On April 25, Cui Li, vice-president of the Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation Commission (GNFCC) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), attended the 2024 Lifeline Express Departure Ceremony, which also functioned as a press briefing for unveiling the annual plan of the Lifeline Express initiative for 2024, in Beijing. Cui presented a flag to the medical team at the ceremony.

At the press briefing, Chinese Foundation for Lifeline Express briefed on the progress of the Lifeline Express programs and released its 2024 work plan.

According to the work plan, in 2024, two Lifeline Express trains departing from Beijing will provide free surgical operations for cataract patients. Additionally, medical teams of the Lifeline Express will travel to remote areas that are inaccessible by the train hospital to deliver door-to-door medical services to cataract patients.

Since its launch in SCO countries in 2019, the Lifeline Express Belt and Road International Sight Saving Mission program has provided free cataract surgeries for patients across SCO countries, which reflects the international humanitarian spirit and has been highly praised by the governments, patients, and the ophthalmology sector in these countries.

In 2024, the program will send medical teams to countries such as Tajikistan to provide medical aid, and donations will be delivered for the construction of cooperation centers for blindness prevention, in a bid to continue serving local patients, strengthen people-to-people connectivity and strengthen international health cooperation among SCO countries.

Representatives from the National Health Commission of China, the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the CPC Central Committee, China Railway Group Limited, the Executive Committee of the Lifeline Express Hong Kong Foundation and Chinese Foundation for Lifeline Express, as well as medical staff who undertook the 2019 Lifeline Express programs also attended the event.