Projects

This project is to buy 192 books to increase students’ attendances and improve their study level; make student more interested in study and in other way this project can also improve family condition; encourage parents to send their children to school.

Funds needed: $1,892 (13,000rmb)

The Shambala Connection funded this project

Sonam Doomtso is from Mozhugongka county, Lhasa city, China. She is currently working towards a “Dazhuan” Associate’s Degree in English at Qinghai Normal University’s Nationalities Department in the English Training Program.
Project location

-Gazezhongrui School, Gazi Village
Gazezhongrui School is located in Gazi village, Gongka town, Mozhugongka County, Lhasa city, Tibet autonomous Region. Gazi village is 7 kilometers from Mozhugongka County and Mozhugongka is 80 kilometers from Lhasa city. All the people in this village are Tibetan.

Population
There are 172 families in this village; totaling 1095 people, 480 men, 505 women and 110 children make up the village population.

Education
In this village, 80% of the people are illiterate. Because they have little contact with Chinese people, few villagers other than students can speak any Chinese. While 20% of the villagers are literate and 15% of this 20% are monks who have studied Tibetan in the monasteries but cannot read or write Chinese, the language of commerce and advancement in the region.

In this village no one, not even the students, speaks English. The reasons for this are complex. The teachers are Chinese and do not have a good mastery of English. Schools have few quality teaching materials, and all the teachers teach non-communicatively, following out-of-date grammar-translation teaching methods.

Gazi village is home to 90 primary school students, 45 middle school students, 12 high school students, 1 junior college Dazhuan (Associate’s Degree) student, and 2 regular university students. On average, one child in each family attends school. However, there are also some families who do not want to send their children to school because they need their help in the farm. Some families think school is a waste of money and time.

Cash income
All the villagers in Gazi village are farmers who grow barley and potatoes on their land. Mostly they get their income from agricultural products, so their income varies greatly, depending on the seasonal changes. Some years, if there is aridity, hail, big snows, floods or other kinds of environmental harm, then the villagers’ incomes are much worse. Most of the village families have only 3 mu or less (1 mu = 0.6666 hectares) of land. In a good year they can earn 500-600 rmb per year selling excess agricultural products beyond what they themselves consume. This amount is just enough to support their own lives without other sources of income. Comparatively “rich” families of the village own up to 8 mu and can sell their excess barley and potatoes and earn up to about 1500 rmb per year beyond their own subsistence. Villagers can also sometimes sell butter and cheese. When they are able to do this, one family might earn between 400 rmb and 800rmb per year, families with more livestock earn more, most families earning less.

The second way that villagers earn money is from hiring out to do manual labor in construction yards. This means that if the Chinese are building houses or the government is making roads or streets, then villagers can sometimes be hired to do some low-skilled manual labor, such as making mud, carrying sand, digging ditches and so forth. Doing this kind of work, a villager can get 25 to 30 rmb for a day’s labor of 13 hours or more. This kind of labor usually offers only short stretches of temporary employment, perhaps lasting 10-15 days or so. Any villager lucky enough to find employment might earn about 364 rmb in 10-15 days. This kind of work is sporadic and is often difficult to come by. Some years, villagers cannot find any work of this kind and other years they do find work but only for a day or two, adding little to their annual income.

Therefore, in total, families with more fields can average up to 2600 rmb per year in a good year while most village families’ average only about 1300 rmb villagers’ income beyond subsistence is spent on their children who attend school and on regular family costs. In one year, regular family costs include about 900 rmb on rice and other food purchases and about 300 rmb on clothes. In one month, each household spends about 50 rmb on electricity and other utilities. Families spend about 100 rmb per year for school tuition. Sometimes the school asks more money for other things like books, brooms and other supplies. In the summer, villagers need to buy fertilizer, which costs about 500-600 rmb each year. Thus, in total, the average family might earn as little as 1300 rmb yet they have to spend about 2500 per year. Therefore, villagers have to borrow money at interest.

