Final Reports

Solar Electricity Generating Panels
for Yuanyi Village
Project Manager: Tsegyangtso (Lucy)
Women will have leisure time to join in village activities. The scores of the primary students will improve. Health problems related to the smoke from candles and butter lamps will be reduced.
Funds needed: $4,108 (34000 rmb)
Yvonne Feist and friends funded this project

Tsegyangtso is from Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. She graduated in 2005 with an Associated degree in English from Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department's English Training Program.
View photos of project location

What? 40 Solar Electricity Generating Panels for 40 Tibetan households
Who?Yuanyi Tibetan Village, Sengduo Township, Guinan County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province

Photos of project implementation

The project manager, Tsegyangtso, (in the yellow sweater), gives instructions on how to use the solar panels during the distribution meeting.

Tsegyangtso and the recipients check whether the light bulbs of the solar panels work correctly.

Tsegyangtso and the village leaders distribute the solar panels.

Tashitso(Joy), a member of Shem women's group, helps the recipients record their receipt of the panels with fingerprints.

The recipients smile as they prepare to take their new solar panels back to their homes.

Lhamacho (born in 1982) carries the solar panel on her back as she heads home. Lhamocho had to drop out of middle school because her family needed help at home. Her mother is sick and cannot do any heavy housework, and her father needs to herd livestock in the grassland for the family's income. Lhamacho works hard for her family because she wants her three younger brothers and younger sister to go to school and have a better life than she does. She does not want her siblings to stay home like her.

Recipients

Project Summary

• Project title: Solar Electricity Generating Panels for Yuanyi Village
• Location of project : Yuanyi Village, Sengduo Township, Guinan County, Hainan Prefecture, Qinghai Province. 260 kilometers from the capital city, Xining.
• Implementation organization/individual : Tsegyangmtso(Lucy) and the leaders of Yuanyi Village
• Contact person: Michelle Kleisath

Funds received:

