Project Manager: Mehla (Ingrid)
This project is to provide 50 solar panels for 50 households in Rega Village in order to improve the Rega Villagers’ living conditions, including reducing the heavy burden of women’s tasks, and increasing numbers of girls and boys attending school.
The New Zealand Embassy funded this project
Mehla is from Rega Village, Qiongxi Township, Hongyuan County, Aba prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. She is currently working for a grass-roots NGO named Yothok Yonden Gonpo Medical Association in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province.
What? To provide 50 solar panels to 50 households in Rega Village; this project aims to increase local people’s income and improve living conditions. Moreover, Local girls can have more opportunities to enter school.
Who? 50 Tibetan nomadic households in Rega Village, Qiongxi Township, Hongyuan County, Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.
Photos of Project Implementation
The village leader is explaining the solar panel project to the villagers and how households were chosen to receive the panels. He is telling everybody that we should remember the New Zealand Embassy’s great support and thanks them for their help.
The village leaders are collecting local contributions from the local people.
These women are waiting for the solar panels beside the village house.
Some villagers are preparing to unload solar panels from the truck.
She is helping to carry solar panels to the house.
The village leader and some local people are looking at the descriptive manual to check the solar panel’s power supplies.
One of the village leaders and some local people are helping to distribute solar panels to the villagers.
The man in the Tibetan robe is taking his panel and the other man, with paper in hand, is calling the people’s names one by one according to the name list.
These are households who receive solar panels provided by the New Zealand Embassy.
These women are helping each other and preparing to carry the solar panels with their sash.
She is standing by her brand new solar panel which was given by New Zealand Embassy.
Project Summary
Project Title: Solar Electricity Generating Panels for Rega Village
Project Goal: The overall goal of the project is to improve the Rega Villagers’ living conditions, including reducing the heavy burden of women’s tasks, and increasing numbers of girls and boys attending school. This project will also provide the following benefits:
1. With solar panels, local people can avoid fire risks associated with candles and oil lamps in yak-haired tents and wooden houses.
2. Women have more time to spend on valuable pastimes, such as making butter lamps, mending clothes, spinning yak hair for tents, etc.
3. This project saves local people’s money which they use on buying candles and spending butter on making lamps. Their living conditions will improve now that people have extra money to spend on food, medicines, clothes and other necessities.
4. Local students can conveniently study during the night times, thus improving educational standards in the area.
6. With these panels, families will not suffer from the illnesses associated with butter lamp and/or candle smoke. Especially this project significantly improves health standards for women.
7. Women who give birth at night can have a reliable light source. This improves the health prospects for both mother and child.
8. Particularly wooden houses and yak-haired tents will last longer without the damage associated with long-term exposure to smoke.
9. Without the burden of collecting yak dung for fuel, more students (particularly female) will have the opportunity toattend school.
Location of the project: This project is located in Rega Village, Qiongxi Township, Hongyuan County, Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, PRC. Rega Village is about 1,000 km away from Xining city. To get to Rega Village from Xining, it takes three days by bus. Rega Village is 5 km away from Hongyuan County, Aba prefecture, Sichuan Province, China.
Total beneficiaries: This project directly benefits 300 local people in 50 households in Rega Village.
Implementation organization/individual: Project manager Mehla, Stezin, Rega Village’s leader, the villagers of Rega Village, and Shem Women’s Group.
Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group
Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date received
The New Zealand Embassy gave 50,150 RMB on June 2nd, 2008
Details of project activities
originally planned project activities
1. Visit Rega Village and ask villagers what is the villagers most need. Meet with the villages to evaluate how many families have no solar panels and why they do not have one.
2. Decide with Rega Villagers to propose the solar panel electricity project.
3. Take the pictures which are related to the project.
4. Write project proposal.
5. Receive project funding.
6. Hold a meeting with the villagers to discuss the dates of the project, logistics of buying the solar panels, and individuals who will purchase them from Nima Company.
