Projects

This project is to buy 170 Tibetan and English books, and 189 Chinese books and 15 computers for Zhoggo Primary School to enrich the local students’ general knowledge about the outside world and have motivation and interest of studying further.

Shem US & Dining for Women from US funded this project

Laji Zhoma is from Jiara Village, Xindu Township, Luohuo County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. She is currently working towards an Associate’s degree at the English Training Program, Qinghai Normal University.
Project Location
Zhoggy Primary School is located in Zhoggo Village, Xindu Township, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Zhoggo is about 3 km from Luhuo County. The distance from the project site to Chengdu is about 655 km.
Background School
Zhoggo Primary School is in Zhoggo Village, neighboring Xindu Township, and is about 3 km from north-west Luhuo County Town. The school was built in 1980 and there are six grades in this school. Right now there are 158 students from age 7 to 16 (89 male students and 69 female students). Those students are from different villages (Jiara, Xiaka, Geta, Jijiagu, Bolu, Cawa, Cainong, Lee, Zhoggo, Muluoguoba, Xidukawa, and Guotuowa) in Xindu Township. There are 12 teachers, 4 math teachers, 3 Tibetan teachers, and 5 Chinese teachers. From April 25^th 2008, this school became a boarding school for the grade five and grade six students.
Population
There are 312 households of 12 villages sending their children to Zhoggo Primary School (In Chinese Called Lao Jie Xiao Xue). In total there are 1,934 people (691 men, 760 women and 483 children) who make up the population of the 12 villages in Xindu Township.
Education
In these villages (Jiara, Xiaka, Geta, Jijiagu, Bolu, Cawa, Cainong, Lee, Zhoggo, Muluoguoba,Xidukawa, and Guotuowa) 80% of the people are illiterate. This is partially due to the low income level in the area. Because these villages are somewhat secluded the villagers have few chances to communicate with people from other areas. Many villagers have difficulty communicating with Chinese people. The villagers who can speak Chinese often cannot read or write Chinese. The 20% of people who are literate are mostly monks and nuns. They have studied in Tibetan monasteries, and their Chinese is limited. Nobody can speak English in these villages due to the poor quality English education they’ve received in primary school during in 1982-1999. But nowadays it is different. There are more then 4 villagers can speak English including me. If you don’t know any English, it is little difficult to get job. Also there are 5 Chinese teachers in the Zhaggoy Primary and they graduated from University. So they can understand basic English.
There are 158 students in Zhoggo primary school (89 male students and 69 female students). These students are from the all of the twelve villages in Xindu Township. Also, there are 9 middle school students (2 girls and 7 boys), and 2 college students (2 girls). Because of villagers’ poor living condition, they cannot afford to send their children to school. School aged children are kept home doing housework, such as, fetching water, taking care of younger siblings and so on. Girls are especially valued as household workers so are more likely to not go school.
Cash income
The 12 villages of Xindu are not far from each other; their cash income is almost same. The people in those villages are all farmers. There are three ways to generate income: i) agriculture, ii) unskilled labor and iii) collecting caterpillar fungus. Most of the villagers’ income comes from agricultural products. Families can earn an average of 600 RMB per year from selling crops. The richest families can earn about 2000 RMB from agriculture; the poorest families only make around 200 RMB.
Some young villagers make money from construction jobs and other hard labor work outside the village. They go to other towns or cities to find jobs at construction sites or seek other work, like building roads. Usually, the payment of labor work varies from male to female. Men usually can get 30-40 RMB per day, but women can only get 20-30 RMB per day. They work 2 months or more to earn 900 RMB.
Villagers can also make money during the summer time from collecting caterpillar fungus, a kind of medicinal herb. Village children can earn around 10 RMB per day from digging fungus. For two months work, a child can average 400 RMB.
In total, families earn around 1900 RMB per year. Wealthier families can earn around 3300 RMB. Villagers spend money on buying food, furniture, clothes, medicine and household repairs. So every year they spend almost all money. Some times the poor family borrows money from the rich family or government. But they can borrow money around 1000-1500RMB, because borrowers thought that the poor family can not requite their money in the next year. Also rich families they own have some money in the bank and they spend more then 3300RMB to buy basic needs. Some times buy motorcycle, and television
Agriculture
These villagers are farmers; their living mainly depends on farming. The villagers grow barley, potatoes, beans, and wheat. After the harvest, villagers store a part of their crops to feed themselves and they sell the rest of the crop in order to make money. The average field that a family has is 3.5 mu, (1 mu = 0.6666 hectares and each mu of land can produce around 400-500 jin).
Herding
Even though, these villages are farming places, they also have some livestock, for example, cow, female yaks, Zo, Zomo, horses and goats. Some families have eight or nine livestock at most but some families have no livestock. Villagers usually use these animals for farming and milking. Villagers herd their family’s livestock on the mountainsides.
Project goals
The immediate goal of this project is to buy 170 Tibetan and English books, and 189 Chinese books and 15 computers for Zhoggo Primary School.
The overarching goal of this project is to enrich the local students’ general knowledge about the outside world and have motivation and interest of studying further.
Problems
1. Lack of access to Tibetan language education materials