Source	Amount	Date received
Yvonne Feist	34,110rmb	2005_12_06

Summary of project activities
Once Michelle Kleisath told Tsegyangmtso that Yvonne Feist had agreed to fund the project, Tsegyangmtso informed the Yuanyi village leaders. Next, she contacted the Nyima solar panel company to check if the solar panels' price and quality were the same as they had been when she originally collected the information for the proposal. The Nyima company confirmed that the originally quoted prices were indeed still accurate. On December 6 th , Tsegyangmtso received the funds from the donor and called the village leaders to ask them to collect the local contribution. The village leaders collected the local contribution and transferred the money to her. After Tsegyangmtso had collected all of the funds needed, she signed a contract with Nyima company agreeing to buy 40 solar panels and have them delivered on December 14 th , 2005 for a total price of 42110 rmb. Several days before the solar panels were transported, Tsegyangmtso checked their quality and paid 34,000rmb to Nyima company. The day before the solar panels were shipped, she checked the solar panels again and paid the local contribution of 8,000rmb, to the company. At that time, she learned how to operate the solar panels from the emplyees of the Nyima company. When the solar panels were transported, one person from the company went with the driver and the project manager to check the solar panels and to make sure that they were transported without problems to Yuanyi Village. When they arrived at Sengduo Township, they checked to make sure that the panels had not been damaged in transport. After they arrived in Yuanyi Village, Tseg.yangmtso wrote a letter to Nyima company stating that the solar panels had been transported to the project site safely and that no solar panels were damaged during the transportation. Before distributing the solar panels, she held a meeting with the recipients, the village leaders and the villagers to explain who had supported this project and how much each solar panel cost. She also gave instructions about how to use the solar panels correctly. After distributing the solar panels, she and Tashitso, a member of Shem women's group who previously did a solar panel project, went to several recipient families to ensure that the solar panels worked well.
Details of project activities
Month	Activity description
November, 21, 2005	Michelle informed Tseg.yangmtso (Lucy) that the project was funded by Yvonne Feist and her friends.
November, 23, 2005	Tsegyangmtso asked the village leaders to collect the 8000 rmb local contribution.
November, 23, 2005	Tsegyangmtso Informed the villagers that 34,110rmb was contributed by Yvonne Feist
November, 28, 2005	Tsegyangmtso checked the solar panels at Nyima company.
December, 2, 2005	Tsegyangmtso Made a contract with the company.
December, 4, 2005	Checked the solar panels again.
December, 6, 2005	Funds were received from the donor.
December, 7, 2005	Tsegyangmtso Received the local contribution, 8000rmb.
December, 7, 2005	Paid 34,000rmb to the company.
December, 10, 2005	Checked the solar panels again.
December, 12, 2005	Paid 8,000rmb to the company.
December, 13, 2005	Transported the solar panels to Sengduo Township in Guinan County
December, 13, 2005	Transported the solar panels from Sengduo Township to Yuanyi Village
December, 14, 2005	Tsegyangmtso and the village leaders held a meeting with recipients and villagers. Tsegyangmtso Distributed the solar panels to the recipients and took pictures.
December, 15, 2005	Tseg.yangmtso and Tashitso went to several recipient families to check that the solar panels worked well .
December, 18, 2005	Wrote the final report.
January, 1, 2005	Michelle Kleisath Edited the final report
Delays, difficulties, and lessons learned
Delay of activities		There was no delay of activities.
Difficulties encountered when implementing the project		Although the village leaders and villagers chose the recipient families because they were the poorest families in Yuanyi village, those villagers who did not receive the solar panels came to the project distribution site and complained that they did not also receive solar panels. They argued about their own poverty to the project manager and the village leader. Although they were very passionate in their arguments, the poorest recipient families had already been chosen because they needed more help than the others. Finally, the project manager and the village leaders appeased the villagers by saying if any other opportunity was available to do more projects in future, they may have a chance of benefiting according to their family conditions. Thus, all of the villagers agreed that the chosen recipients should receive the solar panels.
Lessons learned		In order to solve problems and avoid confusion, it is very important to make everything very clear to all of the project participants. The project manager must hold meetings and discuss the project thoroughly with all of the participants. To make a project successful, it's also important for the project manager to buy good quality products which we did. There are many solar panels of different qualities and prices, and the project manager should be acquainted with the goods. For example, the project manager in this case checked the panels before writing the proposal and figured out which panels were the most suitable according to price and quality. Dealer fraud is common in these kinds of transactions, so Tsegyantso recorded all the battery serial numbers of the desired panels so as to insure that these batteries would indeed be the ones included with the panels at the time of purchase. The project manager also measured the panels' box size and bulb size to make sure that the proper panels and bulbs were ultimately delivered.

Financial Progress

Total Donor contribution: 35,078 rmb
Total Local Contribution:8,000 rmb

Date	Item description	Cost per item in RMB	Total cost
November,28 th ,2005	Taxi Fee	20	20rmb
November,28 th , 2005	Phone call	3	3rmb
December, 1 st , 2005	Phone call	5	5rmb
December,2nd, 2005	Taxi Fee	20	20rmb
December 7 th , 2005	Solar Panels	1050/panel for 40 panels	42,000rmb
December, 9 th ,2005	Phone call	7	7rmb
December,10 th ,2005	Phone call	8	8rmb
December,10 th ,2005	Taxi fee	20	20rmb
December,11 th ,2005	Phone call	10	10rmb
December,12 th ,2005	Taxi Fee	20	20rmb
December,13 th ,2005	Transporting from Guinan County to Yunanyi Village	50	50rmb
December,14 th ,2005	Film(battery)	40	40rmb
December,17 th ,2005	Film Development	20	20rmb
Total cost of project			42,223rmb

Letters of Appreciation

Dear Ms. Yvonne Feist,

We are very happy to report that the solar panels have been successfully distributed in Yuanyi Tibetan Village in Guinan County, Qinghai Province.

The villagers in Yuanyi Village lead a nomadic life. They cannot have permanent electricity because they need to move from one place to another to follow their livestock. Solar panels can be conveniently carried wherever the villagers go and can be used in different places.

As a result of this solar panel project, 40 recipient families in Yuanyi Village received solar panels. The battery for these solar panels includes a tape player and a radio so that the villagers can listen to traditional Tibetan music, songs, recorded Tibetan stories, folk tales, prayers and news. As a result, the solar panels make outside news and information accessible for the villagers so that they can know what is happening outside of their community. Most importantly, the villagers can now do activities at night under the clean and healthy solar panel light. They can also save money which was previously used to buy candles and butter lamps.

