Project Proposals

Threshing Machines for Gala Village Project Manager: Tsering Drolma (Daisy) Buy five threshing machines for Gala village. Lessen the village women's work load, thereby improving their living standards. Funds needed: $ 2,705   (21,500 rmb)

Tsering Drolma is from Gala village, Jiga Township, Daocheng County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. She graduated in 2006 with an Associated degree in English from Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department's English Training Program.

Project Location:
Gala village is in Jiga Township, Daocheng County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China; about 200 kilometers away from Daocheng county which is south of Kangding (capital city of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous prefecture).

Gala Village Background :
Gala Village can be divided into five groups scattered about two sides of a mountain. It takes at least one hour to get from one group to another, so intra-village transportation is often quite time consuming.

Villagers started building a road in September 2003, but they could not finish it because they needed to harvest barley and wheat. The unfinished road was destroyed by constant rain in August 2004. *Government officials offered dynamite, then decided that the villagers' labor was free, and thus better. Residents finished the road in 2005. , but not yet ready to use it and still waiting for the county government to test the road. They also built a power electricity center and have had electricity since July 2005. Before that the villagers used a kind of wood for light, but it is difficult to find and its smoke is bothersome and trees are scarce too. As there are no telephones among the residents, communication has proved difficult.

Gala Village's remote location contributes to transportation, communication difficulties -- and compounds problems for those who have tried to help in the past. Villagers have been skeptical about receiving help; past experiences would lead them to believe that no one genuinely wants to do so.

Population and Education:
There are 59 households in Gala village and 353 people: 132 women, 119 men and 102 children. Around seventy-five percent of the villagers are illiterate. Ninety-two percent of the school-aged children are attending school because now there is a new law about getting education, which is if a family doesn't send their children to school, the local government will fine the family to give 500RMB per year for a child. However about forty percent of them gradually drop out due to labor shortages in their families.

Ninety percent of villagers above 35 cannot read or write at all. About sixty percent of 17—34 year olds can read and write -- they can carry on simple conversation with Han Chinese; they can do easy calculations. Seventy-eight percent of the school-aged children (7-16) can read and write, but not very well.

Boys and girls cannot go to school regularly because they have to leave during the harvest and threshing period. After helping their families, they can't catch up with other students. So about 20% of them drop out of school.

Forty-eight children attend primary schools and about 10 are going to middle school. There are three vocational school graduates and one is going to a vocational medical school in the prefecture. Two have associate degrees and two others are still in school. After local middle school, eighty-five percent of the students do not continue their education.

Cash income:
Each household in Gala village earns an average of approximately 1,000RMB per year. Their income depends on caterpillar fungus. (Caterpillar fungus is a kind of herb, which grows in many Tibetan areas. It is a worm in the winter and becomes a small herb in the summer so that people can dig it and sell for money. It is usually 7-9RMB per caterpillar fungus in my hometown these days. It is a kind of medicine.)

The villagers dig for caterpillar fungus from May to June, and collect a rare mushroom* in July and August. Prices and quantity change every year, so the villagers' income is never stable. It can be as low as 300RMB per year per household and it can be as high as 2,000RMB per year per household.

There are around 5 households large enough for one or two family members to go out to earn money. They can usually earn 1,000--1,500RMB each per year. Although there are a few other ways to earn money -- building houses, for example -- most villagers hardly have time because they must harvest twice a year and are quite busy in their own homes.

Two thirds of the households in Gala Village are in debt. Almost every household spends half of their income on medicine or medical care for people always get sick for some reasons and the medicines in the township hospital are extremely expensive. One has to pay around 100rmb for getting an IV and some relevant medicine for a bad cold. Often they will do anything to cut costs: not taking medicine when they catch small illness; not sending their children to school; not paying attention to personal hygiene.

Agriculture:
The villagers' livelihood depends on agriculture. They grow corn in May and barley in October, so they must harvest twice a year. Normally, every six-person household produces enough to feed themselves. If there is a natural disaster, like a thunderstorm or hail, half of the households must buy expensive rice and white flour from the township.

Each family owns 5 to 6 mus of field in average. The families don't sell grain to earn money since there are livestock to feed. These livestock provide meat, fertilizer, labor and fur to make clothing. . Every household owns at least five pigs, three cows and bulls, four chicken, two horses or mules ten goats. These livestock provide meat, fertilizer, labor resource and fur to make clothing. They never sell these kinds things to make money because they either don't have enough or don't know that the things can be sold.

