Project Manager: Tsering Drolma (Daisy)
Buy five threshing machines for Gala village. Lessen the village women’s work load, thereby improving their living standards.
The Shambala Connection funded this project
Tsering Drolma is from Gala village, Jiga Township, Daocheng County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. She graduated in 2006 with an Associated degree in English from Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department’s English Training Program.
What? Purchase five threshing machines for Tibetan villagers in Gala Village
Who? Main beneficiaries of the project: 353 Tibetan people in Gala Village, Daocheng County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China.
Photos of project implementation
Gala villagers are unloading the threshing machines and electromotors from the truck.
The threshing machines are being distributed to each group in the village.
Women in the village are especially happy to get the threshing machines.
Kanjyagu Group are carrying their machine to their place.
Sheye Group are carrying their machine to their place.
Sishen Group are carrying their machine to their place
The threshing machines are being distributed to each group in the village.
Women in the village are especially happy to get the threshing machines.
Kanjyagu Group are carrying their machine to their place.
Sheye Group are carrying their machine to their place.
Sishen Group are carrying their machine to their place
Project summary
Project title: Threshing machines for Gala Village
Project goals: The immediate goal of this project is to buy 5 threshing machines for Gala Village. The overarching goal of this project is to lessen the villagers’ work load, thereby improving their living standards.
Location of project: This project is located in Gala village, Jiga Township, Daocheng County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China; about 200 kilometers away from Daocheng county which is south of Kangding (capital city of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous prefecture).
Total beneficiaries: 353 people, 59 households benefited from this project.
Implementation organization/individual: Tsering Drolma (Daisy), Tsering Drolma, Chele(helped to transport the machines, a student from Gala village) and Shem Women’s Group
Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group
Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received
The Shambala Connection gave 21,500RMB on 1st December 2006
Details of project activities
Originally planned project activities:
1. Talk to the village leader and some of the village women and men to discuss whether this project is needed or not and what kind of benefits they will get from this project. (done)
2. Talk to villagers and devise rules for sharing threshing machine. (done)
3. Figure out where to buy the machines and the price in Sada Company in Daocheng County. (done)
4. Figure out how to transport the machines to the project location and the transportation fee. (done)
5. Write the project proposal. (done).
6. Send the proposal.
7. Receive the funding
8. Purchase the machines from Sada Company in Daocheng County.
9. Deliver the machines to the project site and teach the villagers how to use the machines (Especially ask the four chosen women to pay really good attention and take notes if necessary).
10. Monitor the project.
11. Take pictures of the machines and how people are using them.
12. Interview local people (Include men, women and children)
13. Write final reports
14. Send the final report with pictures and receipts.
Activities realized in the framework of the project:
1 Purchased threshing machines from Sada Company in Daocheng County on March 3rd, 2007.
2 Delivered the machines to the project site and taught the villagers how to use the machines March 4th, 2007.
3 Chose the members of taking care committee on March 5th, 2007.
4 Took photos of Gala villagers getting the machine on March 5th, 2007.
5 Interviewed five local people Gala village (two men and three women) on March 5th, 2007.
6 Wrote final report from March10 to April 6th, 2007.
7 Sent the final report to Shem on April 6th, 2007.
(Couldn’t take pictures of how the villagers are using the machines because it was not harvest time yet when the machines were distributed.)
Project Finances:
|
Original Budget |
||||
| Receipt # | Item | Donor Contribution RMB | Local ContributionRMB | Total cost RMB |
| #1 | Threshing machine and electromotor | 21,500rmb | 0 | 21,500rmb |
| #2 | Transportation fee | 0 | 2,500rmb | 2,500rmb |
| Repair cost** | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Management payment | 0 | 450rmb | 450rmb | |
| Management expenses | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 21,500rmb | 2950rmb | 24450rmb | |
|
Actual Budget |
|||
| Donor ContributionRMB | Local ContributionRMB | Total cost RMB | Difference(Between original and actual budgets) RMB |
| 19,000rmb | 0 | 19,000rmb | +2,500 |
| 0 | 2,000rmb | 2,000rmb | +500 |
| 2,500 | 500 | 3,000 | -3,000 |
| 0 | 500 | 500rmb | -50 |
| 0 | 689rmb | 689rmb | -689 |
| 21500rmb | 3689rmb | 25189rmb | - 739*** |
** The project manager got permission from the donor to keep the extra money as repair fee for the machines in order to keep the project sustainable.