The majority of the residents in the area are Tibetans and their home language is Tibetan. However, due in large part to a lack of access to Tibetan reading materials many of the residents are not fully literate in Tibetan. In Zhoggo School, most the courses are taught in Chinese language and most by Chinese teachers. (Chinese, nature study, moral, and math)There is only one Tibetan course for each class. It is teaching by Tibetan teachers Students only have access to the Tibetan written in their Tibetan course book. This leads to a number of problems: 1) without access to Tibetan reading materials students do not have an equal chance to develop literacy in Tibetan, ii) there is no value placed on Tibetan literacy in the school system, this means that students will begin to de-value their own language, and will not have the chance to read about their cultures, traditions and customs in mother tongue.
2. Lack of access to wide variety of educational materials
As a small primary school in a remote area, Zhoggo Primary School has a library with very few books in it. Those books are very old and the information is not very relevant to modern society. Students have access to books with limited information and scope. These books cannot provide students with fresh ideas and diverse views about the world in order to build their knowledge.
3. Less interest in studying cause low chance to enter good middle school
There are very few books, which are outdated, so students do not have much interest to read those books. Gradually the students get bored from studying only text books every day and this makes them less motivated. This lack of motivation also affects their interests in studying main subjects like Chinese, Tibetan and so on. If the students do not have any interest in studying their main subjects then it can cause negative result for the students themselves and it is very tough for the teachers to teach the students. As time passes, more and more students lose interest in attending school.
The lack of study materials and interests, age-appropriate reading materials (in Chinese, Tibetan, and English) have a negative effect on students’ middle school entry exam scores. There is a low level of interest in literacy. There is little to no access to reading materials.
Textbooks provide some information that is relevant to the content of the test, but the entrance exam also includes general knowledge questions which are not covered by the school’s limited textbooks.
4. Lack of computer skills
Nowadays a person who doesn’t have computer skills is just like a person without eyes. Primary students who do not have access to computers at a young age are disadvantaged. When you are young it is the best time to learn.
So the primary school is a very important period for students to learn computer skills. There is a computer room in Zhoggo primary school, but no computers in computer room. So students don’t have any chance to learn computer skills. Even if the students want to learn things from the computer, but they cannot use the local internet bar because it is too expensive for the local students to pay. Also there is a rule if you are pupil you can not into internet bar.
Benefits
1.If the school library has more Tibetan books, the students’ Tibetan level will be improved and they will have a better understanding about their own culture and Tibetan history.
2.Access to more books will improve students’ motivation to read. Access to more reading materials will also improve students’ middle school entrance exam marks. More families will be more willing to send their children to this village school. Access to books and computers will be seen as an educational asset. This will improve the school’s attendance rate and eventually improve village-wide literacy rates.
3. From computers students can get a lot of information about how to study and about how to communicate with other people. Also students can watch news, learn about things not written in their books, and can find out about any information that they want to know. Access to computers can improve students’ knowledge and can help students to learn information technology from an early age. Also it can help the students to get jobs easily in the future if they have computer skills.
4. Having computers can make both teachers and students want to have new and different ideas about teaching and studying. Computers can make teachers and students interested in looking for new educational materials. Computers enable students and teachers to be creative, which is very important for education.
Beneficiaries
A total of 168 people, 158 students and 12 teachers, from Zhoggo Primary School will directly benefit from this project.
Gender equality
If this project is implemented, it will affect villagers’ attitudes about sending girls to school because the project is designed and managed by a female student. The local villagers will see that girls also can do some important things like helping the local school to provide some helpful books. They will know that thinking of sending the girls to school is not a waste and the girls also can bring benefits to their own communities.
Governmental support
On June 28th of 2008, I (Laji Zhuoma) as the project manager called the local government office and spoke with Yongzhao at the Cultural and Educational Bureau. I discussed this project with him and he was very happy about this book project and computer project. Also he encouraged me to do this project and he gave me full permission to go forward, because it can help students to improve their knowledge.
Steps of the project
1.Contact the school leader on the phone, let them hold a meeting, making sure what kind of books they need. (Done)
2.Find out the price of the books and computers in Xining City, Qinghai Province. (Done)
3.Find out the transportation fee and other expenses. (Done)
4.Write project proposal. (Done)
5.Secure donor funding.
6.Purchase books and computers from Xining City, because Xining has the books we want.
7.Transport the books and computers to school
8.After the books and computers are received by the school, go to the school and interview the teachers and students in order to find out what impacts has the project brought.
9.Take pictures.
10.Write the final report.
11.Submit the final report.
Time Frame
This project will take 25 days to be fully completed.
6 days, the project manager buys books from Xining bookshop and Tibetan bookshops which are near the bus station in Xining. Also the project manager buys computers from Xining computer store at Shengli Street.
3 days, pack all the books and computers and prepare them for transport.
8 days, transport the books and computers to the project site.
5 days, hold a meeting with the school teachers about the implementation of the project and emphasize how local teachers and students should take care of these books and computers.
3 days, take photos, interview the students and teachers at the school, and write final a report.
Detailed Budget

Iem	Quantity	Unit Price in rmb	Donor Contribu tion in rmb	Local Contribu tion in rmb	Shem Contribu tion in rmb	Total cost in rmb
*Chinese books	189		4,863.5	0	0	4,863.5
*English &Tibetan books	170		2,594.9	0	0	2,594.9
Computers	15	2,500	36,000	1,500	0	37,500
Desk for computer	15	175/desk	0	2,625	0	2,625
Chair for computer	15	60/chair	0	900	0	900
burglarproof door	1	1500	0	1,500	0	1,500
Window consolidation	3	150/window	0	450	0	450
Curtain	3	80/curtain	0	240	0	240
*Transportation fee			3,000	800	0	1,100
Desk for library	5	75/desk	0	375	0	375
Chair for library	10	55/chair	0	550	0	550
Book Shelf	3	100/shelf	0	300	0	300
#Management expenses(phone call,transportation fee, copy,picture)			500	300	0	800
Management payment			0	0	500	500
Total			46,958.4	9,540	500	56,998.4

 

Total cost of this project: 56,998.4rmb

Donor contribution: 46,958.4rmb

Shem women’s group: 500rmb

Local contribution: 9,540rmb

The list of books

Item	Price for per item in rmb	Number of item	Total cost In rmb
Chinese Books
The World of the Five Thousand	39.6	5	198
Harry Potter Collected Edition	148	3	444
Great Monkey	29.8	5	149
Dictionary of Antonyms	25	5	155
Animals of the World	19.8	5	99
Primary Student’s Dictionary	38	5	190
Dictionary of the Great Sentences	25	5	125
Moral Dictionary	38.4	5	192
How to Make Sentences	22.8	5	114
Thinking Question	8	5	40
The Great Inventions of the World	28	5	140
Pin yin Card	9.5	3	28.5
I Take Moon to Walk	15	4	60
Tang Shi San Bai Shou	16.8	5	84
Why of the One Hundred Thousand	25	4	100
How the World Was Made	28	5	140
Xing Hua dictionary	19.9	5	99.5
Di si ni’story	25	4	100
Uncle’s Big Leg	16.8	5	84
An Tushen’s Childhood	14.9	5	74.5
Mind Open	19.8	5	99
Travel all China	15.8	5	79
Travel all World	15.8	5	79
Lovely Educate	17.8	5	89
New World of the Story	21	4	84
Math Story	23.2	5	116
Win in the Start	18	5	90
Rui Dian Yi	29.8	5	149
Encyclopedia (corpora)	128	3	384
Night Story	24.8	5	124
One Hundred and One Nights	18	5	90
Allegory of yisuo	18	5	90
The Story of the Phrase	18	5	90
Explore the Secret of the Scientists	19.8	5	99
Ultimate Secrets	14.8	5	74
Famous People and Famous proverbs	10	5	50
Basic Knowledge	19.8	4	99
Cyclopaedia ( Environment)	29.8	5	149
Three Hundred Proverbs	19.8	5	99
Tibetan Books
Tibetan Tradition and Customs	8.8	3	26.4
The Story of Animals	20	3	60
The Source of Life	5	3	15
Human and Scientific Technology)	5	3	15
Wonderful Animals	5	3	15
Famous Myths of the world	5	3	15
The White History	7	2	14
Children’s Book of New View	17.5	1	17.5
Writing Skills for Primary School Students	8	5	40
Words Learning Book	20	2	40
Tibetan Learning Book	8	2	16
The Biography of Norsang	5.6	2	11.2
The Story of Pema Obar	3.5	3	10.5
The Story of Zhowa Sangmo)	3.8	3	12.4
The Story of Nangsa Obeng	4	10	40
Short Stories	5	10	50
Snow	5	5	25
Speak Nicely	7	5	35
Folktale of Germany	10	5	50
A Book of Knowledge	135	2	270
Dongga Dictionary	168	2	336
The Ancestors of Tibet	12	2	24
Harry Potter	28	2	56
The Story Of Milariba	10.5	2	21
The story of monkeys and birds	2.5	5	12.5
The Poem of Water and wood	4.5	5	22.5
The Bon of Tibet	3.5	5	17.5
The Nephew of the Dragon	5	5	25
The Battle of Hangzhou	4.5	5	22.5
The Saja Proverbs	4	5	20
Uncle Dongba	5.5	3	16.5
The Little Girl and the animals	6.5	5	32.5
Tibetan Dictionary	10	3	30
Tibetan History	25	3	75
Dictionary of the primary	15	3	45
Science book	29.9	3	89.7
Baby spell	19.8	3	59.4
A story about how to live	10	3	30
Invent of the important things in the world	10	3	30
English Books
ABC English book	8	5	40
English in Chinese Dictionary	40	5	200
Elementary English-Chinese	29.9	3	89.7
BMH Children’s English	10	3	30
New Oxford English Dictionary	99	3	297
Tibetan English Dictionary	13	3	39
New Concept English	23.9	3	71.7
Active American English	10	3	30
English Phonetic symbol	14.8	3	54.4
Total			7,458.4

Sustainability
Pencuo, who is the leader of the teacher, will be responsible for library and computers. Pencuo will choose one male and one female student from each class as main librarians. They will take turn to manage the library each week and each day. They are also responsible for making sure the books are not damaged or stolen. If the books are damage by students, they need to pay back. If the books are stolen, then the librarians have to make a fine of 10RMB.If the school could buy computers through donors’ help then the school will have information technology class for every class. Teacher Li Jinshan will be sent to be trained as a computer teacher. When this teacher comes back he will be the main manager of the computer room. He will be in charge of everything in the computer room. He will be responsible for any damages or theft of the computers. Of course, the school will also provide support in terms of hardware. For example, a burglarproof door will be bought to prevent stealing. The school will have the computer room windows barred. The school will make a schedule for all the students to have computer class
Photos

This is Zhoggy Primary. it is located in Zhoggo Village, Xindu Township, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.
This is school yard.

This is teacher’s office.

Zhaggoy Pramiry School’s Computer Room. This room is very clean, and tidy. Also there are desks and chairs for computer, but the problem is that there are no computers in that computer room.

There are 12 teachers, 4 math teachers (Including Tibetan and Chinese Teachers), 3 Tibetan teachers, and 5 Chinese teachers.
Map of the project location