Agriculture
Gazi village is a big village, where people’s survival depends on farms. Most of the villagers do not have a lot of tillable land, mostly between just 2 or 3 mu for each family. One mu of agricultural land produces around 700-800 jin (350-400 kg) of barley each year if there are no environmental and natural deficiencies or disasters. All together they can earn about 500 rmb per year by selling their excess barley and potatoes. Most families, however, are able to grow just enough barley to support them.

Herding
All villagers in Gazi village are farmers and most families have only, on average, two cows, used for farming and milking, not for eating. As stated previously, villagers can sell butter and cheese, earning, on average, about 400-800 rmb per year depending on how much butter and cheese a family can save (richer families earn 800 while other families only earn 400rmb).

Gazidzorei school background
Gazidzorei School is located in the center of Gazi village. The school teaches up to grade six levels. The school property covers 100,000 square meters. There are 270 students in this school, 145 femle students and 125 male students. 148 students are from other villages nearby. There are also 31 orphans and 2 disabled students in this school, who are helped from local people and occasionally from the village government. There are 26 teachers in this school: 2 teachers, ethnic Chinese, teach English language.14 teachers teach Chinese and 10 teach Tibetan and other subjects. Each year 2 two students are selected to be sent to cities in China for further study.

Graduates from Gazidzorei who have gone on to other schools include: 275 middle school students, 50 high school students, 5 junior college Dazhuan students, and 10 university students All of these students require tuition payments from their parents.

Project goals
The overall goal of the project is to increase students’ attendances and improve their study level, make student more interested in study, in other way this project can also improve family condition and encourage parents to send their children to school.

The immediate goal of the project is to buy 192 books (English, Chinese and Tibetan) for the school library.

Problems

(1) Students have limited knowledge
This village is 88 kilometers far from Lhasa city, and it takes 2 hours and half to get to the city. All of the students are from farm families and their living conditions are not good. So these students usually have had little exposure to technology or new ideas. Most have rarely gone to town. Most of the families have no TV, so it is very difficult for them to get information from the outside world. Most of the students do not have any sense of how big the world is or what goes on outside their home area. There is little sense among these villagers, including the students, that the world outside has much to offer or that there is much they might learn if they studied to a higher level.

The school should be there to remedy this ignorance but the schools cannot provide enough books or teaching materials. Except for the stilted school textbooks, they do not have anything else to read, so they know only what the textbooks teach, and what teacher tells them. From the textbooks the students can only get a small amount of knowledge. These limitations act as barriers to students’ pursuits of further education. Limited knowledge and ideas makes students closed-minded, which has a big effect on their lives. The government doesn’t know that there is this problem, because no one from the village is telling anything about this problem to the government. So while the pace of economy and changes in the world increase, the limitations on the villagers’ knowledge only get more and more serious.

(2) Few Job Opportunities
It is terrible for students to get few opportunities in the economy and in society. If students go to school and still have no ability to get jobs, then there is a negative effect on the family’s views of school. They think that if a school cannot provide knowledge or understanding of the world and the economy and how to find a job, then there is little point to spending money to send their children to school. As a result, more and more families take their children out of school to help on the farms. Companies do not want to hire someone who has no idea about modern life except what they have learned from textbooks. They want to hire people who are broadly knowledgeable. For this reason alone it is very important for students to have a broad knowledge and to be exposed to ideas about everything.

(3) Can’t get high scores to gain entrance to good schools
A lack of study materials affects the students’ results on important advancement exams. Every year, each sixth grade student must take a middle school entrance exam. High scores on this test are essential to gain entrance to decent schools. Most of the good schools accept only students who have high scores on this exam. The exams are directly related to how much you learned from the school textbooks but they also assume a great deal of world knowledge that students must learn about from extracurricular reading. The exam assumes worldviews, ideas and general knowledge, which must be had from sources other than textbooks. So if you haven’t read any books except school textbooks, it is very difficult to do well on the exam and go to a good school. Each year there are normally 100 students who cannot get in to any school. They usually return home and work the fields or herd livestock.

(4) Wasted money
In this school, most of the students are from farming families whose living conditions are very poor. When rain is scarce, fewer agricultural products are produced and families cannot get much income. Even in good years, these families have no money to spare and cannot contemplate spending money on non-essential expenses such as the purchase of books for children.

