Reports

This project is to provide 50 solar generating electricity panels to bring light into the life of most impoverished nomads in Jatsa Village. And to endow them with a hope for better living condition and empower the women and children by providing adequate information access and proper living environment.

The Australian Embassy funded this project

Wende zhuoma is from Geygu Town, Yushu County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Currently she is pursuing master degree in Miriam College, Philippines. She is major in Master of Science in Environmental Studies. She will be graduating in March, 2008

What? Buy 50 solar electricity generating panels for Jatsa Village.

Who? 50 households in Jatsa Village, Upper Laxiu Township, Yushu County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.

Photos of the project implementation

The project manager Wende Drolma was discussing with the boss of the solar panel company about the quality and price of the solar panels.

The project manager was discussing with the local leaders how to finalize the poorest households for the project.

The project manager was interviewing the local nomads to collect basic information about their living condition，in order to finalize the solar panel receivers.

The project manager was distributing the solar panels to the villagers.

After receiving the instructiol, the villagers installed the light bulbs and connected the solar panel with power board and checking if the solar panel works properly.

Project summary
Project title: Solar Electricity Generating Panel Project for Jatsa Village
Project goals: The immediate goal of this project was by providing 50 solar generating panels to most impoverished nomads in Jatsa Village to bring light into their daily life. And to endow then with a hope for better living condition and empower the woman and children by providing adequate information access and proper living environment.
Location of project: The project is located in Jatsa Village, Upper Laxiu District, Yushu County, Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai Province, and PRC. Jatsa Vullage is Located in Northeast of Yushu County, 90 kilometers away from the county town Gyegu and 890 kilometers away from Silan (Xining) the provincial capital city of Qinghai Province.
Project beneficiaries: This project directly benefits 48 Tibetan households and the rest of the whole village as two of the solar panels were donated to the village for public use in any activities. Therefore, the total beneficiary of the project is around 780 people.
Implementation organization/individual: The village party secretary Kharma Songbu, two other local leaders, Jomba and Gasong Tseren, Shem Women’s Group and Wende Drolma (project manager).
Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group
Funds received: Amount and date received
On December 28th 2009, the project manager Wende Drolma received 32,636.8 rmb from Shem Women’s Group as the first installment of the funds and Shem Women’s Group will distribute the second installment of the funds when the project manager finishes the final report.

Details of project activities

• Called the village leader and informed the project approval.
• Phoned the village leaders to update about the situation in the project site to check if the project could be implemented, especially considering the road condition.
• Phoned Shem office to update about project implementation.
• Called the village leaders and decided the date to start implementation.
• Called Shem office and informed the date for commence of the project.
• Visited the project site and selected the poorest house holds.
• Visited the site again to conduct house to house interview to finalize the solar panel receivers.
• Called the village leader to collect the local contribution.
• Traveled to Xining and met Shem and received the donor contribution.
• Met the head of Solar Panel Company (Drolma) and ensured the price, the quality and grantee of the solar panels.
• Singed the contract and purchased the solar panels. Decided the date for transporting the solar panels from Xining City to Gyegu town, Yushu County.
• Transported 50 solar panels from Xining City to Gyegu Town, Yushu County.
• Transported the solar panels to project site.
• Held the meeting with the receivers and village leaders to distribute 50 panels to 50 households and explained the instructions and guarantees etc.
• Informed Shem about the date of distribution.
• Visited the receivers and conducted interviews.
• Went to town to scan photos and receipts
• Translated interviews and the villagers’ thanks letter
• Worked on the final report

Project Finances

Receipt	Item	Donor Contribution	Local Contri bution	Shem Contri bution	Original cost	Actual cost	Diffe rences
#1	50 Solar Panel	40,000	5,000	0	45,000	45,000	0
#2	Transpor tation	450	0	0	450	450
#3	Round trip from Xining to Yushu	346	0	0	346	346
#4	Project management expenses	0	401	0	400	401	-1
	Project management payment	0	0	500	500	500	0
Total		40,796	5,400	500	46,696	46,697	-1