Herding:
Each household owns an average of 15 yaks to self-supply butter and cheese and meat. There are two families which sell butter and cheese, earning approximately 500RMB each year themselves. But the rest of the households hardly have butter and cheese to sell others and some of them even aren't sufficient. They also cannot afford to raise male yaks to sell because it demands great amount of grain. As a result, about 97% of the families don't make any money from herding. Yet one person has to stay separate from the rest of family to take care the herd all the time .

Weather:
The four seasons are very clear in Gala Village. Rain in the late summer often ruins crops, as do hot, dry spells in mid spring. Hail storms in early autumn are not rare and have been known to destroy entire harvests. Insects and strong winds have also caused problems, especially with corn.

Project Goal:

The immediate goal of this project is to buy five threshing machines for Gala village.

The overarching goal of this project is to lessen the villagers' work load, thereby improving their living standards.

Problems that Gala Village faces:
During the harvest, it takes Gala villagers an extremely long time , usually 30 to 45 days on average, to thresh barley and wheat. If the weather is fine, they can work quickly with the barley and wheat. When it rains, they have to wait until the weather changes. Wild birds and chicken may eat the crops while villagers are waiting for the weather to change. Sometimes the crops are attacked by worms, destroying the harvest.

Women don't have time to go out to dig for the caterpillar fungus because they are preoccupied with the threshing work.

The villagers seldom wash their clothing and never bathe since they only care about finishing their work, but their work never really ends. The villagers, especially women aren't healthy from sitting on the clay-made floor day and night 12 hours each day during the harvest. Eighty percent of them get problems with their knee caps, back and heels. After an exhausting day's work, they can't do anything except sleep right after dinner. Eighty-five percent of them used to get severe diseases like lung cancer and TB until very recently. Eating irregularly also causes problems to their stomach, 2 villagers died of throwing up blood in 2005.

Women don't have time to spin family animal hair and weave cloth with it. Consequently, they have to buy expensive bed clothing. If they don't have money at all, they just use their well worn-out, dirty clothing year after year. Slowly the traditional weaving beautiful stuffs like waist belts, boot belts and colorful cloths to make bags, cushions and various bed clothing is becoming a lost art.

The village lacks a sense of community. Villagers work individually, and they always compete with each other. Those who finish first idly watch those who are still struggling, without offering help.

Most villagers consider education a waste of time and money, since the educated students cannot do anything for their families. Eighty percent of graduates can't find a job and this discourages villagers from sending their children to school, hence the low literacy rate.

Project Benefits
353 people, 59 households will benefit from this project.

Benefits the villagers will get from this project are:

1. If the villagers have threshing machines, they can finish their harvest in a much shorter time. what usually takes one month can be finished in one or two days.

2. Grain won't be wasted, if they have threshing machines. The villagers will no longer need to wait for the weather to change.

3. Women will have more time to dig for caterpillar fungus, increasing family income and raising living standards.

4.After threshing barley and wheat with a threshing machine in a much shorter time than before, they will have more time to wash. So the villagers may not get so many illnesses from fatigue and not paying attention to their sanitation.

5.Sharing the same threshing machine among a few households will establish a sense of community, and will reduce conflicts between families. Villagers will learn to cooperate with each other, and will have more opportunities for communal activities.

5. If the threshing is done quickly, the harvest won't preclude children from attending sch ool. They can go regularly; their parents will have at least a little time to pay attention to their study at school, and not so many will drop out.

Threshing machine rules:
•  Take turns to use the machines in family order and the order will change accordingly every year.

•  If any of the families breaks the machine because they don't use it properly, they will be responsible for repairing it.

•  If the villagers don't know how to use the machine even after I teach them, they can ask the chosen taking care committees.

•  Each group has two chosen committees(one man and one woman) and they are supposed to know anything about what happens to the machines, when and who.

•  The taking care comittees cannot mis-use or over-use their authority. For example, be over generous to their relatives and be unfair to others who not related to them.

•  One of the village leaders will be responsible for the above rule. If any of the committees abuse their position, the village leader has the right to punish them accordingly. The slightest offense will be given a warning and the most serious will result in the loss of their committee position.

