Project Manager: Sonamtso (Lucille)
This project is to buy 166 Chinese and English books for Niandu School to improve the students’ study level, promote gender equality by providing the same materials for both girls and boys, and create access to more information on a variety of educational topics.
Shem’s private donor funded this project
Sonamtso is from Lhaka Village, Naindu Township, Regong County, Rmalho Tibetan autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. She is currently working towards associated degree in English at the Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department English Training Program.
What? Buy 166 books (114 Chinese and 52 English books) for Niandu School.
Who? Niandu primary school from Lhaka village, Niandu Township, Rebgong County, Huangnan Prefecture, Qinghai province, China
Photos of the project implementation
The project manager Sonamtso and the school leader moved the books to school library and displayed the books on the empty shelves.
Students are helping to put the books on the empty book shelf.
Project manager, the woman in yellow coat, is helping the students to put the books on the shelf.
Sonam zhuoma is a Tibetan teacher and she gives suggestions to the students about which book they should read and which books are suitable for their level.
These notebooks are used to list student’s name, date and book name when students want to borrow books.
School leader is recording students name list while another teacher is arranging the books. .
Project Summary
Project title: Book Project for Niandu School
Project Goals: The ultimate goal of this project is to buy 166 Chinese and English books for Niandu School. The overarching goal of this project is to improve the students’ study level, promote gender equality by providing the same materials for both girls and boys, and create access to more information on a variety of educational topics.
Project location: Niandu School is located in the center of Niandu Township, in the Northern part of Regong County, Oinghai Province and was established in 1952. Niandu Township is about 7 kilometers from Rebgong County and from Rebgong County to Xining (the capital city of Qinghai province) city there are about178 kilometers.
Total beneficiaries: This book project directly benefits 188 students and teachers from the Niandu Primary school and it indirectly benefit about 1500people, including the people in Lhaka village.
Implementation organization/individual: Sonamtso (Lucille), Sonamtso (the school leader) and Shem Women’s Group.
Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group
Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received.
The project manager received 80% of grant which is 2,472.4 from Shem Women’s Group on June 10th 2009 and she will receive the rest money after she completed the project, 20 % grant is 618RMB, so the total grant for this project is 3090.4Rmb.
Details of the project activities
- June 15th 2008, held a meeting with all the teachers to discuss the problems of the school.
- June 16th 2008, asked school leader or other teacher the possible solution for the project, and asked both teachers and students what kind of books they need.
- June 17th 2008, collected information about the school
- July 20th 2008, found out the books price and figured out the transportation fee.
- August 28th 2008, wrote a project proposal.
- May 15th 2009, the project is approved.
- June 2nd 2009, informed the news to School.
- June 5th 2009, discussions took place with the school leader Sonamtso and other teachers regarding the preparation of the library room.
- June 12th 2009, purchased books from Xinhua bookstore in Xining city.
- June 17th 2009, rented a car and transported the books to Niandu School. Also took pictures of the project and interviewed the recipients.
- June 20th 2009, wrote the final report with some interviewed photos and receipts.
Project Finance
|
Original Budget |
Actual Budget |
|||||||||
| Rece ipt |
Items | Donor Contri bution |
Local Contri bution |
Shem Contri bution |
Total Cost |
Donor Contri |
Local Contri |
Shem |
Total Cost |
Differ |
| #1 | Books |
2,740.4 |
0 |
0 |
2,74 |
2,74 |
0 |
0 |
2,74 |
-1.1 |
| #2 | Transpor tation fee |
250 |
200 |
0 |
450 |
250 |
0 |
0 |
250 |
+200 |
| #3 | Manage ment Expense |
100 |
0 |
0 |
100 |
65 |
0 |
0 |
65 |
+35 |
| Manage payment |
0 |
0 |
500 |
500 |
0 |
0 |
500 |
500 |
0 |
|
| Total |
3,090.4 |
200 |
500 |
3,79 |
3,05 |
0 |
500 |
3,55 |
233 |
|
Note: (1) actually transportation fee is 450 and I planned that half of the transportation fee (200) would be paid by the local school. But the school leader Sonamtso knows the driver, so we just paid the 250 for the transportation, which means we didn’t use the local contribution for transportation fee. So among left over 233.9 rmb, 200rmb left from the local contribution and the project manager retuned it to the school leader Sonamtso and 33.9rmb (left over from donor contribution) will be returned to Shem Women’s Group.
(2) All figures are in rmb
Delays, Difficulties, and lessons leaned
Delays
On June 12th 2009, the school leader and I purchased books from Xinhua bookstore in Xining city. We discussed that we should transport the books on June 13th, but the problem was we couldn’t find a vehicle because they said they don’t have drive license. Therefore we got the vehicle on June 15th 2009, and we rented a car and transported the books to Niandu School.