***shem women’s group paid this money
The threshing machines and electromotor became cheaper than the original budget because the business is not so good at that time.
The transportation became cheaper than original budget because a big truck is not needed (it’s cheaper to rent smaller trucks) to transport five machines and electromotor.
List of recipients:
A translation of the names in English
The leader of Khanjagu Group of Gala Village, Buye
The leader of Tinye Group of Gala Village, A’Don
The leader of Sheye Group of Gala Village, A’song Tsering
The leader of Sishen Group of Gala Village, Dorjee
The leader of Khamjyugu Group of Gala Village, Buchon
Delays, Difficulties, and lessons learned
Delays
I had to delay the project for about half a month because the company that I planned to buy threshing machines and electromotor is run out of business at the original implementing date (mid Feb). So I had to wait until early March.
Difficulties
I found it is difficult to communicate with the threshing machine company boss. When I received the project money, I called the boss whom my uncle had contacted before I wrote the proposal. The boss told me that they were run out of threshing machines and electromotor, and were not planning to import any more until late March or April. I asked if he could import some immediately because I need five threshing machines and five electromotor. He asked who I was and when I told him that I just graduated from school and I was going to do a project for my village. He never believed me and wouldn’t talk about getting the machines at all. Then I said that my uncle had talked to him before and he said that we could get the machines whenever we want. He said that was a long time ago and he thought that was a lie. I called him many times after that and he just play around with me all the time. Having no alternative, I called one of my relatives in my county for help and she figured out that there are two bosses in that threshing machine company and helped me to get the machines in early March. If she didn’t help, I would have to wait until April.
This is the first project that ever happened in my hometown, so people don’t know what projects are at all. I found it difficult to explain everything to them. Some of my relatives asked me that why don’t I give the machines to my relatives instead of the whole village? I said this project got funded because it’s for a whole village and the project should help as many people as it possibly can, and the village should develop as a whole. Then they didn’t complain further.
Lessons learned
After this project, I learned the importance and power of social network. Sometimes it is better and more effective to use human connections to do things especially doing things in small and remote areas because there are not so many choices. In my case, there is only one company which sells threshing machines in my county, and I have to buy the machines in my county. I couldn’t persuade the boss to import some machines in the case of this project, but I had to find a way to get the machines in early March.
Another lesson I learned is that things are very flexible and unstable all the time, so if the project is not funded after half a year. People start to doubt if the project is going to happen at all. Especially in small and remote areas, it’s very inconvenient and expensive to transport things from outside. So the companies in small counties don’t transport things so often. It is especially difficult when it is near to Losar. Everyone leaves work to celebrate New Year. And it is better to not plan to do project near New Year; otherwise more problems will come out.
It is very important to explain things very clearly to the villagers because they don’t understand things which are new to them.
Interviews
Drolka
She is 52 years old and is the head of her family. She has one daughter and two sons. The daughter is the eldest one and stays at home and has two children. One son works as a policeman in the county town and has his own family and his wife doesn’t have any work, so he has to support the whole family and is not able to take care of his original family at all. And the other son is a monk. Her husband’s one eye became blind three years ago and can not do any hard labor. Drolka told me that her daughter stays on the mountains to take care of the yaks most of the time. Thus she and her daughter have to shoulder the entire family burden. And the family income totally depends on her. She said she earns money only to pay back the debts of the family from the former year. Thus the family doesn’t have any income. She looks much older than her actual age. Before this project brought threshing machines to the village, she said she and her daughter did the whole threshing work by hand and it took them two months at least. She said she had problems to stand up after just sitting there on the clay-made floor whole day. Still, the grain was not enough to feed the family and she had to ask relatives to borrow grain at the end of every year. Now that this project has brought threshing machines to the whole village and her family will also be able use the machine to thresh barley and wheat. She said that she will have more time to take care of the field so that the field will yield more crops and she will also have time to go out and earn more money so that she can send her grandsons to school. She said she will never forget to pray for the donor and she said countless thanks to the donor and the project manager. At the end she said that she hope if possible the donor will help them again in the future.
