Projects

This project is to build a 150 m long barrier wall with 2.5m high, and 1 m wide to protect the 216 households in Gongma Village from seasonal flooding in order to improve the safety and living standards of the villagers.

Funds needed: $17, 298(118,400rmb )

Tshomo jyid (Faith)
‘Tshomo jyid is from Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. She is currently working towards an Associate’s degree in English at Qinghai Normal University’s Nationalities Department English Training Program.

Project Location

Gongma Village (Shang Village in Chinese) is part of Tangne Township in the east of Xinghai County, about 20 kilometers from Xinghai County Town. Xinghai County Town is about 157 kilometers from Hainan Prefecture Town which is about 120 kilometers from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province. Gongma Village is about 297 kilometers from Xining.

Population

There are 216 households in Gongma Village, comprised of 970 people in total. This includes 230 Tibetans (57 households), 228 Hui Muslims (57 households), and 512 Chinese (102 households). There are 487 women and 483 men in Gongma Village; 35 people are retired elders and 58 are under ten years old.

Education

In Gongma Village about 50 people, 30 female and 20 male (0.05%) are literate (excluding students currently enrolled in school). The limited literate population of Gongma is almost exclusively made up of non-Tibetan immigrants and most are merely middle school graduates, though some have high school diplomas and work in local government.

There are 120 school-aged children in Gongma Village and 110 (52 boys and 58 girls) are enrolled in school. Among these about 30 are primary students and 80 are middle school students. There are 16 high school students from Gongma Village attending school outside their village because there is no high school in Gongma Village. 12 out of 16 students are attending high school in the Xinghai County Town while the other 4 students are university students studying in Qinghai’s capital city, Xining. On average, each family in Gongma Village sends most all their children to school because recently schooling is tuition-free through the ninth grade. However, most students stop their education after middle school because their family cannot gather tuition for high school or university even if they want to.

Cash Income

Each year most Gongma Villagers just produce enough farm products for their own annual food supply, without much left over to sell. Nearly all the people in Gongma Village are farmers; they grow wheat, beans, rapeseed and potatoes on their land. On average, each family owns about 4 mu (1mu= 0.0666 hectates) of land, which is only 0.8 mu of land per person. Each year, each mu of land can produce about 800 jin of wheat or 450 jin of rapeseed or 1500 jin potatoes or 500 jin of beans. They earn some money from selling their excess produce, so each household each year averages about 100-200 rmb, which per person is only 30-50 rmb per year.

Gongma Villagers also dig caterpillar fungus (this is a kind of medicine which grows in high mountains, especially in nomadic and pastoral mountain areas) to make money. This fungus is collected by Muslim and Chinese merchants for medical use. However, recently this medicinal fungus has become more and more difficult to find because lots more people are digging it now and the grassland fees have been raised very high. Also the government is trying to stop people going to these places to dig caterpillar fungus since it is bad for the environment. So now they do not actually earn much extra income from this activity, and sometimes it’s very hard to make cash after they’ve paid the grassland fee. On average, every year about 80% of Gongma Villagers go out to dig caterpillar fungus (about 500 people). From each household each year at least one person goes out for this activity. They usually start from the beginning of May and come back home in the middle of June, being gone about 45 days. From digging caterpillar fungus, it is possible to earn 800-900 rmb or more, but they only net 400-500 rmb after paying all associated costs like the grassland fee, food fee and transportation. Some diggers might even manage to earn over 1000 rmb in a lucky year, though they too will bring home far less. However, nothing is certain except the grassland fee, so the income from this is unreliable and it all depends on luck.

Another way Gongma Villagers have to generate cash income is work as migrant laborers. On average, each family sends at least one person out to do labor work each year (about 30% of the villagers). They work in the local construction places where they need unskilled workers, earning around 25-30 per day. Some go to Xinghai County Town to find some employment, usually working about 2-3 months, mostly in June and July, after which they have to come back to home for the harvest. In total, laborers who manage to find work might possibly gross 800-1000 rmb, adding about 500-700 rmb to their annual family income. However, most people have to stay at home to take care of their family, children and elders, so the number of people who can do this is always limited.

In addition to this, there are also some families in Gongma Village who are raising livestock, like goats，sheep and cattle. On average, each of these families has about 142 sheep and can supplement their agricultural income with about 1,000 rmb from selling sheep and wool.

