Projects

The immediate goal of this project is to buy 1 harvest machine for Rexiuma Village and the overarching goal of this project is to save villagers time, money and energy, thus improving their living conditions.

Dining for Women from US funded this project

Lhamo Tsering is from Rixiuma Village, Baoan Township, Rebgong County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Currently, she is working toward her BA degree at Qinghai Normal University.

Project location
Langjia Village is located in Baoan Township, Rebgong County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province. Langjia Village consists of seven small villages and the project is located in one of those small villages, Rexiuma Village, about 180 kilometers from Xining City, the capital city of Qinghai Province.

Population
There are 223 people in 53 households in the village: 84 women, 81 men and 58 children. All the people in Rexiuma Village are Tibetan.

Education
There are 165 adults in Rexiuma Village, and two-thirds of them are illiterate. Of the 58 children in the village, 40 of them are school-aged children, but only 29 are going to school: 15 (9 boys and 6 girls) in primary school; 5 (3 boys and 2 girls) in middle school; 3 (2 girls and 1 boy) in high school, 6 (4 boys and 2 girls) in college. In primary school, students don’t need to pay school fees.

Cash income
Villagers from Rexiuma Village are farmers, and on average each family owns ten mu (1 mu= 666.6m2 ) of land. There are at least five people in each household. The villagers earn cash income through selling surplus grain, and on average, each family can earn 600-800 RMB per year.
The villagers also do temporary work. Almost every adult who is able to work leaves the village in May and June to dig caterpillar fungus, a medicinal herb found at high altitudes. In the past, each caterpillar fungus has sold for 8-10 RMB, and each person could earn 3,000-3,500 RMB during a good season. However, since last year the price of caterpillar fungus suddenly went down and each family can only earn around 2,000-2,500 RMB.
Another way to make money is to work in construction, and each person earns 500-800 RMB. In total, each family earns around 3,350 RMB per year.
Money that the family earns is mostly spent on children who attend school, the New Year festival, Naga festival, buying fertilizers, electricity, and other essentials. Each year they must spend approximately 3,500 RMB. So usually there is only about 50 RMB left each year. If the family has students attending university they borrow money from others, usually from relatives and friends, but some families also borrow from the bank to pay the school fees.

Agricultural
Rexiuma Village is an agricultural village. People grow wheat, rapeseed, and potatoes in their fields. Usually, one mu of land produces 1,000 jin of wheat, because the land is irrigated at least three times in a year. Rexiuma villagers own 600 mu of land in total. Wealthy families own at least 13 mu of land. However, some poor families have little land, so two or three households share about 8 mu of land on which they can grow enough wheat for subsistence.

Herding
All of the people in Rexiuma Village are farmers, and most of the families have three animals: a mule, a donkey and a cow. Mules and donkeys are used for farming, and cows are used for collecting fuel and for milking. Because Rexiuma Village is located 14 km away from Rebgong County, people cannot make extra money by selling the milk in the County town.

Project goals
The immediate goal of this project is to buy 1 harvest machine for Rexiuma Village and the overarching goal of this project is to save villagers time, money and energy, thus improving their living conditions.

Problems
1> Hardship without the machines
Rexiuma Village is an agricultural village, and the villagers use animals such as donkeys and mules to help harvest and transport the crops from the field to a place where the villagers thresh it, which takes about one month. However, the villagers have fewer and fewer animals to help with the harvest, because most of families’ mules and donkeys have been stolen. Now there are only four mules for the whole village and no one in the village has a harvest machine. Villagers get into groups of three families and buy a small tractor that they can use to transport the crops instead of the animals. It puts a big burden on the villagers, because losing donkeys and mules makes harvest very difficult.

2> Time consuming
In Rexiuma Village, each family owns an average of 10 mu of land, and for this much land, the villagers need to spend almost one month harvesting with a sickle. This takes up time that could be spent earning money elsewhere. For example, currently it is popular in the village for young people to go out to earn money, not even coming home for the New Year, because they can earn much more by staying at the work site during that time. However, they have to come back home for harvest to help their families, so it takes about one month away from their work.

3> Decrease village income
Harvest time is the busiest time of year for farmers. To stay healthy and productive during this time, they need to buy nutritious foods that give them more energy and strength to deal with the hard work. So they need to buy a lot of meat, vegetables, eggs, fruits and drinks during the harvest time, which cost about 500 RMB.

Also, the villagers need to employ other people to help them reap the crops, because if they can finish the harvest quickly then they can continue their temporary work earning extra money elsewhere. They also want to finish the harvest fast, because it is considered shameful for a family to be the last one to finish. So each year during harvest, villagers spend about 300 RMB hiring women from other villages to help them reap the crops. In additional, villagers need to hire machines from Chinese drivers for the harvest, and for one mu of land it costs 50 RMB. So on average each family needs to spend about 150 RMB for three mu of land.