As a result of this project, women's labor has been reduced so that they have more free time to rest and to join in village meetings and activities. The solar panels also allow for school children to study and do their homework under a bright light instead of candlelight or a butter lamp, which are bad for their eyesight.

In all, over one hundred people in Yuanyi Tibetan village will benefit from this project. The villagers are thankful towards the Ms. Yvonne Feist and her friends for generously providing the funds necessary to complete this important project.

We sincerely appreciate your kindness in helping our villagers live a much better life.

Sincerely,

Tsegyangmtso

and the leaders of Yuanyi village

Translation

Dear Ms. Yvonne Feist,

Thank you very much for donating the money to buy the solar panels. Now, 40 families can have solar panels. These families' conditions have greatly improved because of this project.

We thank you for your kindness and sympathy in helping the poor families of Yuanyi Village. We sincerely hope that you will have a long life and pray that your life will be full of good fortune.

Sincerely,
The People of Yuanyi Village.
2005-12-13

Receipts

Receipt for money transfer from Yvonne Feist

Receipts for Taxi rides, phone calls, and photo processing

Contract with Nyima Company

Declaration: I confirm the above information is correct.

Tseg.yangtso

Original Proposal

Project Location:
The project will be located in Yuanyi Tibetan village, Sengduo Township, Guinan County, Hannai Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province, China. Yuanyi Village is situated in the southern part of Sengduo Township, and the west of Guinan County Town. The village is 5km from Guinan County, 60km from Sengduo Township, and 250km from Xining City, the provincial capital. Sengduo Township is next to Guide county, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the east, and Guinan County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the west.

Description of target population:
All 500 Yuanyi villagers (60 households) are nomadic Tibetans. The village has 1000 mu of grassland and the villagers mainly live off of their livestock. The main livestock are sheep, yaks, donkeys, horses, and goats . People use livestock both for self-consumption (bread, noodles, vegetables) and to pay the government's tax levies. Yuanyi village is the poorest village in Sengduo Tibetan township because the villagers don't have as many livestock or as much land as other villages in Guinan county. The average cash income is approximately 200 rmb per person per year. Yuanyi villagers lead a nomadic life in a very harsh environment. The village is surrounded by desert, making for a dry, harsh landscape which is not very fruitful. There are no paved roads between houses or from the village to the county town, making transportation difficult. The majority of school-aged children in Yuanyi village do not attended school because their families are too poor to pay the tuition and because the children are needed to help with family chores. Currently, there are approximately 40 school-aged children in Yuanyi Village, and only 10 are attending school.

Justification of project/activity:
Yuanyi villagers do not have electricity

Villagers, especially women, have difficulty doing work or other activities at night. As a result, they need to do their work during the daytime without any rest. For example, women are under incredible time pressure to finish the daily chores—such as m ilking yaks, making butter, sewing clothes, fetching water, and making bread—before sunset.
The students from the primary school have difficulty doing their homework at night. During the day, the students need to help their parents with the chores, often leaving little time leftover for studying. Consequently, the academic achievement of the students who attend school is low.
The dim light of the candles and butter lamps, which the villagers use to do their nighttime activities, harms their eyesight. This especially applies to students, who use candlelight to read.
The butter that is used for butter lamps could otherwise be eaten or sold for profit.
The butter lamps that the villagers use to light their homes during the night have been known to cause many health problems, including lung disease and eyesight problems.
Villagers are isolated from the outside world because they cannot listen to radios or watch television programs.

Objectives of the project/activity:

Women can cook dinner more easily and have time to join village nighttime activities.
Students can study at night under brighter light.
Villagers can save money instead of using it for candles and butter lamps.
The villagers' eyesight and respiratory health will be improved.
The villagers will be able to listen to the radio.

Solar electricity generating panels would provide a reliable source of electricity for Yuanyi villagers, solving the aforementioned problems.

Reasons for applying for external assistance:
In the winter of 1999, and again in 2002, members of the Yuanyi Village committee reported their situation to the county government and asked for electricity to be brought the their village. The government promised to offer some help but never did. The Yuanyi villagers have never gotten any solar energy funds from the government.