Difficulties
When the project manager, Sonamtso begins to write the project proposal, she encountered several problems, for example, she finished writing the proposal, but the budget section is incomplete. Therefore she called one of her friends who did the project before. They went to the Xinhua bookstore and listed the book names and prices, but the worker of the bookstore came to me and said; “if you do not stop to list book names, I will tear your lists on the notebooks.” I said; “some day I will buy those books. I beg you. Please. Again he said: how will you buy these books, you’re such a little girl. Don’t let me to see you again. If you do, I will let you not come to the bookstore.” He said and left with angry facial expression.
We went up to the third floor in order to avoid the book store worker. I almost finished half of the name list of the books; however, another man appeared in front of me, took my notebook and torn it, at that moment, I did not know what to do. So i told my friend, and let her to sat down on the floor and pretended to read some books within notebooks, Sonamtso went around the bookstore and memorized the book title and prices. In this way, I got all the book names and prices while I was writing the project proposal.
Lessons learned
Communication: the project manager must make everything clear before doing anything and talking to anybody who will involve in the project. In that case, you do not need to get things confused, for example, if the project manager did not discuss about what kind books the school needed before she brought them, then the books might not be practical for the school and the students which can lead the whole project to failure.
Patience: The biggest lesson that I have learned through this project are that time, and the most important thing is to face it calmly. Without patience, it would have been difficult to implement the project successfully. For example, when the project manager waited for the school leader to buy the books, she told her to wait for one day but the school leader did not come on the next day, so the project manager Sonamtso had to wait for her for two days but Sonamtso did not get frustrated because of the patience.
Interviews
Ø First interview
Sonamtso (project manager): What are some benefits those books can bring to the school?
Sonamtso (the school leader): These books will help the students to improve their knowledge level.
Sonamtso: How are you going to let the students use those books?
Sonamtso (the school leader): I will make rules for both teachers and students to use the books. For example, one teacher gives suggestions that two teachers should be responsible of lending books to the students, one teacher can find the books and give to the students and other teacher can write the names of the books and names of the students on a sheet in order to manage books in very organized way. If the students lose the books, they should pay money or replace with same books.
Sonamtso: Will you let the students read in the library or at home?
Sonamtso (the school leader): The students can read the books at school library and also they can borrow the books and read at home.
Ø Second Interview
Sonamtso (project manager Sonamtso )：Will you be responsible for the library?
Zhuoma cairang:(one of the student librarians)：Of course I will because it’s a great chance for me and the students to read more books.
Sonamtso: Will you often let the students use the books?
Zhuoma cairang: Yes, I will because these books will help the students to improve their Chinese and English level and enrich their knowledge.
Sonamtso: Why do you want to be librarian?
Zhuoma cairang: It is a great pleasure to read different stories and books and help other students to get the books they want. I am honored to be librarian.
Ø Third Interview
Sonamtso (the project manager): Do you like the books in the school library?
Tsomo(a student in Grade five from Niandu School): yes/ I have never seen so many English books, especially the storybooks. I am very curious to read them.
Sonamtso: Will you read the books from library often?
Tsomo: of course, because these books will increase my education level. Also I have my own schedule that I am going to read at least one book for each week.
Letter of appreciation
Translation of the thank you letter
Dear generous donor,
Thank you very much for donating the books to our school and it makes possible for the students to have access to read those books.
Our school is local based school; those books are not only the platform of knowing the outside world and also broaden their view. Besides these, the books greatly improve the students’ general knowledge and improve their reading skill.
The students are very fond of reading the books which are donated by you. Those books will help the students to enrich their knowledge. They can learn very good lessons like how to be a good person from the books. I represent all the students and teachers of this school to thank for your help and donation.
All the best,
Niandu Primary School
August 2009
Receipts
#1
This is the receipt of the books and they cost 2741.5rmb
#2
This is the transportation fee for the books from the Xining book store to Niandu school and it was 250rmb.
#3
The transportation fee for the project manager for going to Niandu School to interview and take photos and it was 32.5rmb.
This is also the transportation fee for the project manager for returning from the project site to the school in Xining and it was 32.5 rmb.
Original Proposal
Project location
This project is located in Niandu School. Niandu School is located in Lhaka Village, Niandu Township, Rebgong County (Tong Ren), Rmalho’ (Huang Nan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Niandu Township is about 7 kilometers from Rebgong County. Rebgong County is 178 kilometers from Xining (the capital city of Qinghai province).
