Final Reports

Yak Loan for Jemda Area Project Manager: Sonamjid (Jessica) The overarching objective of this project is to equip the elders of Jemda area with basic survival needs. The main goal of this project is to buy 60 milking yaks to provide the Jemda villagers with a reliable income. Funds needed: $8,221   (68.040 rmb) The German Embassy funded this project

Sonamjid is from Golok autonomous Tibetan 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
Read Sonamjid's life story

Recipients

Project Summary

Project name: Yak Loan for Jemda area.
Project period: July 15th -August 18th, 2005
Project site: Jemda monastery, Sourima Township, Jiuzhi County, Golok Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, PR China.
Responsible persons: Jiala, a Lama in that area. Angduo, a veterinarian Sonamjid Jessica, university student in Xining and Michelle Kleisath, English teacher
Supervisor: Michelle Kleisath

German Embassy contribution: 68.040rmb (sixty eight thousand and forty)
Local contribution: 1.000rmb (one thousand rmb)
Total value of the project: 69.040
Aims: To buy 60 milking yaks for people live near Jemda area

Summary of project activities

Needs

Impact

Beneficiaries

Local Contribution

Evaluation

Sustainability

Project breakdown

20. Financial breakdown- Give details of all costs involved in the project and clearly indicate which costs are to be funded by the donor and which from other sources.

Risk

Additional information

Receipts

Receipt #1

Receipt #2

Original Proposal

Project Location:
Jemda monastery is located in the east of Sourima Township, Jiuzhi county, in Golok autonomous Tibetan prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. Jemda area is 800 kilometers from Xining City, the capital of Qinghai province.

Agriculture:

The altitude in Jemda area is 4300 meters. Since the altitude is very high in this area, it is not possible to grow vegetables or wheat. Therefore, the villagers in this area have no agricultural income. In addition, because of the high altitude, the people who live in Jemda area do not consume any vegetables with the exception of wild mushrooms, which they collect in the springtime.

Population:

The people who live near Jemda monastery are mostly old people who have no sons or daughters to take care of them. Their average age is 60-85 years old. Because they are too old to continue living as nomads, and they have no families to take care of them, they have moved near the monastery, where they can get some spiritual happiness. In Jemda, there are a total number of 43 people living in 38 households. They are all from different areas in Suorima Township.

Income:

The majority of the Jemda population have no annual income. 4 or 5 people collect animal bones during the winter. They can sell these in the township for about 2 mao per Jin. Animal bone collection usually brings an annual income of approximately 30 yuan per year. 5 of the households in Jemda own a total of 25 yaks. In the summer time these households milk their yaks to make cheese and butter for the rest of the year. In other seasons they entrust their livestock to relatives or close friends who live in the grassland as nomadic families. However, most of the people own no livestock and have no income. They do not have to pay taxes.

Project Goals:

The overarching objective of this project is to equip the elders of Jemda area with basic survival needs

The main goal of this project is to buy 60 milking yaks to provide the Jemda villagers with a reliable income.

Food:

The villagers don't have enough food to survive comfortably. Since there is no source of income, they cannot buy sufficient amounts of food, and they have to live off of what the government gives them. Every year the government gives each household one hundred Jin of flour and fifty Jin of rice. This is not enough to feed an entire household for one year.

Clothing:

Since the villagers of Jemda area have no source of income, they cannot buy clothing. They all have one set of clothing, usually a sheepskin robe that they wear all year long. Their clothing is in very poor condition. Because they never change their clothing, their robes often become lice infested and smell bad. In addition, their clothing is very old and ragged; most people's robes have many holes and tears in them. The clothing they have now is also not sufficient to protect them from the cold.

Health:

Because the villagers of Jemda area are old, they are very prone to illness. Their situation is aggravated by the fact that they do not have enough food to eat, which makes their immune systems very weak. In addition, they do not have enough clothing to keep warm during the frigid Golok winters, when the average temperature is 20 below freezing. Because they have no source of income, they cannot afford to pay for doctors or buy medicine, so minor, curable illnesses usually result in death. Most people try to cure their illnesses by drinking hot water. When they contract a more serious disease, such as Tuberculosis, they have no recourse, and they usually die.