All figures are in Chinese RMB
Notes1: *The project manager (Wende Drolma) was in Gyegu Town, Yushu County, thus to purchase the solar panels she has to travel from Gyegu to Xining.
Note2: Since 2009, the cost for everything has increased in Yushu County, so does the price for gasoline. The transportation fee from Gyegu to the village has been increased incredibly. In 2008, it was 450 rmb for a medium vehicle from Gyegu to the village, but at the project implementation time, it was around 1,500 rmb from Gyegu to the village. Encountering with this problem the project manager Wende Drolma called the villager leader and discussed the issue with him. The villager leader discussed the issue with the local receivers and they were able to arrange a medium truck at the price of 450rmb.
Note 3: The nunnery has received PV solar system for lighting in September of 2009 from the government. So the five solar panels which were originally planned to give to the nunnery was given to three house holds and two for the whole village as village property and will be used in village meetings and activities.

List of recipients

Guo Wa	Tsepel Samdrob	Tse Jel	Yig Dron	Tobdin Dorjee
Wen Mor	Gyaltsen	Angwen Tseltrom	Tsedron Khar	Suonam Drolkhar
Bon Ba	Basang	Dron Khar	Dondrob Namgyal	Dondin Tsepel
Shi Tseren	Guo Dor	Gyal Tsob	Ribchin nima	A hor
Gadgu	Tseta Dorje	Ga Ri	Kharson tseren	Suonam Dordin
Jamba	Chob Yag	Gyamyon Wensou	Angwen Chobtin	Nam Gyal
Tenlin Wenmor	Jamyom Nampel	Da Wa	Yontso	Tse Yag
Tobtin Khonchob	Samchob Sonbu	Yishi Monlam	Robdin Jumei	Kharma Gawa
Son Yag	Sam Drob	Rabdin Dorjee	Ba Dron	Kharma Sonbao (2) Note 4
Kharma Tsobngi	Bu Drob	Jin Ba	Ga Dron

Note4: Two solar panels were given to the village as public property. So it was signed by the villager party secretary.

Difficulties and lessons learned from the project
Difficulties
I would say managing this project, I did not meet many problems. Based on my former experiences in managing projects I was able to implement the project very successfully. The few difficulties that I met were listed below:

The most important problem that I met with this project is in selecting of the poorest households from the village. I was not familiar with the families in the project area. In selection of the receivers, I originally wanted to hold a village meeting to select the poorest households from the area, but this was not adapted due to several factors. First, since it was a nomadic area, the households were sparsely located. Only few households who were living near to the village head quarter came to the meeting. Second, the meeting for selection of the poorest households was in vain. The reason was that every one claims that they were the poorest and would not really give useful information of poorest households in the area. Finally, I discussed with the local leaders and selected around 60 households to make house to house interview. It was very difficult to conduct these interviews. The road condition was very bad, to some of the houses there was no proper path, and we had to drive on bumping grassland, through ice and then walk to get those families.

Another difficulty that I have encountered in implementing of the project is the viability of the information that was given by the village leader and the local people. Sometimes I find total contradictory between the information that was given by the villager leaders and the local people. For instance, there was a family. They have thirteen family members, two adults and one old granny. The kids are still quite young. When I interviewed, they were living in an experimental house under the local school project. He said that they even don’t have their own house, and they don’t have any livestock. I thought they were poor. But then the villager leader told me that last year the head of the family bought amber for his wife, which cost around 8,000rmb. I was surprised and asked where the money came from. He stated that the head of the family was very good at doing Tibetan mastiff business and he earned some money through that.

Personally, in implementation of this project I encountered few small difficulties. First, due to the cold and windy weather in the project area, I got sick after I made the first pack of interviews, which put me in bed with IV for three days. Second, since Gyegu town was not really a developed area, in renting taxis and cars there were no formal receipts, so lot of the expenses were paid by the local leaders and the project manager. Therefore, I want to express my thanks to the village leaders for their support in implementation of this project.

Lessons learned
During implementation of this project and post to the implementation of this project I have learned few things to further improve myself in implementing of other projects in future as well as to further improve my knowledge.
· Keep updated with the local leaders on a regular time base, indifferent of project approval in order to make sure the information on the project proposal is valid.
· Make sure not only to base the information on one’s statement. To get the full information, one has to collect the information from multi-resource persons.
· I learned that conducting house to house interview is very important in terms of selecting beneficiaries of the project.
· Most importantly I realized that our motivation to help these impoverished people is actually derived from those smiling faces of the beneficiaries as they were receiving solar generating panels.

Interviews of the project beneficiaries

Her name is Yu Dron. She is 83 years old. There are five people in her family. She has a daughter. The daughter got married few years ago. She has three children. At that time, their living condition was not the poorest in the village. However, the good life did not last for long. Two years ago, she got psychic problem. Local people said that she got mad. Therefore, her husband divorced with her. Now Yu Dron has to take care of the three children and her daughter. All of the three children were in school. She only has around five yaks, and even that was too much for her to attend. She said that she doesn’t have any income generated from caterpillar fungus. The three children are not very good at collecting caterpillar fungus. She is too old to collect caterpillar fungus. She said now she is depending her life and the family on the stipends that she receives from the government which is about 200rmb per month. She is very thankful to the Australia Embassy. She said that she is enormously happy that there are so many kind hearted people in this world. She emphasized that she will always pray for those kind hearted people who are reaching to the thousands of poor people like her.

Gaju family is a big family with seven children. There were only two labors for the family. She said that they only have around ten yaks. For the sake of the yaks, as least we would not starve. In summer, she said that she and her husband would go to the mountains to collect caterpillar fungus, but then she pointed to her husband and said that her husband only able to find few. Her husband smiled and stated: I admit that. I don’t know what happened to me. I just can’t see the caterpillar fungus. So we really don’t have much income from caterpillar fungus. We had to depend our life on these blacked haired yaks.” When I asked about the benefits brought by solar panel, he stated that all of his family was very grateful to the donors and the project manager as well as those involved in this project. He said he always wished for a solar panel, but he did not have enough money to buy one. So they use candles for light. Sometimes candles would run out and they have to use kerosene.  He said now we have bright light at night and we don’t have to worry that it would run out. I thank the donors and those who helped us. Without their help, I can only dream for a solar panel but not really getting it.

They are an unattended couple. The old man is named Bub Drob. His eighty years old. The old woman is named Tsetso. She is seventy-seven years old. They don’t have any children to take care of them. They don’t have any livestock to depend their life on. Currently they are staying in a room that was lending by the village. When I asked them what their source of livelihood was, they answered that they merely depend their life on governmental subsidy which is around 1200 per year. The old granny said that they can usually sustain their life with that amount of money. However, she said that they were so worried what could they do if they get sick. They don’t know where or whom to ask. The old man stated that they have to purchase candle for light for the past years. They were incapable of traveling to the town, so usually they have to ask some one else to purchase the candles for them. Sometimes, he said there would be days that they don’t even have light at all and they would just go to bed before it gets dark. Then, he added, “it was quite hard for us to fall asleep and I would wake up before the day light and have to wait patiently for the day break.” He was very thankful to the donors. He said that he feel content for his life, as long as his health condition remains good.

This woman is Tseta Dorjee’s mother. They were a medium class family when her husband was alive. However, her husband got sick and was in bed for almost two years. They had to spend lot of money on that. She said she also sold lot of their livestock in order to pay for her husband’s medication fee. She thought he would get better one day, but he did not. Now she has to take care of the five children. She was very happy when she was selected as one of the solar panel receivers. She stated: I thought the whole world turned against me when my husband passed away and left all these children with me. Thousands of thanks to Australia Embassy, I am so delighted that their hands are reaching to us. I can’t imagine there are kind people like them. I will always remember to pray for them. I wish them long life and prosperity.”

Letter of appreciation

Translation of thank you letter

Thanks Letter

Most un-forgetful dear donors

I would like to represent whole Jatsa Village to express our deepest appreciation for your great concern and enormous support for us. Thanks for your generosity in supplying us with 50 solar panels. These fifty solar panels were received by fifty most impoverished households in the village. We both the village leaders and the villagers will not forget your compassion and generosity. All of us want to express our most un-forgetful thanks to you again and again.