（5） Less interest in studying and diminishing school attendance
The teachers have said that since the students don’t have interesting materials that they would like to study; they lose their interesting their old materials and eventually stop studying. So teaching material is very important part of this learns and school attendance. As the teachers said, the students receive “stilted, boring, and useless books, so they easily lose interest in their studies.” Sometimes students do not really like the books they use in school and feel bored with learning. Teachers have heard students say how they feel about the books they use, and know that they are not really interested in them they want to have something interesting. But the schools provide nothing they are interested in and they feel their classes are tedious and pointless. They no longer want to spend their time on studying and class attendance rates are getting worse and worse. Students’ interest in studying is diminishing.

Benefits

(1) If the school’s resources improve, this will lead to better teaching and learning experiences for all involved. Students’ knowledge will become broader and they will have the opportunity to learn many things that they cannot learn from their present textbooks. They will gain more insights into the world around them. Their sense of urgency and interest in learning and education will increase. Their lives will be more colorful and their goals will become bigger.

(2) The students’ scores on the middle school entrance exams would improve due to gaining a more developed understanding of general knowledge. This improvement in scores would improve access to higher levels of education that would otherwise be unattainable.

(3) Presently, village students cannot get jobs easily after graduation. If the students do get in to better schools, more outside jobs will become accessible. Access to jobs outside their village will improve family incomes, and their living conditions will become better and better. This in turn will improve the general standard of living in the entire community.

(4) Families will not have to pay money for the books that their children need. If the families do not have to pay much for the school materials, then they might be more willing to send more children to the school.

(5) If schools provide interesting books for students, their willingness to read will increase. They will save playtime to read those books, and that will make their studies improve. They will not feel bored, their interest in studying will increase, and class attendance rates will improve.

Steps of project

1. Contacted the school leaders on the phone and discussed urgent needs with them. (DONE)

2. Hold a meeting with the schoolteachers to plan the project (Identifying what kinds of books are needed, who will be responsible for the sustainability of the projects) (DONE)

3. Contacted bookstores and found out the prices of the books (See Budget below).(DONE)

4. Find out the transportation fee.(DONE)

5. Write project proposal (DONE)

6. Secure donor funding

7. Purchase books from Lhasa city

8. Transport books

9. Distribute books to the school.

10. Visit the school to interview teachers and students and to visit some families and interview the parents to check the progress this project has brought.

11. Take pictures

12. Write the final report describing each expenditure and the evidence of results

13. Send the final report with all pictures and receipts.

Beneficiaries
This book project will benefit approximately 2000 people, including all the students and teachers in Gazezhongrui School, all people from this village (where the school located) and people from other villages who are sending their children to Gazezhong School.

Gender equality
If this project is accomplished, girls and boys in this school will equally get benefit. Also, this project will positively affect village attitudes about sending girls to school. The villagers will be able to see first hand how I, as a girl, was able to go to school and develop this project to directly help the villagers. It will certainly change their ideas about girls; this project will make them believe that their daughters can also do something helpful. This project will also save money that families should spend on books. Hence, they will have fewer problems with money and will be able to send more students to school.

Government support
In May 2007,the project manager, Soman Doomtso discussed this project with the county leader, Zhuoma. She gave me full permission to go forward with this project and encouraged it, because it could help students in many important ways.

