Projects

To buy 35 solar electricity generating panels for 30 households in Xianzun Village and 5 monks in Xianzun Monasty to improve their living and health conditions.

Funds needed: $6,007(41,050 rmb)

The Royal Netherlands Embassy Funded this project

Dongrub Chosskyi comes from Lasetoun Township, Chengduo County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. She is currently working towards an Associate’s degree in English at the Qinghai Normal Nationalities Department’s English Training Program.

Project Location
This project is located in Xianzun Village, Lasetoun Township, Chenduo County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China and Xianzun Monastery. This monastery has 65 monks in total and is located south of Xianzun village. Xianzun Village and Xianzun Monastery are about 820 km away from Xining City, the capital of Qinghai Province, and is about 80 km away from Yushu Tibetan autonomous Prefecture. It usually takes about one entire day to travel from Xining to Yushu, and then about three hours from Yushu Prefecture Town to Xainzun village.

Population
There are approximately 363 people (41 families) in Xianzun Village and Xianzun Monastery. There are 113 men, including 5 monks, 207 women, and 43 children.

Education
In Xianzun Village, there are 20 people (13 are men and 7 are women) who received education when they were young and learned to read and write Tibetan. These 13 educated men received education in the monastery, and 7 women were educated in the nunnery. Many years ago, there was no other alternative for people to get education; so at that time many Tibetans thought that becoming a monk was only way to get education. In the monastery they could learn reading and writing. Currently, there are only 5 monks living in the monastery. In the village there are 4 university students (3 females and 1 male), 2 high school students (both of them are girls), 9 middle school students (7 boys and 2 girls) and 19 primary school students (11 girls and 8 boys). However, there are about 13 children still in the village who are not attending school. Instead, they have to spend all their time herding the yaks and sheep. They also help neighboring families work if they need help and there is no payment for those labors. One of the main problems in the village regarding education is students’ absenteeism and school withdrawal, this is due to the fact that once a child gets older or is able to work then their families decide to take them out of school to herd the livestock.

In addition, 5 monks in Xianzun Monastery are recieving the monastic education. They can write and read Tibetan very well. They speak a little Chinese.

Cash income
In Xianzun Village, there are three ways to earn cash income.1) They can earn income from selling livestock and dairy products such as butter and cheese. The families who have more livestock are able to sell yaks or yak products like cheese, butter and milk to generate income. These families can earn around 300 RMB for a year from herding. 2) Digging caterpillar fungus; on average each family can earn 300-400 RMB from digging caterpillar fungus (a kind of special herb that grows during the season of two months from May to June). 3)They can go to other villages to find work.  After they have harvested their crops most adults go looking for work such as building houses and fixing roads. Also some girls work for rich families as a house keeper. They might work for other families or a factory. Some men go to another place and work in the factory or build the houses for other villages, that average they can earn around 200-300 RMB in each year.

In total each household makes an average of 800-900 RMB each year. Each family has to spend around 1,000 RMB in a year for daily necessities like clothes, food, festivals and medicine, especially the families who have university students they have to spend more than 12,000 RMB in each year.

Herding
There are 41 families, but only 32 families herd livestock. In those families 9 households have more livestock than others and on the average they have around 31 livestock (14 sheep, 5 yaks and 12 goats) and other 23 households on average have around 19 livestock (2 yaks, 6 sheep, and 11 goats,)

Agriculture
This village is located in a high altitude area; the weather is not stable, some times very cold and sometimes very hot. The farmers only can grow barley and potatoes. In Xianzun Village each household approximately has 7 mu (1 mu=0.0666 hectares). The land can only produce enough food for themselves and they do not have surplus crops to sell in market. So there is no cash income from agriculture.

Project goals
The immediate goal of this project is to buy 35 solar electricity generating panels for 30 households in Xianzun Village and 5 monks in Xianzun Monasty.

The overarching goal of this project is to improve both Xianzun Villagers’ and resident monks’ living and health conditions.

Project beneficiaries
This project will directly benefit 302 people in total from both Xianzun Village and Xianzun Monastery.

Problems
There is no electricity for the farmers of Xinzun village. The lack of electricity causes several problems for the village:

1. Lack of access to information
   If people have no electricity then the villagers do not have TV and radios. Therefore, they do not have access to news or information and they were not informing about anything that is happening. Instead, they just follow what others say. If they have electricity, some of the families can buy TV or a radio then they could get some news about the outside world, they also could understand what happens around the world.
2. Difficult conditions for children to study
   Currently, it is very difficult for students to study at home at night because they have no light. Without light, they cannot do their homework or acquire new knowledge. If students have light they could concentrate better on their studies since at the daytime they do not have enough time to do their homework and they have class the whole day.
3. Increase health problems
   In this village people use gas lamps and candles. The smoke produced by the gas lamps and candles damage eyes and lungs, so it is very easy to get sick.
4. Increased women’s work labor
   As mentioned before, benzene lamps and candles are used frequently in the village. The work under the benzene lamps and candles is very difficult and inconvenient for women. Both men and women go to work in the field but women have also other work and responsibilities at home. They can’t finish everything during daytime, so they also work at night (washing, cooking dinner, taking care of children) under the dim light.
5. Low income
   Some families are so poor that they cannot even afford candles or gas lamps, so they can only work during daytime. Each family needs to spend around 250 rmb to buy the candles and butter for light every year.