4>Consume energy
Harvest is really heavy work for farmers. They need to work hard for one month. At the end of that time people felt really tired, and most people lose weight. After they finish harvesting, they need to rest for half a month. So it not only affects people’s health, but also stops people from doing the work they need to do.

Benefits of the project
1)If the villagers have a harvest machine, then they can easily finish the harvest without a hand tractor, donkeys or mules.
2)If they have a harvest machine, people can finish the harvest in five days instead of one month. Then they will have extra time to make money and thus improve their living conditions. Also, the other temporary workers who have left the village to earn money won’t need to come back to help with the harvest.
3)If they have harvest machines then the villagers won’t need to buy lots of food for harvest, and also they won’t need to employ other people to help them reap the crops. In addition to that, they won’t need to rent harvest machine from Chinese drivers. So they can save a lot of money. Every year each family needs to spend 500 RMB for harvest, but if they have a harvest machine, they won’t need to spend money on all of this.
4)If they have a harvest machine, then people won’t need to work so hard and they can store their energy to do other things like temporary work to earn cash.

Beneficiaries
All the villagers from Rexiuma Village are the beneficiaries of this project. In total there are 223 people, and all of them get direct benefits from this project.

Gender equality
Every year in Rexiuma Village, during the harvest time, women are the main laborers. They need to reap the crops every day by sickle, and no matter whether the weather is hot or rainy, the women have no time to rest. Men don’t help women with reaping, because traditionally it is shameful for men in the village to reap the fields. So the women shoulder this burden. If this project funded, it will reduce women’s work a lot, because women no longer need to reap the crops for months and the work can be done in three to five days. Also, since men are mostly in charge of machines in the village, they could help with the harvest without needing to worry about whether it is shameful. Also, the project manager is a woman who designed, and will implement and manage the entire project. At this point, she sends an important message to the other people that women can also accomplish great things. So this might change villagers’ attitudes towards women, because formerly they haven’t believed women possess the ability to do things like this project.

Government support
On June 10th 2009, the project manager talked with the village leader, Huadan, about getting permission from the government. The village leader was so impressed with the project that he volunteered to talk to the township leader about the permission. The village leader told the project manager that the official leaders also think it is a great project and gave the full permission for going forward with the project.

Time frame
It will take total of 10 days to complete this project:

1. Two days to hold a meeting and discuss the starting date of the project.

2. Two days to go to Gansu province to prepare purchasing the materials.

3. Two days to purchase the material.

4. Two days to transport the machines to the village.

5. Two days to hold meeting and distribute the material.

Project steps
1. Contact the villagers to find out their biggest need. (done)

2. Hold a meeting with the villagers and collect the information about the project. (done)

3. Set up a project committee to be responsible for the project. The members are the villager leader Mkha `bum, group leader `Bum `aba, Sha Bo Rgyal and Bu Mo Mchog. (done)

4. Find out the price of materials. (done)

5. Ask permission from the government. (done)

6. Write proposal. (done)

7. Secure the funds.

8. Discuss with the villager about how to purchase the materials.

9. Purchase the material from Gansu Province and distribute the machines to the villagers.

10. Take pictures of the project after it is completed.

11. Interview the villagers to see the impact of project

12. Send final report to donor.

Project Budget

Item	Number of items	Price per item in rmb	Donor Contribution in rmb	Local Contri bution inrmb	Shem Contri bution inrmb	Total cost inrmb
Harvest machine	1	69,000	47,800	21,200	0	69,000
Project management expenses	transportation and phone call		100	100	0	200
Project management payment			0	0	500	500
Transportation of harvest machine	1trip	1,000/trip	0	1,000	0	1,000
Total			47,900	22,300	500	70,700

Total cost: 70,700RMB

Donor contribution: 47,900RMB

Local contribution: 22,300RMB

Shem Women’s Group: 500RMB

Sustainability
First, the project manager is going to buy the best quality of harvest machine and will require the receipts of return and replacement policies. Second, when the project manager purchases the harvest machine, she will ask the factory workers to teach her and the villager leaders how to use the harvest machine properly and safely. After the harvest machine is distributed, the village leaders and the project manger will teach the other villagers how to use it correctly.

Third, the villagers will contribute an adobe house to shelter the harvest machine and protect it from sun, rain and snow. In addition, the harvest machine company will guarantee the quality of the machine for a year; during that time, they will repair the machine for free if it is broken. After the year warranty expires, the families will take responsibility for repairing the machine. For the above reasons, this harvest machine will be very sustainable

Photos of the project

This is the project location and women are reaping the field during the harvest time with the sickle. Usually, the weather is very hot during the harvest time, which makes the harvest even more difficult.

This is the machine I want to buy. This machine has many functions: It can reap and thresh the crops at the same time. So the villagers don’t need to first reap the crops and transports the crops to the threshing ground and it will save lots of time and energy.

Map of project location