Ragkrma is a typical villagers from Jemda area. Here is her story:

Ragkrma is 83 years old; her husband passed away when she was 53. They never had the kharma to have a baby. After her husband's death she moved to Jemda. She used to have some livestock, but during the past thirty years she sold them one by one to sustain herself. Usually she eats tsamba [Tibetan food made of wheat] for her breakfast, for lunch she eats flour soup or porridge. Most of the time she doesn't have enough food for supper, but sometimes she can enjoy leftovers from her lunch. She doesn't eat any meat or vegetables, because she can't afford to. She has one lame leg and cannot walk. When she wants to go outside, she must crawl.

Solutions
Background:
The main goal of this project is to buy 60 milking yaks for the villagers of Jemda area. In order to understand why this is a viable solution to the problems of the Jemda villagers, you must first understand the nomadic way of life: In Golok prefecture, many families depend on herding yaks for their livelihood. Since the altitude in Jiuzhi County Golok prefecture is 4300 meters, it is impossible to cultivate agriculture. So usually the nomadic families' diets consist of butter, cheese, meat and tsampa.

The average number of livestock in a nomadic family is 50--250. While a rich family has 250 livestock, a poor family owns 50. Generally nomadic families make money during two seasons, summer and autumn.

Because of the fresh grass, in the summer time the female yaks give plenty of milk, so this is the best time to get butter and cheese. A rich family can collect 300 jin of butter and 250 jin of cheese, while a poor family usually collects 100 jin of butter and 50 jin of cheese. Usually the families sell half of what they produce in order to get money for buying wheat, rice, flour and vegetables. As a result of eating young grass for an entire summer, the yaks are very fat in autumn, so people usually sell 4or 5 yaks at this time in order to prepare for the winter and spring time. One yak can be sold for between 1200--1300 rmb. In the winter and spring there is almost no income, because the weather is cold and the livestock do not have enough grass to eat. Therefore, the animals lose their fat and become very weak. The female yaks barely produce enough milk to feed the baby yaks, so people do not milk during these seasons. By herding yaks a rich family can earn 5.000rmb while a poorer family earns 2.000rmb in a year. So, without livestock it is difficult to survive in a nomadic area.

Because herding is such an integral part of nomadic life in Jiu Zhi area, providing 60 milking yaks to the villagers of Jemda area will create a sustainable solution to the villagers' problems. Each household will receive 3 milking yaks, which they will then loan to a nomadic family from the area. Yak loaning is already very popular in this area, and there are several rules that each party must follow in order to participate. In order to understand how people benefit from yak loans, it is important to be aware of the rules of this arrangement:

First, when two families make this agreement, there must be an appointed manager who ensures that the yak owners get the agreed upon goods from the "keepers"--the family who has borrowed the yaks.

Second , the keepers have to pay 15jin of butter and 10jin of cheese per year for each milking yak. For example: if an owner entrusts 3 yaks to a keeper, the owner will receive 45 Jin butter and 30 Jin of cheese in one year.

Third, the keeper can keep the baby yaks produced by the loaned female yaks, but they must always retain the original number of yaks. For example, if one of the original milk yaks dies, the keeper family must replace it with a new milk yak

For this project, two additional rules will apply:

First : In addition to making sure that the yak owners of Jemda area receive all of their goods from the keeper families, the managers will be responsible for buying the Milking yaks. The managers for this project have already been chosen. The fact that they are highly respected by the villagers will ensure the projects' success. One manager will be the Lama of Jemda monastery, Jiala, and the other manager will be Angduo, the local veterinarian.

Second: Because the people of Jemda area are very old, an arrangement must be made in the case of their death. If a yak loan owner dies, the managers will give their yaks to another poor household.