Best wishes!
Sincerely
Rashu Village Committee

This is the contract signed by the head of company (Droma) and the project manager (Wende Drolma).

Receipts
#1

The total amount of money paid for 50 solar panels (45,000rmb)

#2

This is total transportation fee from Gyegu which is the political and economic center of the town to the project site (450rmb).

#3

This is the expense for a trip from Yushu to Xining (For the projector manager)

#4

Above receipts are the total amounts of money spent on the project management which include the food, the accommodation, the visiting transportation fee, and the phone calls. It costs 401 rmb and paid by local people.

Original proposal 

Project location
The project will be located in Jatsa Village, Upper Laxiu District, Yushu County, Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai Province, and PRC. Jatsa Village is located in Northeast of Yushu County, 90 kilometers away from the county town Gyegu and 890 kilometers away from Silan (Xining) the provincial capital city of Qinghai Province.

Population
Jatsa Village is consisted of 140 households, over 780 people. Among which 30% of the population is female and 40% of the population is consisted of male. And another 30% is consisted of children.

Education
The education level in the village is generally very low. The illiteracy level is very high. Few years ago a primary school was built in the village. However, the enrolment of the children is very low. Moreover, most of the children who have enrolled in the school ended up dropping from the school soon after they can work as an adult. Currently, no one from the village has studied in the college.

Cash Income
The villagers’ only source of annual income is caterpillar fungus (Cordyceps sinensis), which has very short growing season of two months from May to June. Caterpillar fungus is a valuable medicinal herb which is parasitic fungi. More over, the quality of the caterpillar fungus in the area is not very good and it is very sparsely distributed. Therefore, each family can only earn an average of 2,000 RMB annually to sustain their basic subsistence.

Due to the remote location of the area, they rarely have a chance for trade and barter. Further, in majority of the cases they can barely sustain the basic need for survival and surplus is hardly produced. The mere cash income of 2,000rmb has to be spent for all the house necessities, which usually turn out to be insufficient.

Herding
In last few decades, pastureland of northern plateau has seriously degraded. Rodents has suddenly broken out and exacerbated the degradation process of pastureland. The government implemented ecological migration project as a control management. This project required relocation of some nomads to the town and reduction of livestock for those left behind. The number of livestock has already reduced since the worsening condition of the pastureland couldn’t support big number of livestock. The safeguard of the nomads are already in danger. In addition, the government still requested de-stocking in each household, only 5 livestock are allowed. According to the research some family even don’t have 5 head per capita, but for those who have they were ordered to reduce the quota. In present, the survival of these nomads strongly and seriously weighs against a sudden break of natural calamities, such as a snow disaster or dry summer.

Agriculture
Due to the harsh environment condition associated with cold climate, and strong wind, the agriculture is not adaptable in the area. Therefore, there is no source of income from agricultural sector.

The Need of the Project
Historically the village has no electricity and no school, only very recently the village has established a primary school. The school is the only place where a dim of light is observed at night. The teachers’ dorm and office is supplied with electricity, which is powered by petrol gas for two hours every night.

During my research, I observed the students crowding under the dim light that shone through the windows of the office and the dorms studying and reciting like flies at dark night circling under a light bulb. For the rest of the nomads, bright light at night is only a story of towns and their dreams. When I interviewed the village leader, he deeply expressed the difficulty of having no light and no money to buy solar generating panels. In addition, the need of this project is deeply associated with several reasons below:

l Overall health condition of the nomads has worsened due to the smoke from burning of kerosene and butter lamp. Evidently, the frequent diagnosing of positive TB, respiratory diseases and bronchitis as well as other lung related problems indicate high risk of burning these materials as light resource. According to the local villagers, these health problems are more severe among the children and women.

l Lack of electricity has increased the workload of women and decreased their leisure time. A nomadic woman has to start work as early as four or five, followed with sequence of routine work from serving the family, caring the livestock to mind every house chores. The women can hardly attend any work under the dim light of kerosene or butter lamp. Therefore, they have to finish every work during the day time and they don’t have any leisure time for resting and attend other social activities.

l Purchasing of kerosene and candles has become an economic burden of the nomads. Considering the low income of the nomads, sufficient supply of these materials is even considered as extravagant. In average, each family has to spend at least 200rmb annually just for the candles, yet with their low income they still have to buy other daily necessities, medicine and food.

l Lack of electricity is also one of the main reasons for low enrollment of female students in the school. The girls in the family usually have to help their mothers to attend daily house chores and care for the livestock. Therefore, there is no time for the girls to study. As result, the school attendance of the female is very low. Even those who are enrolled have little time to study.

l The nomads are totally isolated from the outside world due to inadequate communication and information access resulted by lack of electricity and remote location.