Niandu school background
Niandu School is located in the center of the Niandu Township, in the northern part of Rebgong Autonomous County, Qinghai Province and was established in 1952. The school teaches to grade nine. There are 173 students (79 girls, 94 boys) and 15 teachers in Niandu School. Their salary for their work is 2,050 rmb per month. The students in the school study Mathematics, Chinese and Tibetan. Although the students need to study subjects like social studies, science and ideological education, schools in the countryside rarely teach them. In rural areas like Niandu School, children cannot afford the necessary textbooks and the teachers often lack the knowledge and skills to teach these subjects. Therefore, in Niandu School they only teach three core subjects. The children have no access to information outside of their core textbooks. Niandu School teaches English only for the sixth grade.There is only one teacher who teaches English. Also Niandu School sometimes hires temporary English teachers who only stay for about one semester or sometimes even one or two months.
Population
Niandu Township is located in the east central part of Qinghai Province, situated in northwest china, west of the Rong Bo River. There are 250 families in Lhaka village; the total population is approximately 1,500 (740 men and 620 women).
Education
In Lhaka village if each family has two sons, one of them is typically sent to the local monastery to become a monk. Sons who go to the monastery begin to learn how to write and read Tibetan. Traditionally, girls are kept at home to help the family do house chores. In this village only ten percent of young people are literate, having finished their nine years of compulsory education.
There are 198 school-aged children in the village. Among these only 58 children are attending school (10 university students, 18 high school students, 20 Middle school students and 10 primary students). The rest of the children stay at home to help their parents with household chores, farming and digging caterpillar fungus. Many villagers believe it is a waste of time and money to send their children to school. Some villagers believe that even if their children go to school they will not be able to get a good job.
Cash Income
All of the villagers in Niandu Township earn a living by farming. People usually earn money by selling their excess barley and earn about 300 rmb each year. However, most families only have two or four mu (one mu= 0.0666 hectares) of land, which is not enough for their living expenses.
People also earn money by doing construction work. Adults do construction work in the county town. Men can earn 45 to 50 rmb per day, but women are only paid 35 to 40 per day. The workers can earn at least 500 rmb in one month. Workers are not guaranteed this money because, and sometimes work group leaders abandon the workers without paying their owed wages.
People also can earn money from digging cater pillar fungus. Some villagers don’t let their children to go to school and ask their children to dig caterpillar fungus to earn money. Each day they can dig 15 caterpillar fungi, and each fungus can sell for 3 to 5 rmb. On average, a person can earn about 1000 rmb from digging for caterpillar fungus for one month (people from Niandu often dig for caterpillar fungus in distant places such as Yushu and Golok and must pay a land fee of around 1000 rmb for the privilege of digging in other people’s land).
In total, the average family can make a little over 1000 rmb in cash income per year. Families have to spend about 900 per year for electricity fees, water fees and living expenses. On average, families are only able to save 100 rmb per year. Families who have university students must borrow money to pay for their tuition.
Agriculture
Niandu villagers grow wheat, potatoes, barley, rapeseed and beans. The villagers only have one productive harvest each year due to limited fertilizer, rainfall and weather conditions. The villagers cannot irrigate their lands often because they have to pay a fee to water their fields. Each household shares 5 mu of land with the all of family members. One mu of agricultural land can produce around 500-600 jin of barley if the weather conditions are good. Some families have economic difficulties if their land is not productive and they cannot afford to buy fertilizer. These families are not able to harvest extra produce to supplement their income. In some cases, households are not even able to harvest enough to feed their family.
Herding
In all of Lhaka Village there are only about 10 livestock. Most villagers sold their livestock because there was not enough grass for the livestock to eat in the surrounding mountains. 80% families do not have any livestock and the other 20% are relatively rich and only have several cows. The families who do have livestock are not able to sell dairy due to the poor grazing conditions.
Project Goal
The immediate goal of this project is to buy 166 Chinese and English books for Niandu School. The overarching goal of this project is to improve the students’ study level, promote gender equality by providing the same materials for both girls and boys, and create access to more information on a variety of educational topics.
Problems
1. No books: A lack of study material affects students’ results on important advancement exams, and with out many books to read students will not be able to improve their knowledge. In Niandu School children just carry around their textbooks and do not have access to any other reading materials such as magazines and books for free reading. Also when they graduate from school or transfer to different schools, they are disadvantaged. Compared with others students, they have never had the opportunity to learn about subjects like social sciences and the environment. Niandu School does not teach these subjects because they do not have the appropriate teaching materials.
2. Low literacy skills: The school cannot provide books for the students to read other than textbooks. The learning environment for literacy is impoverished. Students just memorize things from their textbooks. This has a negative impact on their motivation to learn how to read and write.
3. No money to buy books: For the poor families, they try their best to send their children to school, but they have no much money to buy other study materials like reading books for their children. Even if they could afford one book, they could not afford to do this very often.