Project Benefits:
In total, approximately 183 people will benefit immediately from this project. The 43 people of Jemda area will be able to buy food, clothing, and medicine so that they can survive comfortably. Approximately 183 people (20 families with an average of 7 people in each) in the keeper families will also benefit immediately from the milk, cheese, butter, yak hair, yak dung, and calves that the loaned yaks produce. The benefits of this project will increase every year as the number of calves produced by the original milking yaks increases. Each yak can produce one calf every two years, so after 4 years, this project will effectively increase the herd sizes of 20 families by ten percent (60 yaks in an average family + 6 yaks produced in 4 years). The keeper families are poor, and increased herd size will alleviate the problems associated with poverty in this area such as lack of food, clothing and medicine.

Not only will this project improve the lives of its participants, but it will also help preserve a traditional Tibetan way of life. Faced with extreme poverty, many nomadic families move into county towns to survive. By increasing the herd size of the poorest families in Suorima Township, this project will aid in the preservation of the nomadic way of life.

The sustainability of this project is worth noting. The original 60 milking yaks will continue producing income for their beneficiaries for many years.

The steps of the project:
1. The managers and Sonamjid Jessica will choose the 20 poorest households in Jemda area and the 20 poorest nomadic families in Suorima Township to participate in the yak loan project.

2. The managers and Sonamjid Jessica will buy 60 high quality-milking yaks.
Winter and spring are the best seasons to buy the yaks. It is cheapest to buy yaks during these times for several reasons:

Because of the cold weather and limited grass, the female yaks do not give much milk during this time, which limits people's income.
In the wintertime, because their income is limited, families need money and are willing to sell their yaks at cheaper prices.
During Tibetan New Year, families hold big parties, so they need lots of money to prepare.
In the beginning of spring, female yaks will give birth to their babies, which makes them weak and cheap.
After the long wintertime, yaks are weak and cheap.
Spring is the time for nomads to move into their summer place, and need money to buy supplies for the journey to their summer residences.

There are many reasons for not choosing other seasons:
Because of the fresh and sufficient grass, the yaks get fat in the summertime, so the price is higher.
In the summer, families have money from digging caterpillar fungus and other medicinal herbs, so they are not as willing to sell their yaks for low prices.
In the autumn yaks are very fat and many businessmen are doing yak business, so the price increases during this time.
In winter and the beginning of the spring we can buy one milking yak for 1100-1200rmb, the average cost for a yak is 1150rmb. In the summer and in autumn the cost increases to 1200-1300rmb per yak.

3. The 20 families will receive 20 milking yaks.

4. The managers will arrange for the nomadic families to borrow the yaks from the yak owners

5. Approximately 3 months after the project has begun, the yak owners will receive butter and cheese.

Detailed Budget:

Local Contribution:
Since the people who live near Jemda monastery don't have any income it is difficult for them to give a local contribution. Luckily, after the area leaders heard about this problem they agreed to pay the local contribution themselves.

Timeframe:
If approved, this project can begin immediately. The people of Jemda area will receive butter and cheese within three months of the project's inception. The project itself will last a minimum of 10 years.

Sustainability:
Jiala and Angduo are responsible for the project. Jiala is a well-respected lama in this area, which ensures that people will follow his orders. Angduo is a veterinarian with a lifetime of experience doing yak business. His experience will help him buy the healthiest yaks for the lowest prices. After, a yak loan owner dies Jiala and Angduo will choose another poor household to give them to. If one of the keeper families wants to end their loaning agreement, the managers will make a new arrangement with another poor nomadic family in Suorima township.

Additional information:
Additional Benefits:
One secondary benefit of this project is that it is being managed and supervised by women. Sonamjid Jessica is from Suorima township, and by managing and supervising this project, she will set a positive example. Her ability to contribute to the community in such a positive way will help reverse negative stereotypes about womens' lack of ability. She will set a positive example for her fellow students in the English training Program in Qinghai Normal University. Her example will encourage other female students to take on similar small scale development projects.

Here are some pictures of Jemda area:

Jemda Village

Skid'zom in front of her house

Rongmo, a resident of Jemda village

Sabo, a resident of Jemda village

Map of the project region/province: