Projects

This project at least will continually support to help the poor students in Daxing Township for three years to attain an education and to increase enrollment rates in the township. Provide convenient access to funds for parents and students in order to reduce the financial troubles they face in paying for an education.

Funds needed: $7,864(62,500rmb)

Shem’s private donors funded this project

Tserang Lhamo is from Daxing Township, Songpan County, Aba 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
The project site is located in Daxing Township, Songpan County, Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. Daxing Township is in the South East of Songpan County, 52km away from the county seat . Songpan County Town is 363km from Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province.

A Background of Daxing Students’ Tuition Help Program
In 1995, about 6 students in the township discussed the possibility of organizing a program to help other students of Daxing township. They named their organization the Daxing Students Tuition Aid Program.

The program has two primary purposes. The first and most important is to help students of the township to cover the costs of education. We do this by asking some more well off (relatively) residents to donate money to our group. In return, we organize the students and arrange a celebration day during which the students perform dances, singing and comedy acts for the township residents. This performance is typically help during the winter holiday while the students are not in school. The money that we raise we are then able to lend to the students and their families so that they can pay for school. We lend the money for a year at no interest, and then ask the recipients to return the same amount. This helps these families send their children to school, because they ordinarily would not have a large sum of disposable income to spend on tuition fees. With the loan, however, they can send their child to school and slowly accumulate the principle sum through out the year to pay it back.

Another reason we operate this program is to provide some lively cultural entertainment for the township residents. Their lives are very difficult and they are constantly required to labor in order to make ends meet. Arranging a performance for them provides a well-deserved break and an opportunity to enjoy some cultural entertainment. We invite all viewers to join in the dancing and singing, though most of them are farmers without any idea about how to participate. Most are illiterate and rarely venture outside of the small valley were they grew up. The students, who have practiced and perform well, always impress the shy famers. The students’ confidence encourages village families to send their children to school as well.

Nineteen students in the township first organized this program. Thirteen of them were in middle school, four went to the local teachers training school, and two were in college. At first they had many difficulties starting the program, mostly because they had no money. Their parents were at first skeptical; already they work hard year-round and avoid purchasing any new clothes, vegetables, and meat in order to save money for their children to go to school. Annual school expenses are about 1,200 yuan for middle schoolers, 3,000 rmb for those in the teacher training school, and 5,000rmb for the college students. The students founders finally convinced their parents to support the idea. However, they had little experience to employ in such an endeavor, as most of their free time had been spent helping their families work. For this reason, they had established none of the social connections necessary for getting money or permission for such a program. Nevertheless, they persevered and scraped together enough money for the first performance. This way, they won the confidence of the community and the donations began to trickle in (most donations are the equivalent of 50 cents, or at the most 10 dollars).

Now the program has been running for eleven years, and has a 6,217 rmb available to lend out to needy students. This money is not enough to help all the students who require money to cover their tuition, in particular those who wish to pursue higher education. More and more young people are eager to go to school and stay in school, but the community income has not risen to fit the bill.

Current Rules of the Program
In order for the Aid program to run smoothly, the members have agrred upon a series of rules. Firstly, every student from the township in middle school and college must participate in the annual performance, which occurs usually near the New Year. Only if there are important extenuating circumstances are they released from this duty. The vast majority are eager to participate regardless of the rule, though we make it clear anyway.

Secondly, every student in this program has the responsibility to make the program better. They need to cooperate with each other and follow the instructions of the agreed upon program leader. Every year we choose a new leader from among the members. A female student is the leader for a year and then a male student is the leader for a year.

Thirdly, it is unacceptable for others who are not students to interfere in the administration of the program. When the student members graduate from school, they have to pass their position in the program to another student member. Also, graduated students cannot receive any money from the program, as it is strictly for students. Exceptions are made only if they donate at least 50rmb to the program and offer to guide the younger members with their experience.

Fourthly, when we finish the annual performance and tally the donations, we discuss how much money we should lend to middle school students, teacher-training students, and college students. If possible, we lend some money to every student who volunteered to participate in the program. Each year we can earn about 1,500 RMB from performance activities, but the cost of putting it all together is about 700 RMB. Costs include: buying food and drinks, and buying small gifts such as a soda or juice drink and a kardak (light ceremonial scarf that denotes esteem or respect) for donors to encourage them to continue to give. What we are able to lend to students varies year to year according to the costs and earnings from each performance. The students can borrow money at no interest for one year, at which point they must return it. If they fail to do so, interest begins to accrue at a rate of 5 RMB per 100RMB they borrowed per month. Only students themselves can borrow the money directly, not their relatives. Upon borrowing funds they must write and sign a letter agreeing to pay back the amount before the beginning of the next year’s performance. Since the program began 11 years ago, every student who borrowed money has returned it.

Population
In Daxing Township, there are five big villages which together comprise 204 households. There are 1,354 people in the township, among them are 440 women and 488 men. There are 426 children.

Education
Roughly 75 percent of the adults in Daxing Township are wholly illiterate since they never had a chance to attend school due to the financial burden.There are 232 primary school students–96 female and 136 male. There are 15 middle school students–3 female and 12 male. There are 7 high school students–4 female and 3 male. Finally, there are 3 college students–each is female. There are about 257students in total in the entire township.

Cash income
In Daxing Township, each household can average earn around 2,750RMB on average per year. They have two ways to earn cash throughout the year.The first way is to sell livestock (goats or sheep) in the autumn. Half of the households in Daxing Township have no livestock at all. Families that have the highest number of livestock own 20-odd goats or 20-odd sheep, two pigs and two bulls. They only can sell 4 goats or 4 sheep each year. A sheep or a goat can sell for 200 RMB. They do not sell the bulls because they need them to plow the fields and they do not sell the pigs because they fatten them to eat each year . Accordingly, some households can earn around 800 RMB each year by selling the goats or the sheep, but many households have none to sell at all.
The second way to earn money is to dig caterpillar fungus in the late spring for a month. Caterpillar fungus is an unusual fungus that grows in the mountains and is prized for its medicinal qualities. One small piece, the size of a match perhaps, can fetch about 8 RMB these days. Unfortunately, Daxing people need to go to other places by truck or bus to dig caterpillar fungus since there is none on the mountains near Daxing. Usually they need to pay 300 RMB per person as a levy for searching/ digging on others’ land. Transportation to and from those areas averages about 150 RMB per journey. Each household only can send one person to collect the fungus because the rest are needed to work in the fields. Each person can find 10 pieces of fungus per day on average. Each person can typically earn 1,950 RMB each year from this endeavor.

Each household in Daxing can earn at most, about 2,750 RMB per year. However their annual expenditures exceed this amount. Annual costs typically include buying clothes, shoes, vegetables, rice, medicine, herbicide, fertilizer, paying for electricity, and sending their children to school. Annually, local people spend 240 RMB for electricity, 100 RMB for the health care, 19 RMB for preventative medicine for the livestock, 700 RMB for buying rice, 700 RMB for flour, 200 RMB for vegetables, 50 RMB to buy cheese and butter, and spend about 800 RMB for buy shoes and clothes a year. In a year they totally need to spend 2,809 RMB and it is more than what they actually earn in a year.

Agriculture
Daxing is an agricultural township and residents usually grow barley, wheat and potatoes. Some households have 15 mu (1mu=.00067 square km, or 1/15 th hectare)of fields, and some others have 8 mu of fields. Because of periodic drought and flooding, the farmers cannot harvest enough food for all their family members to eat throughout the year (larger families have ten or more people, smaller families have six people). Therefore, they have to spend money to buy rice, flour and vegetables, as well as butter and cheese. One mu of land can produce about 200 jin (1 jin=1/2 kg) of barley, 250 jin of wheat, or 300 jin of potatoes. The weather is cold throughout most of the year, and the summer is very short. The villages are in amountainous area, which also contributes to the poor farming conditions. The quality of the wheat is not good and is mostly used to as feed for the pigs. The potatoes are very small, local people choose the bigger ones to eat and feed the small ones to the pigs.
Project goals
The overall goal of this project is to help the poor students in Daxing Township to attain an education and to increase enrollment rates in the township. The immediate goal of the project is to provide convenient access to funds for parents and students in order to reduce the financial troubles the face in paying for an education.

Problems

• Poor children, especially girls, cannot attend school, because the parents usually send the girls to dig herb roots and caterpillar fungus since they do not drink, smoke, or gamble. The girls save the money they earned and help their parents to send younger brothers or sisters to school.

• Parents typically try their best to send all their children to school, but they cannot afford it. So they usually ask the submissive children to help the family and the submissive children are usually girls. In addition, some children do really well in their studies and pass the entrance examinations for college, but their parents cannot afford for their school expenses.

• Students feel strong pressure to reduce their parents work burden and otherwise contribute to the family. Therefore they save as much money as possible at school, which means they do not purchase adequate or advanced study materials.

• In my hometown most women are illiterate. They are unable to talk about health problems to doctors when they are sick because they can not speak Chinese. They also do not know simple math and have difficulties purchasing items from the market.

Benefits of the Project

235 people per year will benefit from this project.

• Poor children, especially girls, will have a far better chance to go to school, as they will not need to dig herb roots and caterpillar fungus for their younger brothers or sisters school expenses.

• For parents, the burden of sending children to school will be eased. Parents will be able to send all their children to school, submissive or not, because to the convenient loan program.

• For students, the burden of constantly saving money and cutting corners will be eased. They will not need to worry about their tuition as much, and will be able to afford proper study materials. Reduce students heavy burden and pressure. The students do not need to worry about their tuition and they also can use the new technological study materials to study.

• With the new loans, girls will be able to study and will not remain illiterate for generations and generations. Education is a primary avenue to empowerment and self-determination.