In total, the average family can make 1000-1300 rmb per year. In cash income, they have to spend around 800-900 rmb per year for basic requirements like salt, sugar, tea, cloth and electricity. Predictable necessary expenditures include clothes, electricity, family supplies, fertilizer, interest on outstanding debts, children’s school fees, hospital care and other essentials. Basically, they do not have money to save in the bank. They use those monies to pay for their outstanding debt, buy some clothes, family supplies, like salt, sauce, spicy and so on. Also they use that money to buy fertilizer, and pay for electricity or other essentials.

Agriculture

Gongma Village is a small village compared with the other two neighboring villages, Virma Village and Xuma Village. People in that village are mostly farmers growing wheat, rapeseed, beans and potatoes once a year, doing the seeding, planting, cultivating and harvesting according to the seasonal changes. Each year they earn about 100-200 rmb from selling their excess flour, beans, oil and potato and for the most family, they usually only get enough flour to support themselves as well as potato and oil. One mu of agriculture land can produce around 800 jin wheat, 450 jin oil seed, 1500 jin of potatoes and 500 jin of beans. Sometimes they have to feed their livestock by using the beans and spoiled potatoes, so they do not usually have a lot to sell.

Herding

Gongma Village’s richest families, which are about 6.5% of the population of among the 216 households, are able to herd goats, sheep or cattle. About 16 families in Gongma herd goats, each has about 102 goats, annually each family earn 500rmb averagely by selling goats and goat wool in addition to their farming products. About 30 families have cows; each family on average has 1 cow that helps them to earn about 300 rmb each year by selling milk, yogurt and butter. These additional incomes are available for few families in Gongma Village.

Weather

Gongma Village has four regular seasons. In summer and autumn there is mostly rain everyday. In the summer and autumn, whenever it rains flash floods occur and it is a disaster for all the villagers. Floodwater rushes through the residents’ houses, the fields and animals’ pens, causing great damage and destruction.

Project Goal

The overarching goal of this project is to improve the safety and living standards of the villagers.

The immediate goal of this project is to build a 150 m long barrier wall.  The wall will be 2.5m high, and 1 m wide to protect the 216 households in Gongma Village from seasonal flooding.

Problems

Flood

Every summer and autumn, Gongma Villagers live a life of danger and fear because of the threat of floods. Gongma Village is located at the foot of Lazi Mountain and because this “mountain” is actually like a cliff, whenever it rains the water pours directly down to the village. This damages a lot of residents’ houses and belongings. Things like furniture, clothing, machines, food and fields all are damaged and the damage cannot be avoided without installing a barrier wall. This phenomenon also decreases the villagers’ annual cash incomes. Moreover, it almost rains every day in Gongma Village in the summer and autumn months of June, July, August and even until the middle of September sometimes. Gongma Villagers fight daily with the ravaging floodwaters.

The rainfall is unpredictable and it comes one moment and recedes the next, so the villagers are unable to determine how to protect themselves. Mostly it rains during the daytime, but the worst thing is when it rains at night, it put village lives in danger from being killed by the floodwaters, especially children and elders.

High pressure

The floodwater puts the villagers under a great pressure and stress, because they cannot sleep well during the night. They are always scrutinizing the weather with anxiety to see if there are signs in the sky that shows it may rain during the night. When they think it might rain, they are forced to stay awake all night, ready to save their property or just run. More than that, if their houses or other belongings are taken by the water then they have to start to rebuild or restore them. All of this drives them to the edge of despair. With this situation persisting year after year, life has become even harder for them when they have to rebuild all the damaged parts. In the summer time, there is no peace for the villages and they are full of stress and fear. All of this is a big disaster which takes even their confidence to live. They are afraid of the coming rainfall and the floodwater. On the other hand, they need the rainfall because they want to have a good harvest. Thus, they have deeply complicated feelings and anxieties.

Health problems

The floodwater soaks everything -clothing, blankets, bedding- and sometimes just fills their bedrooms so that they have to spend a long time to get the water out. Hence, during the night they have no other choice but to sleep on the wet beds with wet blankets, wearing wet clothing. Consequently, after years and years sleeping on the damp stuff, many suffer from arthritis and rheumatism and the women get gynecological problems and kidney disorders, all of which would be difficult to cure even if the villagers had money for extensive health care, which they do not.

Economic problems

It is normal in Gongma Village that whenever the flood comes it rushes away some of the livestock, like goats, sheep and chickens. Sometimes even the pigsties are full of water, killing or nearly killing the pigs by drowning in the water.

Last year, one Gongma Villager family went out to look for their 60 goats that had disappeared in the flood, in the end find only found thirty alive. Later they found out the other thirty goats were buried and killed in the mud; only their horns appeared outside. Their family financial resources were severely depleted by the loss since they had bought those goats just several days before the flood. In this way, they lost almost 6,000 rmb in cash.

The floodwater damages houses and fields, villagers’ primary survival resources. A lot of properties are lost in the flood and yet they have to spend even more money to repair their houses and their fields. Many families spend 200-300 rmb for repairing damaged houses and fields each year. In many cases it is really a problem even to repair their fields because every time the flood waters leave just sand and stones from the cliff in the fields. If people are not able to save their field from the sand and stones, then they do not get any cash income from the fields that year and even their own food supply is seriously depleted. Besides this, the floodwater sometimes stops people from going out to do outside work, because children and elders must be protected from the flood.

Benefits

1. If the barrier wall is built, 970 people will directly benefit from the project. The wall will block the water from the mountain, channeling it into the small river, which runs nearby. This will free people in my village from fears and hardships, which come every year with the rainfall. They will not need to worry about the weather and will even be able to enjoy the rain like most farmers in summer time.
2. Villagers will have a dry place to sleep and no longer need to sleep on wet beds. Their immune systems will be free from the stress and sleeplessness so that the children can grow stronger and the adults will have fewer health problems. And their bodily strength will be improved, and they will be able to spend more energy in productive endeavors.
3. Villagers will save the money they currently spend repairing their houses and fields. This money will be free for use on other family essentials.
4. Villagers’ belongings will no longer be taken by the floodwaters and they will not to be afraid that if they buy goats or sheep they will be taken and buried by the water. Their family financial conditions will improve.
5. The lives of village children and elders will no longer be in danger, and adults will be free to go out of the village to find other resources and incomes.
6. People will be able to sleep well in the night, and won’t have to be anxious and suspicious of the weather. Changes in the clouds will on longer stress their nerves and make them sleepless. They will be able to get a decent amount of sleep and will have more energy in the day for farming and will find themselves capable of doing more work and increasing their farm production.
7. Villagers’ will be happier and less stressed and their quality of life will be greatly improved. Even the weather will be enjoyed by the villagers since rain is good for harvest.

Beneficiaries

216 households (970 people including 230 Tibetan, 228 Hui people and 512 Han Chinese) in Gongma Village will directly benefit from this project.

Gender Equality

First, the simple fact is that this project will be managed by a female and this will send a great message to all the villagers, greatly expanding village girls’ horizons. Both men and women in Gongma Village may be forced to enlarge their ideas about the potential of women, spreading a message of gender equality. Moreover, this will encourage young women and girls in Gongma Village to work toward an education and they may start to shed their shyness and show their abilities in class. In addition, when I discussed these issues with our village leader, I involved two respected women.  We discussed the problems with them and asked their opinions about the solutions, directly expressing the idea of gender equality. This project will also involve the village women working side by side with the men, mixing the sand and cement and so on. Additionally this project will especially improve women’s health because women tend to get more problems from sleeping on the wet beds and blankets.

Government Approval

On 5^th of May, in 2007, the project manager, Ms. Tsomo Jyi, talked with the County Town leader, Jialuo. He was very appreciative of this idea and has become an advocate of its advantages. As a result, Tsomo Jyid has been given official permission to proceed with the project.

The Steps of Project

1. Meet the village leader and other villagers to ask the most serious problem in my village (done).

2. Hold a meeting with the villagers, arranged by the village leader, to discuss their needs. There were 10 people involved in my meeting, 2 women, 5 venerated elders, the village leader, his son and their assistant (done).

3. Collect information for the project (talk with the village leader and take photos) (done).

4. Get official permission to carry out the project from our county leadership (done).

5. Get information from other managers who have done this kind of project before and talk to them (done).

6. Figure out the price for the materials (done).

7. Hold a meeting with villagers, choosing three women and three men to take the responsibility for the materials (done).