Project Goals
The immediately goal of this project is to provide 50 solar generating electricity panels to bring light into the life of most impoverished nomads in Jatsa Village. And to endow them with a hope for better living condition and empower the women and children by providing adequate information access and proper living environment.

Benefits of the project
Improve the living condition of the impoverished nomads by providing them with solar generating electricity panels
This project aims to reduce the economic burden of the impoverished nomads to improve their living condition. By providing them with solar generating electricity panels, the families can save the expense for candles and kerosene, which is over 200rmb. More over, they can either consume the butter, which they have to save for butter lamp or they can sell them. In addition, this project will also generate local income. The local productivity can be improved since more works could be done at night.

Improve the social role of women in the nomadic community
This project will greatly improve the social role of women in nomadic community. Sufficient supply of bright light at night allows women to do some works at night which formerly has to be done during the day time due to inconvenience of working at night. Therefore with solar electricity generating panels they can participate in some social and religious activities during the day time instead of working. The women’s work load will be less tensely scheduled.

Improve the literacy level among the nomads, especially among the girls
The over all enrollment of the nomads will be increased since they will have more leisure time as direct result of having electricity resource. This project will reduce the labor requirement from the children, allow them with more time for study, especially the young girls since their mothers will have more time to work. The school achievement of those girls who are enrolled will also be improved, since they will have more time to study.

Improve the information and communication access of the nomads
This project will provide the nomads with adequate information and communication access. With solar generation electricity panels they will be able to play radio and access to the world outside. In this way, they will be more closely related to the world outside and expand their knowledge of the world outside.

Improve the health condition of the nomads
This project aims to improve the health condition of the nomads by provide them with a clean living environment. The women and children who are always working in smoky kitchen are more vulnerable to lung diseases and eyesight problem. This project will reduce the high safety risk of these women and children.

Project Beneficiaries
l This project will directly benefit 45impoverished households, 315 villagers, in Jatsa Village, and 80 nuns from Jatsa Nunnery. Totally of 395 people will be benefited from this project. 45 solar generating electricity panels will be distributed to the poorest families in the village. 5 solar generating panels will be distributed to the nunnery for public use. （Two will be used in chanting room, and two in shrine room, one in Kitchen）.

l This project will indirectly benefit other neighborhoods in the village. For instance, the villagers can participate in the other village activities or religious activities hold at night under the solar panel.

l The families of 80 nuns will be indirectly benefited. The nuns will no longer need to take butter and candles from their families. In this way it also reduces the economic burden of their families.

l This project will especially benefit the women and children in the village.

a. The women will be able to increase their leisure time, and reduce their heavy work load. During the day time they can participate in other social activities instead of working at home, since they can leave the work for night.

b. In nomadic areas it is usually the man who travel to towns and other places, but women and children rarely get chance for traveling. Solar generating panel can play radio which creates information access to the world outside. Thus it can improve the knowledge of the women and children.

c. The children will have more time to study and play. In addition, the health condition of these environmental victimized groups will be greatly improved.

d. Managing of this project by a woman also encourages local villages to respect women and believe in their capacity to work.

Governmental Support
This project is identified by the local village leader Jiangba and further discussed with the project applicant. Therefore, this project is very supportive of the local villages and the local village leader Jiangba. This project is also discussed with the local government via the villager leader in month of October 2007. The local government consisted of village leader; village secretary expressed their support in the project, because the development of these small remote communities is usually neglected by the government. Further, the local government encourages more people to devote in grass root community development to help these marginalized communities.