A’nam
He is the head of a nuclear family. He moved out of his family and established his own family just a few years ago. He is 39 years old and his wife is three years younger than him. He got very sick last year and he said he prepared to die. But after one year’s medical treatment, he recovered finally and now the family is in great debt. He has two children and both are going to the township primary school. He is also one of the leaders in Gala village. He said they have only a little field because the family is new, but before the project brought threshing machines to the village, it took them about one month to thresh just a small amount of barley and wheat(there was just about two big bags of grain after finished threshing, he said). Now the project brought threshing machines to the whole village and they will be able to finish threshing within one day or two days. This can save so much time for them and he can go out to earn more money by using this time. He said before he never had time to go to the mountains to dig caterpillar fungus because of the threshing work. After this project he will be able to dig caterpillar fungus to earn some money so that he can pay back the debt more quickly and improve the family condition a little bit every year. He said many thanks to the Shambala Connection and the project manager on behalf the whole village and his own family. He said he will always pray for the donor. He hopes that the project manager would write more proposals in the future to help the poor village.
Tashi Tsering
He is 41 years old and has three children, two sons and a daughter. His wife died two years ago after giving birth to the youngest child. He remarried last year. There are 8 people in his family, but the only people who can do hard labor are his new wife and him. The family went in great debt in order to take his former wife to hospitals without any good results. His eldest son is going to the township primary school. He has to do a lot of work at home, so he seldom has time to go out to earn money. Even he does have time to earn some money; he has to pay back the debt. So the family doesn’t have any income at all every year. He said before this project, he has to do the threshing work by hand and it takes them about two months every year. He never had time to go out and dig caterpillar fungus because of the threshing work. Otherwise he can earn at least 2,000rmb in each year. Now the project has brought threshing machines for the whole village and they will also be able to use the machine to thresh barley and wheat and it will only take them one day or two days. He can use rest of the time to go out and dig caterpillar fungus. He wishes that he could pay back the debt soon and send the other two children to school in the future. He said many thanks to the donor and to the project manager. And he said that he will never forget to pray for the donor’s welfare.
Rinchen Drolma
She is 63 years old and she is very famous in the village for doing hard labor. She had five children, three daughters and two sons. But the youngest son died two years ago and she is still in great grieved for losing her son at so early an age. She kept her eldest daughter at home and the other two married away many years ago. Her husband stays on the mountains to herd the yaks most of the time and her son just wonder around all the time. And her daughter-in-law is a teacher in township primary school and has three children; two are going to the township school. Thus she and her daughter have to shoulder all the hard labor at home and her family has very large field. That means they have to thresh a lot of barley and wheat by hand. Before the project, it takes them more than two months to finish all the threshing work. She said that she only slept about four hours every day during that time in order to finish the work when others do. Now the project has brought threshing machines, the threshing work can be done in one or two days. So she can give her body a rest and can use the time to spin and weave. She told me that before the project she never had time to spin and weave, all the animal hairs were eaten by worms and had to throw away finally. Now she doesn’t need to let the worms eat the hairs and throw them away. She can use the leisure time to spin and weave to make clothing. Clothing made from wool is much warmer than the clothing they buy from the local stores and if they don’t need to buy so much clothing, it can save them some money. She said she will never forget the donor’s kindness and will pray for the donor all the time. She said countless thanks to the Shambala Connection and the project manager.