4. Difficult to buy books: If students could afford to buy a book they would need to walk to the county town, which is about 7 kilometers away from school. Also the road to the county town is in poor condition; there are many bumps and the cars or other vehicles pass by very fast. Students can easily become injured on the way.
5. Lack of interest in teaching: In Niandu School, teachers have little motivation to teach because of the school’s poor conditions. Students constantly review the textbooks but show little improvement. Teachers do not have access to other educational material to enrich their teaching. Gradually the teachers lose their interest in teaching.
Benefits
1. Textbooks will not be the only books students have access to and they will have more books to read. Thus students will have more interest in studying.
2. Access to more reading materials will improve students’ literacy skills and give them a better chance to do well on their entrance exams. Also, if students have access to more reading material, they will have a better chance to learn more about other places and people, helping students have a better understanding of this world.
3. Families will not need to worry about not being able to buy books for their children and students in the school can read books continuously.
4. If the students have access to books in the school, then they will not need to walk to Rebgong county town in order to buy books. Also, parents will not need to worry about their children’s safety.
5.Teachers will have more access to teaching material to enrich their lessons. Teachers will also be more motivated to plan interesting lessons, which will lead to better teaching. Also, if students are more interested in going to school this will make teachers more motivated to teach in Niandu School.
Beneficiaries
This book project will directly benefit 188 students and teachers from the school and it will indirectly benefit about 1500people, including the people in Lhaka village.
Gender equality
Generally in my area, the boys can study in a monastery during the holiday time but girls cannot join the monastery to study. This project will balance this current gender inequality by providing access to books for both boys and girls.
Also I, as the project manager of this book project, will encourage girls to study hard and serve as a good role model for girls. Villagers often look down on girls and they do not think girls are able to accomplish these kinds of project. If this project is completed then villagers’ opinions about girls might change, and this project might bring a new perspective on women in the village.
Government support
In July 2008, the project manager talked about this project with the village leader, Chenpal. Both of us had a meeting with a local government leader, Renchen. He gave me full permission to go forward with this project and encouraged me to do it.
The steps of project
1. Held a meeting with all the teachers to discuss the problems of the school. (Done)
2. Asked school leader and other teachers about possible solution for the project. (Done)
3. Collected information about the school. (Done)
4. Asked both teachers and students what kinds of books do they need. (Done)
5. Found out the books’ price. (Done)
6. Figured out the transportation fee. (Done)
7. Write a proposal. (Done)
8. Funds received.
9. Buy books from Xinghua bookstore.
10.Transport the books.
11.Distribute the books to school.
12.Hold a meeting in the school to discuss the sustainability of the book project.
13.Take pictures of books when project is completed.
14.Write final report and send it to the donor with pictures.
Time frame
This project will take around 8 days
2 days: buy the books from Xinghua bookstore in Xining city, Qinghai Province.
3 days: transport the books from Xining to Rebgong County and distribute the books for the Niandu School. Hold a meeting with villagers, teachers and students how to protect the books. Take photos of the book project.
3 days: write the final report.
Project Budget
|
Item |
Unit Price |
Quantity |
Donor Contribution |
Local Contribution in rmb |
Shem |
Total cost in rmb |
| *Chinese books |
1,697 |
114 |
1,697 |
0 |
0 |
1,697 |
| English books |
1,043. |
52 |
1,043.4 |
0 |
0 |
1,043.4 |
| Shelf |
80 |
2 |
0 |
160 |
0 |
160 |
| Desks and chairs |
50/set of desk and chair |
5 |
0 |
250 |
0 |
250 |
| Transpor tation fee |
250 |
200 |
0 |
450 |
||
| Project Manage ment Expenses |
|
100 |
0 |
0 |
100 |
|
| Project Manage ment Payment |
0 |
0 |
500 |
500 |
||
| Total |
3,090.4 |
610 |
500 |
4,200.4 |
Donor Contribution is 3090.4 RMB
Local contribution: 610 (One teacher and two students will volunteer be librarian. They will responsible to manage library running successful.)
Sustainability
Firstly, I as the project manager will ensure the books purchased are of good quality. Additionally, the teachers and students will work together to take responsibility of the books. The books will be stored in the school at the school library. When the books are distributed, teachers will make a schedule and let students to borrow books every day. Also, the school librarian, book manager and teachers will enforce strong rules for both teachers and students to follow when they need to borrow the books. If any one loses or damages a book, he or she will need to pay for the book’s replacement. Finally, if any of the library staff members are found to be neglectful of their duties, new library staff will be chosen.
Map of the project location
Photos of Niandu School
These are the current textbooks on the school bookshelf.
This is where students want to read books. These are the current textbooks on the school bookshelf.
All these books are texts books from grade one to grade six.
This is one of the classrooms in Niandu School.
This is Niandu School gate.