Environmental Concern
Grassland degradation has seriously threatened safeguard of these impoverished nomads. They are swaying at the edge of losing their domain which is their source of livelihood. Without grassland they can’t maintain the domesticated livestock, which means they have no source of livelihood. Therefore, at this moment of history, it is very important to take environmental concerns into consideration of every project that are implemented in these areas.

This project will be environmentally sound and very friendly. Solar generating panels are purely powered by solar energy. It has no content of any pollutants. More over, it protects the environment by providing a sustainable and clean light resource. This project also prevents villagers from seek for other environmentally unfriendly light resources such as petrol gas.

Project Steps
1. Visit the project site (JatsaVillage), identify the need of the project. (Done)
2. Discuss with the village leader on need of the project and situation of the village. (Done)
3. Apply fund for 50 solar generating electricity panels.(done)
4. Once the fund is secured, hold meeting with village leaders. Decide how to manage solar panel distribution.
5. Collect local contribution from villagers.
6. Purchase solar panels from Nima Company in Qinghai provincial capital City-Xining.
7. Transport the solar generating electricity panels from Xining to Gyegu Town.
8. Hire a truck to transport the solar generating panels from Gyegu to Jatsa Village.
9. Hold meeting with the village and instruct the village on how to use the solar panels.
10. Distribute the solar generating electricity panels.
11. Interview the villagers after the implementation of the project.
12. Collect the information and evaluate the project’s achievement.
13. Send final report.

Time Duration of the project
· 3 days to purchase the solar generating electricity panels in Xining.
· 3 days to transport the solar generating electricity panels from Xining to Gyegu.
· 1 day to transport the solar generating electricity panels from Gyegu to Jatsa Village.
· 1 day to hold the local meeting.
· 1 day to give instructions and distribute the solar generating electricity panels.
· 10 days after the implementation of the project, collect the data for final report.

Project budget

Item	Price per item in rmb	Number of items	Donor contri bution (rmb)	Local Contri bution ( rmb)	Other resou rces ( rmb) (Shem Women’s Group)	Total cost (rmb)
Solar Pane l	900 (including transportation fee from Xining to Gyegu)	50	40,000	5,000		45,000
Transpo rtation	796		796			796
Manage ment expense				400		400
Manage ment Payment					500	500
Total			40,796	5,400	500	46,696

Donor contribution: 40,796rmb
Local contribution: 5400rmb
Shem contribution: 500rmb

Sustainability of the project
The quality of solar generating electricity panels are very good based on former projects completed by Shem Women’s Group and other solar panel users. The company also assures five years of guarantee on their products. They will repair any dysfunction within the five years. According to the users of Nima Solar generating electricity panel, it can usually last for around ten years if it is properly managed.

If anything broken or any technical problems occurred within five years after the purchase, the company will be responsible for repair. In this case the villager or the solar panel holder has to either contact the villager leader or project manager Wende Drolma. The company provides 2light bulbs, 7m of electrical line and a battery. These components are purchasable in county town after the warrantee expired.

The villagers will also contribute a considerable amount of money (100 rmb) in this project. Considering their low economic income and current inflation economic condition of China, 100rmb is already a considerable amount for the impoverished nomads. This contribution and high quality of the solar panel ensure that the villagers will take good care of the solar panels that they receive.

Wende Drolma will instructor the villagers on how to operate their solar panels and basic maintenance knowledge before the distribution of the panels.

Past experiences
Wende Drolma has done several projects in the past. She has successfully completed a solar panel project in 2004 in Renqing Lan Monastery supported by Canada Fund. She has also completed two second hand clothes project in 2005 supported by British Sue Bishop. In addition, in the same year she has completed a potable water project which was supported by Canada Fund.

Additional Information
The project applicant Wende Drolma has conducted her research in the area during September and October 2007. During her research, as a field participant, she observed impoverished living condition of nomads, and women’s heavy daily chores. She saw women mending and separating milk under dim light of butter. She experienced difficulty of writing and reading under smoky light of candle. After her discussion with the village leader, she strongly felt the need of bright light to bring hope into life of these impoverished nomads.

Map of the project location