Benefits

1. If people have electricity, they could have TV and radio so they could access the news and information. From this, they can get more knowledge about things happening around the world. They can get many different ideas and be exposed to different ways of thinking.
2. With the light generated from the solar panels students will be able to study and do their homework when it gets dark. This can help children improve their scores at school and expand their knowledge in different subjects.
3. If people did not have to use gas lamps and candles, their health would not be affected by getting exposed to the chemicals released by the lamps.
4. The solar panels could provide light that is needed for women to finish their work at night without having to worry about buying candles and gas. Every thing would be more convenient for them, so the light would really solve their problems.
5. If the villagers have solar panels, each family can save around 250 RMB per year.

Gender equality
In Xianzun Village, women have a lot of work to do both in the fields and at home. During the daytime they go to the field with their husbands where they work as much as men do, and at night while men can rest women have to prepare the dinner, wash clothes, and do some other house works; thus, the light is very important for women to do all these work. In the morning, women get up very early and they milk the yaks and sheep. Women have higher propensity to suffer from lung or throat problems because they spend a lot of time in the kitchen, burning fuel or lighting candles and lamps. Women work under difficult conditions and the workload is heavier on them as they have to take care of the housework. This project will help women on their work, improving their current conditions, allowing them to finish their work at night and improving their health.

At the same time, as I am a woman project manager, I will be the person managing the implementation and dealing with the village leaders. This will show that women are also able to take on leadership roles and change some people’s ideas about the benefits of sending women to school.

Governmental support
In May 2007, the project manager visited Xianzun Village and talked with the village leader, Guodu, and he said solar panels would be very helpful for the villagers. The next day project manager had a meeting with the whole village and invited local government leader Dorjie, he was very happy and supportive about this project. Also the whole village promised that they will be very responsible for this project.

The project steps

1. Visited Xianzun Village and held the meeting with the villagers and the village leader. (Done)
2. Discussed details with the leader about the project. (Done)
3. Interviewed some local people and took the pictures. (Done)
4. Called the Nima Company and asked about the price of the solar cookers. (Done)
5. Wrote proposal.  (Done)
6. Receive funding.
7. Collect local contribution.
8. Purchase solar panels from Nima Company in Xining, Qinghai Province.
9. Transport the solar panels from Nima Company to Xianzun Village.
10. Hold meeting with villagers and those 5 monks from Xianzun monastery, instruction about how to use it.
11. Distribute solar panels to the poorest 30 households and 5 monks.
12. Take pictures and interview people who got the solar panel.
13. Write final report and send it to Donor with pictures and all receipts.

Timeframe

This project will take 12 days to complete.

2 days: Purchase the solar panels from Nima Company

4 days: Transport the solar panels to Xianzun Village

1 day: Hold meeting with villagers and give instructions about how to use the solar panels.

1 days: Distribute solar panels to the recipients

4 days: Interview local villagers and 5 monks, take pictures and teach them how to use the solar panels.

The detailed budget

Item	Number of Item	Price for per item inrmb	Donor contri bution in rmb	Local Contri bution in rmb	Shem Contri bution in rmb	Total Cost in rmb
Solar Panels	35	1,250	37,450	6300	0	43,750
*Trans portation fee			3,300	700	0	4,000
Manage ment Payment			0	0	500	500
*Manage ment expenses	phonecall, photos, transpo rtation for the manager from Xining to the village		300	350	0	650
Total			41,050	7,350	500	48,900

*Each family will contribute 180 RMB for each solar panel, 20 RMB for the transportation fee and 10 RMB for project management expenses. Firstly, the transportation fee from Xining to Yushu Prefecture costs 3,100 RMB and from Yushu prefecture to Xianzun Village costs 900 RMB.

Sustainability
This solar panel will be purchased from Nima Company. If anything is broken or any technical problems occur within one year after the purchase, the company will exchange for a new one. If the problem happens within ten years the company will fix it and be responsible for those solar panels. Project manager Dongrub Chosskyid will explain to the villagers every detail about the situation of the company and how to use the solar panels very carefully before they are purchased. The villagers promised that they will take good care of the solar panels, if the solar panels will have any problems the villagers will contact with the village leader or the project manager, and then the village leader and the project manager will contact to the solar company in Xining for repairs.

After ten years if the solar panel will have any problems then the village leader will be responsible for it and find someone to fix it.  If that person can’t pay the payment then village will pay the payment.

Additional information
Dongrub Chosskyid (Avery) started learning English in 2005. In winter of 2005 and in the summer of 2006 she completed two- second hand-clothing projects for Daida Village which was supported by Sue Bishop at the British Consulate in Shanghai

Photos from the project site

This family‘s condition is not bad they can buy candles which has fewer negative effects on people’s bodies. Therefore, they can buy candles and do not need to use butter lamps.

Almost all women from this village do like this woman, and she is ready to make fire in the early morning and she has hard time to see her way with only a flashlight.

In the interview this woman said that she always wakes up early to worship,  so she is uses candles to see the way of her work.  She is 61 years old and it is very difficult to work in the dark.

Map of the project location