Tsering Drolma
She is 27 years old and she is the leader of Women’s Conference of Gala Village. There are 8 people in her family. She is married and she has one daughter. Her parents are in charge of the family and she doesn’t need to worry so much about her family. As she has been the women’s leader for three years and done much work for them, she is really worried about women’s health and their work load. She said they have so much work to do and never had time to care about their own health condition. Almost all the women in the village have gynecological diseases, but they don’t have time and money to see a doctor. Now that this project has brought threshing machines to the whole village and it’s a great help for the women. They don’t need to do the work by sitting on the clay-made floor day and night for about one month and a half. It can save their time. They can use the time to earn some money so that the family income will increase and they can cure their diseases before it’s too late. They can also use the time to spin and weave to make woolen blankets so that the animal hairs won’t be wasted and they can also save some money because they don’t need to buy so many blankets from the stores in the township. The traditional art of spinning and weaving can also be passed down from generation to generation. At the end, she said many thanks to the donor and the project manager. She said this project greatly benefited women. She hopes that this kind of project will continuously happen in Gala village so that women’s life condition will change and their position will also change gradually.
Letter of appreciation
Translation in English
Dear Shambala Connection,
Firstly, we want to thank you from the bottom of our heart for giving our village five threshing machines and five electromotors. Before our village didn’t have any threshing machine, so we had to thresh all the barley and wheat by hand during harvests. And the village doesn’t have any rich and ambitious people who could provide what we lack. In order to finish the threshing work we usually work day and night for about one month and a half. The threshing work took to much time that we didn’t have time to do other work. And the threshing work was mostly done by women; the work occupied most of their time and they always miss many important opportunities to do other things. Now your organization has brought threshing machines to our village, so that the tedious work will only take us about one and a half day on average. Now the work demands men and women cooperate with each other, so they have more time to communicate and help each other. They will learn to respect each other and will realize the importance of gender equality gradually through this work. Villagers, no matter old or young, male or female they will learn to support and welcome gender equality. Your great kindness and generosity not only helped to improve our living condition, but also inspired us to be kind and generous. Even though we are very poor and can not offer others anything physically, but we can treat others with a worm and kind heart. You especially taught us the importance of gender equality, we will try to build a village in which men and women respect and help each other. We appreciate your help so much and thank you very much again.
This is the first project in our village and this is the first time we get help from the outside. And you are the first organization who helped us. Even though there is a long distance between you and us, but we feel very close to you because of your kindness. We will never forget your help and you are always welcome to visit our village.
We will cherish the machines as we cherish our own eyes and will maintain the machines as long as possible. And we will never forget to help each other and establish a harmonious relationship between men and women. Finally, we want to thank the project manager, Tsering Drolma, for acting as a bridge between you and us by using her ability. And we hope she can continue to help us like this. We also hope that your organization can help more people who are really in need of help like us. Thank you very much again.
Best wishes on your work!
Sincerely,
The village leader, Chanreb
(Written on behalf of the whole village)
Receipts #1
# 2
Original Proposal
Project Location:
Gala village is in Jiga Township, Daocheng County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China; about 200 kilometers away from Daocheng county which is south of Kangding (capital city of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous prefecture).
Gala Village Background :
Gala Village can be divided into five groups scattered about two sides of a mountain. It takes at least one hour to get from one group to another, so intra-village transportation is often quite time consuming.
Villagers started building a road in September 2003, but they could not finish it because they needed to harvest barley and wheat. The unfinished road was destroyed by constant rain in August 2004. *Government officials offered dynamite, then decided that the villagers’ labor was free, and thus better. Residents finished the road in 2005. , but not yet ready to use it and still waiting for the county government to test the road. They also built a power electricity center and have had electricity since July 2005. Before that the villagers used a kind of wood for light, but it is difficult to find and its smoke is bothersome and trees are scarce too. As there are no telephones among the residents, communication has proved difficult.
Gala Village’s remote location contributes to transportation, communication difficulties — and compounds problems for those who have tried to help in the past. Villagers have been skeptical about receiving help; past experiences would lead them to believe that no one genuinely wants to do so.