7. Have meeting with the villagers before buying the solar panels and decide who will purchase the solar panels.
8. Purchase the solar panels from Nima factory with selected villagers and village leader.
9. Give the solar panels to each family and take pictures.
10. Teach families how to use the solar panel.
11. Write final report.
12. Send final report and photos to donor.
Activities realized in the framework of the project
1)In May, Mehla planned and designed a solar panel proposal.
2)In May, Mehla discussed with Rega Village’s leader and held a meeting with villagers of Rega Village.
3)In November wrote and completed the proposal.
4)On the 22nd March of 2008, the project was funded by the New Zealand Embassy.
5)In April 2008, Mehla contacted the solar panels Company in Xining City decided to purchase 50 solar panels from Nima Company. She bargained with the leader of the company down to a cheaper price than quoted in the original proposal.
6)In middle of the May 2008, Mehla asked the company to prepare the solar panels
7)On the 4th of June Mehla, received money from the New ZealandEmbassy and Mehla contacted Solar Panel Company and gave 50% money to them first.
8)On the 6th of June the leaders of Rega Village and Mehla chose 50 of the poorest families from Rega Village and collected local contributions while taking some pictures.
8)On 7th- 9th of June 2008, 50 solar panels were transported from Xining City to Rega Village.
9)On 10th of June, the solar panels were distributed to 50 families and Mehla took pictures.
10)On 17th and 18th of the June 2008, Mehla interviewed the local people.
Project Finance
|
Original |
Actual |
|||||||||
| Rec eipt |
Item | Donor Contr ibut ion in rmb |
Local Contr ibut ion in rmb |
Shem in rmb |
Total in rmb | Donor Contri bution in rmb |
Local Contri bution in rmb |
Shem in rmb | total in rmb |
Diffe rence (Betw een o rigin aland actual budge ts)in rmb |
| #1 | 1)50 solar panels (includ ing Tran sporta tion fee) |
50,0 00 |
15,0 00 |
0 | 65,0 00 |
48, 000 |
14,0 00 |
0 | 62,0 00 |
+3,0 00 |
| # 2 | 2)Proje ct Man ageme nt ex penses |
150 | 150 | 0 | 300 | 331 | 150 | 0 | 481 | -181 |
| # 3 | 3)misce llane ous |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 0 | 0 | 50 | -50 |
| Project Mana geme nt pay ment |
0 | 0 | 500 | 500 | 0 | 0 | 500 | 500 | 0 | |
| Total | 50,1 50 |
15,1 50 |
500 | 65, 800 |
48, 381 |
14,1 50 |
500 | 63,0 31 |
(4)+ |
|
1) I got a cheaper price for each solar panel compared to the original price. Before each solar panel costs 1,300 RMB, but I purchased each solar panel for 1,240 RMB.
2) Management expenses include taxi, bus fare, hotel fee and phone calls.
3) It means service fee for taking out project money from the project manager’s bank card.
4) After the project was completed, 2,769 RMB was left from the project and 1,000 RMB was left from local contributions, therefore I returned the local contributions to each of the 50 households. At last 1,769 RMB was left from donor contribution.
List of Recipients
Difficulties and lesson learned
The place where I am working is very far from the project site therefore I had to spend four days traveling round trip. I also needed to ask for permission from my boss for a few days leave. Leaving from my job for some days affects my salary even if I receive permission from the boss because this is the rule that NGO I am working in. Another difficulty encountered: when Rega Village leaders and I counted the money of local contributions we found out that the local contribution was not as much as we needed, then we looked again according to our name list, then we discovered that one of the families didn’t give us money. Finally, I collected all the local contributions correctly.
Lesson learned
I have learned many things by implementing this project: by interviewing local people and working with them I have learned that the local people need help and I should write more proposals to help them. For instance, the village leaders and local people proposed me to write a brick fence and road project. Also I knew more about what kinds of problems still exist in this village. I will try my best to write some project proposals to solve the problems that they face in their daily life.
Interviews
Here are interviews with some of the villagers who are the beneficiaries of this project
1)
I interviewed Yongzha on the 17th of June in 2008. He is sixty-three years old. There are six people in his family. His wife is fifty-six years old and she needs to do all the housework and milking always. They have four children, two of their sons are helping his family, one of their daughters works for other family as an attendant and earns some money. The other girl is a primary school student. His family only tends two male yaks and ten female yaks. This is because his eldest son secretly gambled a lot up until three years ago. After he lost a lot of money he borrowed a lot of money from other people. The family sold the livestock to repay his son’s debt. He said that they still need to pay some money to others because his family is not able to repay the extra debt. Later their eldest son left home and no longer listened to his parents. Now Yongzha’s family depends on very few livestock which were given to him by his relatives. Moreover, he said that his wife is very sick and he is afraid that he will lose her one day if they don’t see the doctor. He said that it is possible for us to save some money and see the doctor, because from today his family doesn’t need to spend money on butter lamp and candles which are used for light at night time. He is saying solar panels are the most helpful thing for a nomadic family; also he can save money and time by using this solar panel. He is really happy to get this solar panel and thanks the New Zealand Embassy’s for their great help.
2)
I interviewed Pagdorl o the 17th of June in 2008. Pagdorl is a 25 year old woman. Her husband died so she lives with her two sons; one is seven years old and the other one is eight years old. There are 25 yaks and one horse in her family. She always borrows money from her relatives in order to send her two sons school, if she doesn’t send the children to school, she will be fined 4,000 RMB by the local government for not sending children to school. Also she digs Bimao(a kind of medical herb that grows up on the mountain, it can be sold to a good price) to earn some money for her family. The average cash income of this family is 300-400 RMB per year. She said that this solar panel is really helpful for her family’s living condition and convenient for doing house work. For instance: Now she doesn’t need to spend money to buy candles and butter for lighting. Also it is really convenient to her finish her house work during night under the solar panels light even though she’s only used it for seven days. Now she can sell some of her extra butter for purchasing food. She can repay the relatives’ loan gradually in the future and continually sends her two sons to school. This is the first time that people have helped her and she is so happy and appreciative; she said many thanks to the New Zealand Embassy.
3)
I interviewed Serhla on the18th of June in 2008. Serhla is a sixty year old woman and she is a widow. Her husband died by illness one year ago.
She is living with her 15 year old grandson. Her family has only fifteen yaks and no horses and sheep. She said that they couldn’t get grass to feed their yaks in the winter, because her grandson and she cannot move from the summer place to the winter place by themselves. They always live in the same place for the entire year, so her family’s yaks are very weak and the number of yaks does not increase very much. Selling butter and cheese is this family’s main income source. She said that the solar panel is really helpful; also it is very convenient for her to cook and do some housework during at night time. She says many thanks for New Zealand Embassy’s great support.
Letter of appreciation
Translation of thank you letter
Dear The New Zealand Embassy
First of all, all the villagers of Rega Village really appreciate the great help from the New Zealand Embassy for donating solar panels.
We (all the members of our village) thank you withour whole heart for helping us to receive the solar electricity-generating panels. There are 170 households and about 750 people living in Rega Village. Illiterate people find it is difficult to keep up with others who are educated. It is true that most villagers are illiterate in our village and their living condition is very poor. Our village received funds for 50 solar electricity-generating panels
from you and provided them to the poorest families in Rega Village. All nomadic families live separately in the mountains and rocky areas. These families have no electricity and public transportation. They used the little lamps from generation to generation for cooking and doing housework during the night. Now that these families have electricity, it is like a blind person seeing again. Our villagers are really happy and give their thanks for your help. We will never forget your help. This will help villagers to send their children to school.
There should be unity between all people, which isour responsibility and also our future target. We will remember your help in our minds as though it was stone carved with words. We hope you can continue help other Tibetans in nomadic areas. Thank you very much for your help.