Benefits accruing to target group from proposed project/activity:

Women will have leisure time to join in village activities: Under dim light, it's not convenient for women to cook dinner and do house chores easily, so they need to do each chore slowly and carefully. Thus, they often don't finish their work, and they need to do it the next day. In this case, they need to do extra work the next day and they have no time to join in the activities in the village.
The scores of the primary students will improve: During the holidays the children, especially girls, need to help their families and they don't have time to study during the day. At night, it is difficult for them to study using the dim light currently provided by candles and butter lamps. The generating panels will give them light so that they can do their studies at night.
Health problems related to smoke from the candles and butter lamps will be reduced: many villagers have lung problems due to the smoke of the butter lamps and candles and they also have eyesight problems from the smoke and dim light. After this project, harm to villagers' eyesight and lungs will be decreased.
The villagers will have access to the outside world's news: After the project is accomplished, the villagers will have an opportunity to listen to the radio and hear news from outside of their village.

The steps of the project:
• Have a meeting with the village committee to decide who in the village has the greatest need for solar panels (the 40 poorest families).
• Apply for funding for 40 solar electricity-generating panels.
• Once funding is secured, hold meeting with village leaders. Decide how to manage solar panel distribution.
• Collect local contribution of 200rmb per family from villagers.
• Buy solar panels from Nima Company in Xining, Qinghai. The solar panels will be bought from this company for the following reasons:
• The quality of Nima's solar panels is very high. Nima's solar panels have been used in several successful development projects done by past ETP students.
• The cost of Nima's solar panels is low. Nima Company includes the cost of transportation in the fee that they charge for each solar panel.
• Five-year warranty—If the Nima's solar panels are dysfunctional, the company will repair them for up to five years after purchase.
• Transport the solar panels from Xining city to Guinan county town
• Hire a truck in Guinan county town and then transport solar panels from Guinan County town to Yuanyi village.
• Hold a meeting with villagers and explain how to use and care for solar panels
• Distribute panels.
• Interview villagers about their solar panels15 days after distribution. Collect other information for final report, such as pictures.
• Write final report

Expected output and results:

The 40 Poorest households of Yuanyi village will receive one solar electricity generating panel each.
These households will have electricity
The burdens described in "Justification of project/activity" will be lightened.

Detailed Budget:

III. Requested contribution from Outside Donors:
Item:	Number:	Price:	Amount in RMB:	Amount in Euro:
Solar panels	40	850 per panel	34,000rmb	3,102
Transportation from Guinan County to Yuanyi Village		50 rmb	50rmb	4.56
Film and development for final report	1 roll of film +processing fee	60rmb	60rmb	5.47
Total			34,000rmb	Euro 3,112

Local Contribution:

Item	Quantity	Unit Price	Total Amount
Solar electricity panels	40	200 rmb per solar generating panel	8,000rmb
Total			8,000rmb

Sustainability:

The Solar Electricity Panels will last for five or six years. This includes 2 light bulbs, 7meters of electrical line, and a battery. The system is 10w. The company ensures that if there is a problem, the company will repair the problem for up to five years after the purchase date. After five years the villagers will be responsible for buying components to repair Solar Panels by themselves. The villagers can buy those components in county town. The villagers are providing a considerable local contribution (of 200 RMB each) when compared with their yearly cash income. In addition, the solar panels that they receive will be of high quality. Both of these factors ensure that the villagers will highly value their solar panels and take good care of them.

Lucy will instruct the villagers on how to operate their solar panels before distribution. The villagers who already own solar panels will then help their neighbors if they have problems.be responsible for the maintenance of material inputs and resources after five years. See "Financing of running costs after project/activity completion.

Additional information:
Effects of project/activity on poverty alleviation:

• The villagers can save butter, which is usually used for the oil of lamps and they can accumulate this butter for business in the county town.

• The villagers can save money, which is usually spent on buying candles.

Effects of project/activity on women's situation:

• Women can cook dinner easily under bright light.

• Women will have more leisure time to rest and join more local activities.

Effects of project/activity on environment:

• The villagers will have healthier environment as the smoke from the lamp and candles is reduced.

• Children can study under brighter light, which isn't harmful to their eyesight.

Effects of project/activity on local culture and customs:

The number of local activities will increase because the villagers will have light at night for gatherings.