Population and Education:
There are 59 households in Gala village and 353 people: 132 women, 119 men and 102 children. Around seventy-five percent of the villagers are illiterate. Ninety-two percent of the school-aged children are attending school because now there is a new law about getting education, which is if a family doesn’t send their children to school, the local government will fine the family to give 500RMB per year for a child. However about forty percent of them gradually drop out due to labor shortages in their families.
Ninety percent of villagers above 35 cannot read or write at all. About sixty percent of 17—34 year olds can read and write — they can carry on simple conversation with Han Chinese; they can do easy calculations. Seventy-eight percent of the school-aged children (7-16) can read and write, but not very well.
Boys and girls cannot go to school regularly because they have to leave during the harvest and threshing period. After helping their families, they can’t catch up with other students. So about 20% of them drop out of school.
Forty-eight children attend primary schools and about 10 are going to middle school. There are three vocational school graduates and one is going to a vocational medical school in the prefecture. Two have associate degrees and two others are still in school. After local middle school, eighty-five percent of the students do not continue their education.
Cash income:
Each household in Gala village earns an average of approximately 1,000RMB per year. Their income depends on caterpillar fungus. (Caterpillar fungus is a kind of herb, which grows in many Tibetan areas. It is a worm in the winter and becomes a small herb in the summer so that people can dig it and sell for money. It is usually 7-9RMB per caterpillar fungus in my hometown these days. It is a kind of medicine.)
The villagers dig for caterpillar fungus from May to June, and collect a rare mushroom* in July and August. Prices and quantity change every year, so the villagers’ income is never stable. It can be as low as 300RMB per year per household and it can be as high as 2,000RMB per year per household.
There are around 5 households large enough for one or two family members to go out to earn money. They can usually earn 1,000–1,500RMB each per year. Although there are a few other ways to earn money — building houses, for example — most villagers hardly have time because they must harvest twice a year and are quite busy in their own homes.
Two thirds of the households in Gala Village are in debt. Almost every household spends half of their income on medicine or medical care for people always get sick for some reasons and the medicines in the township hospital are extremely expensive. One has to pay around 100rmb for getting an IV and some relevant medicine for a bad cold. Often they will do anything to cut costs: not taking medicine when they catch small illness; not sending their children to school; not paying attention to personal hygiene.
Agriculture:
The villagers’ livelihood depends on agriculture. They grow corn in May and barley in October, so they must harvest twice a year. Normally, every six-person household produces enough to feed themselves. If there is a natural disaster, like a thunderstorm or hail, half of the households must buy expensive rice and white flour from the township.
Each family owns 5 to 6 mus of field in average. The families don’t sell grain to earn money since there are livestock to feed. These livestock provide meat, fertilizer, labor and fur to make clothing. . Every household owns at least five pigs, three cows and bulls, four chicken, two horses or mules ten goats. These livestock provide meat, fertilizer, labor resource and fur to make clothing. They never sell these kinds things to make money because they either don’t have enough or don’t know that the things can be sold.
Herding:
Each household owns an average of 15 yaks to self-supply butter and cheese and meat. There are two families which sell butter and cheese, earning approximately 500RMB each year themselves. But the rest of the households hardly have butter and cheese to sell others and some of them even aren’t sufficient. They also cannot afford to raise male yaks to sell because it demands great amount of grain. As a result, about 97% of the families don’t make any money from herding. Yet one person has to stay separate from the rest of family to take care the herd all the time .
Weather:
The four seasons are very clear in Gala Village. Rain in the late summer often ruins crops, as do hot, dry spells in mid spring. Hail storms in early autumn are not rare and have been known to destroy entire harvests. Insects and strong winds have also caused problems, especially with corn.
Project Goal:
The immediate goal of this project is to buy five threshing machines for Gala village.
The overarching goal of this project is to lessen the villagers’ work load, thereby improving their living standards.
Problems that Gala Village faces:
During the harvest, it takes Gala villagers an extremely long time , usually 30 to 45 days on average, to thresh barley and wheat. If the weather is fine, they can work quickly with the barley and wheat. When it rains, they have to wait until the weather changes. Wild birds and chicken may eat the crops while villagers are waiting for the weather to change. Sometimes the crops are attacked by worms, destroying the harvest.