•  If the machines break down naturally, they whole group will have to pay for repairs.

•  If any of the families don't follow or listen to the committees after three-times' warning, they will not be allowed to use the machines any longer.

•  The highest village leader will supervise the maintenance of this project.

•  I (the main manager of this project) will go back to the project location once or twice a year to check whether the project is going well or not. (It's not difficult for me because I am from that village).

Gender Equality:
Mostly women were asked whether this project was needed or not since women do mostly do the threshing work. About 90% of the village women strongly agreed, and last winter holiday they promised they would do their best to cooperate with me. They said if I can do something so great to help, why shouldn't they do anything that I ask them to do.

Because if the threshing is done quickly, local women will have time to practice their own skills to make their own clothes, bed clothing.

If there are threshing machines, women don't need to sit on the clay-made floor day and night 12 hours each day during the harvest, in that case they will suffer less from joints problems.

I chose four women who have some education from each group in the village to help me implement the project . If this project is approved, I will teach the four women how to use the threshing machine and they will teach the villagers in their own groups. In that case people may be encouraged to send their daughters to school, and may change their impression of education.

Then I will choose five women and five men from each group by holding a meeting and let them take in charge of taking care of the threshing machines, but I will give different works for women and men because otherwise men will take control of everything and women will gradually withdraw from taking care of the project. Also the women and men were chosen from every different family so that it will prevent husband or brother to do work for thier wife or sister.

Government Support
The government will support me in doing this project since it is lagging behind other counties in Ganzi prefecture and anxious to spur development. The assistant manager of this project, Losong Denzen, , is currently in Daocheng county as a governmental officer. He is from Wangzi Village, E'ya Tong township, Daocheng County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China.

He told me, "The government appreciates what you do for your village. No people desire to stay poor forever. The county cannot develop if small villages don't develop evenly and gradually."*

Steps of the Project:
1. Talk to the village leader and some of the village women and men to discuss whether this project is needed or not and what kind of benefits they will get from this project. (done)
2.Talk to villagers and devise rules for sharing threshing machine.(done)
3.Figure out where to buy the machines and the price in Sada Company in Daocheng County. (done)
4.Figure out how to transport the machines to the project location and the transportation fee. (done)
5.Write the project proposal. (done).
6.Send the proposal.
7.Receive the funding
8. Purchase the machines from Sada Company in Daocheng county.
9. Deliver the machines to the project site and teach the villagers how to use the machines(Especially ask the four chosen women to pay really good attention and take notes if necessary).
10. Monitor the project.
11. Take pictures of the machines and how people are using them.
12. Interview local people(Include men, women and children)
13. Write final reports
14. Send the final report with pictures and receipts.

Timeframe:
It will take 15 days to implement this project.

Detailed Donor contribution:

Detailed local contribution:

Total Project Cost:

Sustainability:
The threshing machine company guaranteed that we can return the machines if they are broken within a year, and the company will repair them free of charge for three years. So the villagers will benefit from this project for at least five years since there will be a care-taking committee consisting of one woman and one man from each of the five groups in the village. They will be responsible for the machines' storage and will supervise villagers' use so that any harm done will be discovered immediately. If anyone breaks the machine purposely, he/she will have to pay for the repair fee. If the machine breaks down from standard use, every household in the group will pay an equal portion. The village leader will supervise all five groups. If the care-taking committees can not handle a particular problem of the machines, they will ask him for advice. If they want to use the machines, they must they follow the rules.

Additional Information:
If this projects succeeds, I can be a role model. It will encourage other graduates to find work. And villagers will no longer consider formal education a worthless pursuit. As a female college student, they may be more willing to send their children -- both male and female -- to school. I am the only student who is studying in another province, so the villagers have a vested hope in me. Therefore, if I am able to do something to improve their lives, they won't be disappointed in me or formal education.

Photos:

The second group of Gala Village


The project manager Tsering Drolma, (top row, second from right) and her family in front of their home .


Tsering Drolma's grandmother, one of the women who threshes grain by hand every year


Several Gala villagers


Gala village primary school

Padren demonstrates how grain is threshed by hand


The grain is beaten from its stalks by these two sticks which are tied together




A woman winnowing in the wind after the grain has been threshed by hand
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The third and fourth floor of a typical Gala village home. All of the threshing is done on the third floor, and hay is stored on the fourth floor


Hay in storage