the limelight and crossed over into the public welfare sector. In 2014, she was appointed president of CFCAC. From then on, she has devoted most of her time and efforts to children's causes.
Speaking of her transformation, Kan says she just stepped in at a time when the Foundation was having difficulties in its operation. With Kan's great efforts in a year, the endangered foundation was put back on the right track. "The pursuit of public benefit is a good medicine for me," she said, "It gives me a sense of mission and pushes me forward. And the pressure involved is also a sort of driving force for me as well."
Kan's love for this job is reflected in her every move. In an orphan school, she learned that the children there, disregard their ages, are all materially sufficed, and yet they are no equipped with any occupational skills to support them in their later life. She therefore decided to invite experts in embroidery, Peking Opera, traditional instruments and other fields to teach the children over the weekends.
"It's utterly beyond my words to describe the sort of feeling to see these orphans go from unable to accomplish anything to being able to acquire a skill in just a few months," Kan said.
Kan also thinks that it is more important to assist youth in poverty alleviation.
She advocates public welfare in the form of art. Therefore, as a member of the Central Committee of the Democratic Progressive Party and a member of the 12th Beijing municipal committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), she explained that assistance to teens should not be confined at the material level, instead, she thinks cultural poverty alleviation is all the more important.
In addition to devoting herself to public welfare, Kan also actively mobilizes her friends in the literary and artistic circles to devote themselves to public welfare and makes every effort to promote children's culture and education. She said the power of art can reach the depths of every person.