Sincerely,
Rega Village Committee
Receipts
#1
#2
#3
Service fee for taking out project money from project manager’s bank card
Original Proposal
Project Location
This project is located in Rega Village, Qiongjizhen Township, Hongyuan County, Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, PRC. The village is about 1,000 km away from Xining city. To get to Rega village from Xining, it takes three days by bus. Rega village is 5 km away from Hongyuan County, Aba prefecture, Sichuan Province, China.
Population
There are approximately 29,819 people in Hongyuan County. In the county, 20% of people are official workers and 80% of people are nomads and farmers. The county population is 74.54% Tibetan, 23.09% Chinese, and 2.3% other ethnic groups. There are 175 households comprised of 790 people in Rega village. There are 300 women, 230 men, and 260 children in this village.
Education
There are about 200 school-aged children in Rega village, but only 107 of Rega village’s local children attend school (67 female students and 40 male students). Currently, 100 of Rega village’s students study in Hongyuan County Chengguan elementary school. There are 6 middle school students in Hongyuan Tibetan middle school (2 boys and 4 girls). There is one female college student. There are no women in government jobs. Traditionally, women have to work at home and girls have less chance to attend school. In addition to struggling with school fees, many families think that sending children to school is less useful than having them work at home.
Cash income
All of the Rega villagers make their living on animal husbandry. Villagers can earn a maximum of 900 rmb per family per year from selling yaks, horses, butter, and cheese. Some families work for other rich families and rent their own grassland to another family. In these situations, the men herd the rich family’s livestock, the women milk the rich family’s cow in the summer, collect yak dung, and do housework, and the children herd and cook for the rich families. Working for a rich family provides a poor family with little income and all that average families have to spend on food (rice, barley, noodles, and vegetables), medicine, clothes, milk churn and transportation. Recently, the government has started giving 600 rmb to the poorest families each year. Rega villagers don’t dig caterpillar fungus or medicinal herbs during the summer, as there are not enough of these things growing for people to dig. If people go to another land to dig for these things, first they must pay a large fee, which they usually do not have. On average most rich and middle class families make 700 rmb each year. This money comes from selling yaks, horses, butter, and cheese. Poor families make 300 rmb each year from people working for rich families.
Herding
Rega village is a nomadic area so families breed their livestock, usually yaks and horses, in the mountains and pastures. The average each family has 80 yaks and 3 horses. Averagely each household has 1,500mu grassland, but it is not enough if one family which has 200yaks. Then these families have to rent other families’ grassland and they have to pay 150RMB for 1,000 mu grassland.
Agriculture
There is no agriculture in Rega village due to the cold weather and 3,600 km altitudes. In addition, there is no open farmland in Rega village because all of the grasslands are used for an open yak enclosure. Any crops and trees that villagers attempt to grow in Rega village are destroyed by animals.
Problem
There is no electricity for the nomadic people of Rega village. The lack of electricity causes several problems.
1. Waste time
It takes a nomadic woman one hour to make a butter lamp. This time takes away from a woman’s time to do other housework, such as collecting fuel, collecting yak dung, cleaning the house or tent, taking care of the children, and cooking meals. In addition, nomadic women are sometimes responsible for herding the livestock when their husbands are not at home. In the summer, nomadic women use the milk churn to make cream after they finish milking and doing the housework. Before buying a solar panel, my mother would spend two or three hours churning milk, and then need to complete her other house chores including making butter lamps. Some days she was so busy, she had time to eat only one meal. Many other nomadic women struggle with too many tasks, leaving them no time to relax or earn an income.
2. Waste money
Some women must do their housework at night by dim light, because they do not have enough time to complete all of their tasks during the day-time. At night, women must work by the light of candles and butter lamps. This increases costs immensely, as much money must be spent on candles and butter lamps. Without a solar panel, families must spend lots of money on butter and candles. On average, families use 9 kilograms of butter each month, costing fourteen rmb per kilogram. This result in 126 rmb spent on butter for light each month. In addition, two candles are used each night, resulting in a total of 60 candles per month. One candle costs 2 jiao. So 60 rmb is spent in one month on candles. In total, each family must spend 1872 rmb on candles and butter for light each year, a huge and unnecessary expense.