Budget

Items	Price per item in rmb	Number of items	Donor Contribution in rmb	Local Contribution in rmb	Shem Contri bution in rmb	Total cost in rmb
History of Tibetan Buddhism	14	2	28	0	0	28
Tibetan burial	20	2	40	0	0	40
Tibetan Buddhism	18	2	36	0	0	36
Buddhist monk’s life	15	2	30	0	0	30
Tibet and Tibetan	28	2	56	0	0	56
Tibetan math	36	1	36	0	0	36
History of Tibetan clothes	36.2	1	36.2	0	0	36.2
History of Tibet	98	2	196	0	0	196
Study of Tibetan history issues	16	4	64	0	0	64
Study of Tibetan Buddhism issues	30	5	150	0	0	150
Collection of Gele’s Tibetology and thesis	46.8	2	93.6	0	0	93.6
Tibetan noble families	36	2	72	0	0	72
Sky bury	30	2	60	0	0	60
Reincarnations in Tibetan Buddhism	22	2	44		0	44
The burning fire	58	2	116	0	0	116
The three kingdom	200	10	2,000	0	0	2,000
Story of celebrity	100	10	1,000	0	0	1,000
Liangshan heroes	200	10	2,000	0	0	2,000
Story of celebrity	100	10	1,000	0	0	1,000
Simple composition	100	10	1,000	0	0	1,000
I have lots of friends	39	1	39	0	0	39
Auto man	3.6	5	18	0	0	18
Easy children’s calligraphy	23.6	1	23.6	0	0	23.6
Journey to the east	200	1	200	0	0	200
Red dream building	68	1	68	0	0	68
Sciences genuine	43.2	1	43.2	0	0	43.2
Chinese Grammar	28	5	140	0	0	140
English-Chinese dictionary	14.8	5	74	0	0	74
Longman dictionary for primary students	12.5	5	62.5	0	0	62.5
Dictionary for sentence	12.5	5	62.5	0	0	62.5
Antonym dictionary	25	5	125	0	0	125
Contemporary Chinese Vocabulary dictionary	49.8	2	99.6	0	0	99.6
Synonym dictionary	10	5	50	0	0	50
Idiom dictionary	10	5	50	0	0	50
Phrase lexicon	21.5	5	107.5	0	0	107.5
Chinese dictionary	12.8	10	128	0	0	128
300 Song poems	19	1	19	0	0	19
300 Tang poems	16	1	16	0	0	16
Chinese primary teaching plan	72	1	72	0	0	72
Math primary teaching plan	72	1	72	0	0	72
Primary third year English book	5.69	8	45.52	0	0	45.52
Math review book	19.8	1	19.8	0	0	19.8
Reading and primary composition	13.6	1	13.6	0	0	13.6
Society and moral characters	7.79	1	7.79	0	0	7.79
Art	3.51	1	3.51	0	0	3.51
Society	5.27	1	5.27	0	0	5.27
Math exercise	6	1	6	0	0	6
Primary composition	150.4	1	150.4	0	0	150.4
Basic topic composition	100	1	100	0	0	100
One million why	10	1	10	0	0	10
Childhood	100	1	100	0	0	100
Geling fancy story	60	1	60	0	0	60
Primary innovation composition	100	1	100	0	0	100
Chinese fable story	100	1	100	0	0	100
Pictured English books			1,599			1,599
One thousands and one night	60	1	60	0	0	60
Chinese idiom story	59.8	1	59.8	0	0	59.8
English graded reader	4	20	80	0	0	80
Desk	45/desk	25	0	1,125	0	1,125
Chair	30/chair	20	0	600	0	600
Teachers-10hours per week to keep the library	900/ month (for10 months )	2 teachers	0	18,000	0	18,000
Management Expenses			200	200	0	400
Transportation pay			752	300		500
Management Payment			0	0	500	500
Total			13,000	20,225	500	33,725

Total cost of this project:    33,725 rmb(US 4,822.33dollars)

 Donor contribution:           13,000 rmb(US 1,858.87 dollars)

Local contribution:              20,225 rmb

Shem women’s group:          500 rmb

Sustainability
One female teacher, Laji, one male teacher, Bianba, and two students (one male and one female) have been chose as the main librarians. They will keep the library clean and tidy and will responsible for making sure the books are not damaged or stolen. Teaching staff will devise a management policy for the use of the library to ensure that students and teachers are getting the most out of the facility; both teachers and students will open and close the library on time. These measures will ensure that the book projects will continue to help Gazezhongrui School for at least 20 years.

Additional information
Sonam Doomtso has successfully complete two different second- hand cloth projects for Gang village and beggers in Lhasa City. These two projects were supported by British Consulate in Shanghai and Michelle Kleisath’s family in 2004 and 2007.

Map of the project location