Project Manager: Shemgroup
Health issue is not taught in most of the universities and colleges in Qinghai Province, China, except in the Medical Colleges. As a result, university students and college students have very limited knowledge about health issues and hardly aware health issues
Funds needed:$680(4,820rmb)
Laurence from Australia funded this project
For Tibetan Female College Students
Facilitator: Doctor Sonamtso
Organizer: Shem Women’s Group
Brief Introduction For Doctor Sonamtso
Sonamtso is a Tibetan woman and she is forty-two. Sonamtso graduated from Qinghai Tibetan Medical College in 1989 and her major is in clinical. She is currently working in Qinghai University Affiliated Hospital Tumor Gynecology Department as an Assistant director doctor.
Brief Introduction for Organizer
Shem is a women’s group dedicated to empowering Tibetan women and their communities through grassroots development. We focus on increasing the well-being of people in impoverished communities by providing access to basic needs such as water, fuel, electricity, health care, and basic education. We fulfill our mission by training educated Tibetan women to design, implement, and manage sustainable grassroots development projects that will successfully alleviate the problems that their communities face. SWG has so far successfully completed 29 small-scale humanitarian projects in named provinces.
At the village level, while our projects fulfill basic survival needs for village women and their families, our project managers-educated Tibetan women-present villagers with strong female role models. The work of these young women raises villager’s confidence in women’s abilities and encourages villagers to value women’s education.
At the university level, we offer discussion groups and workshops designed to empower educated Tibetan women, and we provide women with the resources and training they need to put their ideas into action.
Shem means charity and compassion in Tibetan. Charity and compassion are fundamental to helping others, and are the guiding principles behind our work. The women of Shem hope to serve as inspirational examples for our families, peers, and generations of Tibetan women to come.
Shem began in October of 2003 as an after hours course in gender studies taught by Michelle Kleisath, an English teacher and gender studies specialist. In September of 2004, at the request of the gender class participants, Ms. Kleisath started teaching an additional course in small-scale development to interested women. This class began in hopes of encouraging female students to design and implement their own small-scale development projects. Such a class was unprecedented in Qinghai province.
During the course of the semester, the students learned how to identify the problems of their communities, design sustainable projects that would successfully alleviate these problems, write professional proposals to outside funding sources, and manage the execution of their projects.
By December of 2004, several project proposals were successfully completed and sent to donors for consideration. Once funded, these projects brought potable water to the villages, improved schools, brought solar electricity into the homes of nomadic communities, improved village infrastructure in the form of a bridge, and supported micro-financing in the form of a yak loan.
In an effort to create a sustainable support system for Tibetan women active in grassroots development, Shem was formed in March of 2005.
Since Shem’s inception, its’ members have raised nearly $149,228 in international funding and successfully implemented 32 small-scale development projects. These projects were funded by private donors and international funding organizations, including: The British Embassy, the Canada Fund, The German Embassy, The Netherlands Embassy, and the Shambala Connection.
contact information
Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group
Email: info@shemgroup.org
Phone: 86-971-630-2115
Mailing address:
Qinghai, Xining
Xining shi you zheng ju,
xin ning lu you ju
20-5xin xiang,
810008
China.
Website: http://www.shemgroup.org/
Why we need this training
Generally speaking, Health issue is not taught in most of the universities and colleges in Qinghai Province, China, except in the Medical Colleges. As a result, university students and college students have very limited knowledge about health issues and hardly aware health issues.
Even this is twenty first century and this is a sensitive area to talk about health problem related to sex or reproduction. Thus most of Tibetan women and girls are shy to talk about those health issues openly even if they know they have some health problems.
Also the women do not have a space for discussing health issues openly and share their problems among women themselves. Also people hardly encourage the educated women to pass their knowledge to one another.
Moreover, there are very few Tibetan books, magazines and newspapers talk about health problems, especially women’s health problems. So the students are lack of information of health problems.
In addition, the women almost never go to the hospital to check for Gynecological diseases unless they are very sick, so once they are very sick and go to the hospital then it is already becomes serious.
Due to above problems, the village women’s knowledge about health and health condition is worse than University students or educated Women. Because firstly, they are busy with their heavy work and no time to discuss health problems and gain knowledge about health issues. Secondly most of them never attend school and they themselves have to learn from other people. Thirdly, they are very lacking of health information, especially related to reproductive health issues because most of educated women are shy to talk those issues openly even if they learnt and hardly people encourage them to share what they learnt about health issues.
Solution
We will provide a space for women from different Colleges and Universities to discuss health issues and share each other’s knowledge about health openly. We will also invite Doctor Sonamtso to give training on health issue for those gathered women and teach importance of caring health problems. In addition, we will give assignment for each participant to pass what they have learned from Doctor Sonamtso or from other participants to five other village women. If any of them did not finish this assignment, there will be cash punishment (Each student needs to pay 10rmb for not telling the other village women about health issues that they have learnt and for five village total needs to pay 50 rmb as a punishment. So this mount of money will use to buy some medicines for the village women)
Beneficiaries
Around 50 College/University female students will directly benefit from the Health Training and around 250 village women will benefit through the 50 participants.
Brief concept of training
•1. Basic Knowledge about women’s health issue
•2. The importance of caring women’s health problems.
•3. The methods of preventing Gynecological disease.
Schedule
This project will be held for 3 hours each Saturday of September.
September 6th 2008, introduction and talk about why this training is needed and the importance of this training, start giving trainings about basic knowledge about women’s health issue.
September 13th 2008, continue giving the training on women’s health issue.
September 20th 2008, give training for methods of preventing Gynecological disease.
September 27th 2008, continue training on the methods for 2 hours, and then give assignment and closing the training.
Detailed Budget
| Item | Price per item in RMB |
Number of items |
Total cost in RMB |
| Training Fee | 200 | 4 | 800 |
| Classroom | 350 | 4 | 1400 |
| Transportation | 250 | 4 | 10,00 |
| Materials | 700 | ||
| Meals | 500 | ||
| Deserts | 200 | 4 | 800 |
| Photos | 10 | 52 | 520 |
| Appreciation | 100 | ||
| Total | 4820 |
Donation requested from the donor in Chinese Yuan: 4820rmb