Women don’t have time to go out to dig for the caterpillar fungus because they are preoccupied with the threshing work.
The villagers seldom wash their clothing and never bathe since they only care about finishing their work, but their work never really ends. The villagers, especially women aren’t healthy from sitting on the clay-made floor day and night 12 hours each day during the harvest. Eighty percent of them get problems with their knee caps, back and heels. After an exhausting day’s work, they can’t do anything except sleep right after dinner. Eighty-five percent of them used to get severe diseases like lung cancer and TB until very recently. Eating irregularly also causes problems to their stomach, 2 villagers died of throwing up blood in 2005.
Women don’t have time to spin family animal hair and weave cloth with it. Consequently, they have to buy expensive bed clothing. If they don’t have money at all, they just use their well worn-out, dirty clothing year after year. Slowly the traditional weaving beautiful stuffs like waist belts, boot belts and colorful cloths to make bags, cushions and various bed clothing is becoming a lost art.
The village lacks a sense of community. Villagers work individually, and they always compete with each other. Those who finish first idly watch those who are still struggling, without offering help.
Most villagers consider education a waste of time and money, since the educated students cannot do anything for their families. Eighty percent of graduates can’t find a job and this discourages villagers from sending their children to school, hence the low literacy rate.
Project Benefits
353 people, 59 households will benefit from this project.
Benefits the villagers will get from this project are:
1. If the villagers have threshing machines, they can finish their harvest in a much shorter time. what usually takes one month can be finished in one or two days.
2. Grain won’t be wasted, if they have threshing machines. The villagers will no longer need to wait for the weather to change.
3. Women will have more time to dig for caterpillar fungus, increasing family income and raising living standards.
4.After threshing barley and wheat with a threshing machine in a much shorter time than before, they will have more time to wash. So the villagers may not get so many illnesses from fatigue and not paying attention to their sanitation.
5.Sharing the same threshing machine among a few households will establish a sense of community, and will reduce conflicts between families. Villagers will learn to cooperate with each other, and will have more opportunities for communal activities.
5. If the threshing is done quickly, the harvest won’t preclude children from attending sch ool. They can go regularly; their parents will have at least a little time to pay attention to their study at school, and not so many will drop out.
Threshing machine rules:
• Take turns to use the machines in family order and the order will change accordingly every year.
• If any of the families breaks the machine because they don’t use it properly, they will be responsible for repairing it.
• If the villagers don’t know how to use the machine even after I teach them, they can ask the chosen taking care committees.
• Each group has two chosen committees(one man and one woman) and they are supposed to know anything about what happens to the machines, when and who.
• The taking care committees cannot mis-use or over-use their authority. For example, be over generous to their relatives and be unfair to others who not related to them.
• One of the village leaders will be responsible for the above rule. If any of the committees abuse their position, the village leader has the right to punish them accordingly. The slightest offense will be given a warning and the most serious will result in the loss of their committee position.
• If the machines break down naturally, they whole group will have to pay for repairs.
• If any of the families don’t follow or listen to the committees after three-times’ warning, they will not be allowed to use the machines any longer.
• The highest village leader will supervise the maintenance of this project.
• I (the main manager of this project) will go back to the project location once or twice a year to check whether the project is going well or not. (It’s not difficult for me because I am from that village).
Gender Equality:
Mostly women were asked whether this project was needed or not since women do mostly do the threshing work. About 90% of the village women strongly agreed, and last winter holiday they promised they would do their best to cooperate with me. They said if I can do something so great to help, why shouldn’t they do anything that I ask them to do.
Because if the threshing is done quickly, local women will have time to practice their own skills to make their own clothes, bed clothing.
If there are threshing machines, women don’t need to sit on the clay-made floor day and night 12 hours each day during the harvest, in that case they will suffer less from joints problems.
I chose four women who have some education from each group in the village to help me implement the project . If this project is approved, I will teach the four women how to use the threshing machine and they will teach the villagers in their own groups. In that case people may be encouraged to send their daughters to school, and may change their impression of education.