8. Hold a meeting with the workers to discuss the best place for where the barrier wall should be.

9. Write a proposal (done).

10. Receive the funds from donor

11. Hold a meeting with villagers to discuss how the project wil proceed and when it should be done.

12. Call the cement company to make a reservation on the cement.

13. Get all the materials well prepared.

14. Oversee the participation of the villagers until the project is completed.

15. Interview the villagers to gauge the success of the project.

16. Take pictures of the project after its completion.

17. Write and send the final report to donor.

Project duration: 38 days

This project will take 38 days to complete.

1 day: to have a meeting with Gongma villagers.

7 days: To purchase the project material, for example, to buy cement, stone and sand. 3 days: To discuss with the Gongma Village leader on the project implement planning things, like hire workers, cooks and purchasing coal and fuel for cooking.

20 days: The actual project will take 20 days to be completed.

7 days: After the project is completed I will have to interview people and take picture of the new barrier wall.

In total, the project will take 38 days to be completed. Depending on whether purchasing the materials runs smoothly and whether the weather is good, the project dates might change.

Detailed Budget

Item	Num ber of items	Price per item in rmb	Donor contri bution in rmb	Local contr ibution in rmb	Shem Women ’s group in rmb	Total cost in rmb
Cement (including transpo rtation)	150 ton	500/ton	75,000	0	0	75，000
Stone	375 m3	30/ m3	0	11，250		11，250
Sand	170 m3	35/m3	0	5,950	0	5,950
Water *	20 hand tractor	200/ hand tractor	0	4,000	0	4,000
Food	43 workers /20 days	15/day	0	12,900	0	12,900
Coal for cooking	0.5 ton	500/ ton	0	250	0	250
Cook for workers	20days /2 cooks	40/pe rson/ day	0	1,600	0	1,600
Skilled worker	5days/ worker	80/per son/day	400	0	0	400
Unskilled worker	20days ×40 workers	50/pers on/day	40,000	0	0	40,000
Transpo rtation fee (for stone and sand)	50 truck	50/hand tractor	2,500	0	0	2,500
*Manag ement expenses			300	200	0	500
Manag ement payment			0	0	500	500
Total			118,200	36,150	500	154,850

Total Donor contribution is 118,400 rmb

* There is no running water in Gongma Village, the villagers usually get water from a small river that flows by their houses and sometimes from the big river called “Dahu Ba” near the village. They transport water by their hand-tractors. So if the water will be used in the project we must hire some trucks to make water available at the construction site.

* This amount of money will be used as transportation fee, phone call, and copy and taxi expenses.  The roundtrip to Gongma Village costs 106 rmb. I think during the implementing of the project I will go to the project location at least for three times. So the rest of money will be spending on taxi fee for visiting the Cement Company and phone calls to the company leader and village leader for information and making arrangement. Plus the copy fee is to print the proposal and attempt working as I originally planed.

Sustainability

This project is a sustainable project because the people in Gongma Village know how difficult it is to be in the fear of flood every year. The benefits of building up a barrier wall are obvious and warmly perceived. Therefore, they will be responsible for this barrier wall and take care of it. Also, the materials which I am going to buy are well known for its good quality and sustainability, also the workers I am going to hire are skillful and responsible. After building it the village leader and I will make a schedule of the Barrier Wall Duty list, and let the villagers take turns to protect the building from damaging. Thus if there won’t be any unexpected natural disasters Gongma villagers will take careful of the barrier wall and get at least twenty years of usage out of this building.

Additional information

In January of 2004 I implemented a second hand clothes project which was funded by Canada Embassy with the help of Dr. Kevin Stuart.

In the summer of 2006 I did another second hand clothes project donated by Cindy Tan and her friends, and the final report is available on: www.shemgroup.org.

In 2007 I did a solar cooker project to the same village with personal grant from one of my friends and this project benefited 30 households in Gongma Village (Shang Village in Chinese), Tangne Township, Xinghai County, Hainan Prefecture in Qinghai Province in China.

In May, 2008 I did a solar flashlight project donated by Naljor Prison Dharma Service and the related information is available on www.shemgroup.org. This project directly benefited 44 households.

Photo

The overview of the Gongma Village from the Lazi Mountain, when rains the flood water is pouring from here directly into the villagers’ fields.

The flood goes into the field and flows into residences’ houses. This is the wall that’s been damaged by the flood.

Map of the project location