How the project will address gender inequalities
As mentioned earlier, the girls usually cannot attend school, because the parents usually send the girls to dig herb roots and caterpillar fungus. The girls save the money they earn and help their parents to send younger brothers or sisters to school. The loan program makes it easier for parents to send their girls to school, thereby raising the enrollment rate for girls.

As for the project itself, both girls and boys have equal opportunity to act as leader of the program, as the leadership position switches between a male/female year to year.

Government support
On May 2th, 2006, Luomocuo, the leader of Daxing Students School Tuition Aid Program, and I met with Tang Xiaodong and He Ping, the leaders of the township, to discuss the project. They gave us permission to go forward with the project and encouraged us to continue this program to help more and more children to get an education.

Steps of the project

1. Hold meeting with local people and consult them about their needs. (Completed)

2. Talk to Luomocuo, the leader of Daxing Students School Tuition Aid Program and get more information about the program and how it could be expanded . (Completed).

3. Hold a meeting with all the students and villager leaders to discuss how much money we should lend to a poor college student, how much for a poor high school student, how much for a poor middle school student and how much for a poor primary school student. (Completed)

4. Hold a meeting with all the students and village leaders to choose five reliable and honest people, to investigate the program to check whether the students are doing well with the money or not. (Completed)

6. Write the proposal (Completed).

7. Secure donor funding.

8. Receive funds.

9. Hold a meeting with the members of the program and village leaders again to insure proper compliance with the rules of the program.

10. Hold a meeting with all the students who are the members of Daxing Students School Tuition Aid Program again and remind the students of all the rules again.

11. To announce the students that they can borrow money from the program without any interest for one year

12. Start project and lend money to the students.

14. S upervise the process of the project.

15. Interview the students and local people (men, women, and children).

16. Take pictures.

17. Write a final report.

18. Send final report with all pictures and receipts.

Timeframe

This project will take a total of five days to implement:

The first day	Hold a meeting with the members of the program and village leaders again to insure proper compliance with the rules of the program.
The second day	Hold a meeting with all the members of the program to make a formal agreement about following the rules of the program.
The third day	Hold a meeting with all the students and remind them of the rules and terms of the agreement.
The fourth day	To announce the students that they can borrow money from the program without any interest for one year.
The fifth day	Lend the money and the leader will keep the receipts.

 

Detailed Budget of the Project

Donor contribution

Item	Price per item RMB	Number of items	Total RMB
Expenses in primary school	100RMB /per person	150	15,000
Expenses in middle school	500RMB/per person	50	25,000
Expenses in high school	500RMB/per person	25	12,500
Expenses in college	1,000RMB/ per person	10	10,000
Total amount requested from Donor			62,500RMB

­ Expenses: in the primary school and middle school students do not need to pay for school tuition, but they need to pay fees for the dormitory, study materials, and food. In high school and college they need to pay for everything: the dormitory, food, study materials and tuition.

Local Contribution

Item	Price per item RMB	Number of items	Total RMB
Family contribution	50RMB/per household	*174	8,700
The fund in the program			6,317
Total Value of local contribution			15,017RMB

*Note: In this Township there are totally 204 households and 30 of them are the poorest according to their annual cash income, which is less than 200RMB per family. They have fewer family members to work in the fields and own no livestock. For this reason only 174 households will pay the local contribution.

Total costs of the project

Donor contribution	Local contribution	Total Cost in RMB	Total Cost inUS Dollars
62,500 RMB	15,017RMB	77,517RMB	$9,690

Sustainability
The tuition aid program was started in 1995 and it has continued for 11 years. In those years, the program has improved in that the amount of funds available for lending has slowly increased. And also all the students have been obedient regarding the rules of the program and they have consistently returned the money that they borrowed from program. The number of the students who participate to this program is now increasing; in 1995 there were 19 students, now there are 25 students. This project is sustainable, because students have returned the funds as expected for 11 straight years. There is no reason to believe that they will do otherwise in the future, especially considering how much the local people continue to value the program.

If funding is secured, the program members will continue to organize the annual performances and solicit funds from wealthier villagers after the performance days are over.

Photos of the program in action

The three people are leading representatives of the program. One of them is speaking Chinese, one of them is speaking Tibetan and the other one is speaking English (me, far left). The people who are sitting at the desks are the donors, and they are watching the performance. The people on the wall are the villagers who are also watching the performance. This picture was taken in 2003, when the manager was a boy named Sonjijia.

These are people are villagers coming to see the performances. The children standing both sides are the students who are welcoming the villagers. This is a picture from 2001.

These people in this picture are the founders of Daxing School Tuition Aid Program. This is a picture from 1995.

In this picture, the female members of the program are giving a performance for the donors. This is a picture from 2002.

In this picture the young villagers are giving a performance to the donors. This was taken in 2004.

In this picture these people are donating money to the program. This was taken in 2006.

In this picture these people are also donating money to the program, also in 2006. )</P>