Then I will choose five women and five men from each group by holding a meeting and let them take in charge of taking care of the threshing machines, but I will give different works for women and men because otherwise men will take control of everything and women will gradually withdraw from taking care of the project. Also the women and men were chosen from every different family so that it will prevent husband or brother to do work for thier wife or sister.
Government Support
The government will support me in doing this project since it is lagging behind other counties in Ganzi prefecture and anxious to spur development. The assistant manager of this project, Losong Denzen, , is currently in Daocheng county as a governmental officer. He is from Wangzi Village, E’ya Tong township, Daocheng County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China.
He told me, “The government appreciates what you do for your village. No people desire to stay poor forever. The county cannot develop if small villages don’t develop evenly and gradually.”*
Steps of the Project:
1. Talk to the village leader and some of the village women and men to discuss whether this project is needed or not and what kind of benefits they will get from this project. (done)
2.Talk to villagers and devise rules for sharing threshing machine.(done)
3.Figure out where to buy the machines and the price in Sada Company in Daocheng County. (done)
4.Figure out how to transport the machines to the project location and the transportation fee. (done)
5.Write the project proposal. (done).
6.Send the proposal.
7.Receive the funding
8. Purchase the machines from Sada Company in Daocheng county.
9. Deliver the machines to the project site and teach the villagers how to use the machines(Especially ask the four chosen women to pay really good attention and take notes if necessary).
10. Monitor the project.
11. Take pictures of the machines and how people are using them.
12. Interview local people(Include men, women and children)
13. Write final reports
14. Send the final report with pictures and receipts.
Timeframe:
It will take 15 days to implement this project.
Detailed Donor contribution:
| Item | Price per item rmb | Numbers of Items | Total cost in rmb | Total cost in $ |
| Threshing Machine | 2,300rmb | 5 | 11,500rmb | 1,438$ |
| Electromotor | 2,000rmb | 5 | 10,000rmb | 1,250$ |
| Total amount requested from Donor | 21,500rmb | 2 705 $ |
Detailed local contribution:
| Item | Price per Item rmb | Number of Items | Total rmb |
| Transportation fee | 2,500rmb | ||
| Management fee | 450rmb | ||
| Total value of local contribution | 2,950rmb |
Total Project Cost:
| Donor Contribution | Local Contribution | Total Cost in rmb | Total Cost in US dollars |
| 21,500rmb | 2,950rmb | 24,450rmb | 3,056dollars |
Sustainability:
The threshing machine company guaranteed that we can return the machines if they are broken within a year, and the company will repair them free of charge for three years. So the villagers will benefit from this project for at least five years since there will be a care-taking committee consisting of one woman and one man from each of the five groups in the village. They will be responsible for the machines’ storage and will supervise villagers’ use so that any harm done will be discovered immediately. If anyone breaks the machine purposely, he/she will have to pay for the repair fee. If the machine breaks down from standard use, every household in the group will pay an equal portion. The village leader will supervise all five groups. If the care-taking committees can not handle a particular problem of the machines, they will ask him for advice. If they want to use the machines, they must they follow the rules.
Additional Information:
If this projects succeeds, I can be a role model. It will encourage other graduates to find work. And villagers will no longer consider formal education a worthless pursuit. As a female college student, they may be more willing to send their children — both male and female — to school. I am the only student who is studying in another province, so the villagers have a vested hope in me. Therefore, if I am able to do something to improve their lives, they won’t be disappointed in me or formal education.
Photos:
The second group of Gala Village
The project manager Tsering Drolma, (top row, second from right) and her family in front of their home .
Tsering Drolma’s grandmother, one of the women who threshes grain by hand every year
Several Gala villagers
Gala village primary school
Padren demonstrates how grain is threshed by hand
The grain is beaten from its stalks by these two sticks which are tied together
A woman winnowing in the wind after the grain has been threshed by hand
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The third and fourth floor of a typical Gala village home. All of the threshing is done on the third floor, and hay is stored on the fourth floor
Hay in storage