3. Health care
The butter lamps and candles used at night for light do not allow the people to see very clearly. The light provided by these sources is weak and short-term, making many tasks more difficult. Nursing babies and giving birth in the dark is very difficult and dangerous. Without reliable light, mothers cannot see their infants when they are nursing and childbirth is made far more complicated.
4. Lack of information
Villagers have difficulty getting information of the outside world, as without electricity they cannot listen to the radio or watch TV. Not knowing what is going on outside of their village limits the people’s awareness and prevents their children from advancing.
5. Children lose their chance go to school and face difficult study environments
The children of this village rarely go to school because their parents are uneducated and they don’t realize the value of education. In addition, most nomadic children’s families cannot afford school fees because they spend so much money on butter lamps and candles each year. Another problem is the lack of opportunity for Rega village’s students to study. Studying is especially difficult for girls, as they must spend much of their time out of class helping their families, taking care of their siblings, herding livestock, fetching water, and collecting yak dung for fuel. If they are able to attend school, these tasks leave girls with no time to do their homework assignments during the day. Without electric light, students must strain their eyes to do their work, which discourages them from studying.
Project goal
The overall goal of the project is to improve the Rega village people’s living conditions, including reducing the heavy burden of women’s tasks, and increasing numbers of girls and boys attending school. The immediate goal of the project is to buy 50 solar electricity panels for Rega village.
Benefits
1. Save time
If Rega village has solar paneling, then the villagers can save lots of time that is currently spent using the milk churn and making butter lamps. This will especially free up time for women and girls because making butter lamps and using the milk churn machine to make cream and cheese are tasks that they must devote their time to. With solar electricity panels, the women will not need to churn milk by hand to make butter. They can charge the milk churn machine to the solar panel and make the cream and cheese. Provided with extra time, the women of Rega village will have more time to relax or do other work, such as cleaning the house or tent, caring for their children, or getting a paying job outside of the home. Also this will also free up time for
girls to go to school and learn.
2. Save money
Using the solar panels to allow people to save money, this can then be spent on clothing and food for the family. Using the solar panels, Rega village families can save 1872 rmb each year. In addition to essential goods for the family, this money may also be spent to send the children of Rega to school.
3. Health care
Village health will be greatly improved by using the solar electricity panels. Not only will women have light to nurse their babies and give birth, but they will avoid smoke from cooking fires going into their lungs and eyes. Also, risk of fire from candles and butter lamps that are not attended to will be diminished.
4. Gain more information
With the electricity provided by the solar panel, village people can gain more knowledge and learn information concerning places outside the village by listening to the radio and watching TV. Also, children can improve their Chinese level through television viewing. Villagers can learn new ideas, allowing progress and positive development in the village.
5. Increased opportunity for children’s education.
With solar panels creating more time and money for village families, more children will be able to attend school, especially girls. The girls will also have light to study by at night, allowing them to complete their homework assignments. With money available for school fees and reliable light for studying, students will learn more and increase their future opportunities.
Gender equality
There are several gender equality issues involved in the solar panel project, as it will greatly help the entire Rega village community, but especially the village women. With solar panel electricity, women in Rega village will have far more time in their day to accomplish their tasks, freeing them from working in poor candlelight at night. If women want to attend community functions or other gatherings during the day, they will have good light available to work under in the evening hours. Also, if women have more time, they will be able to attain a paying job outside the home or enjoy more pleasurable activities with some leisure time. With the money saved from not needing butter lamps or candles, more girls in Rega village can be sent to school, as their school fees can be afforded. In addition, as a young woman managing this project in Rega village, I am able to show the village people the capabilities of
women. The successful completion of this beneficial project for the village will serve as an inspiration for young girls and show their parents of the value in educating girls.
Governmental support
On May 5, 2007 the village leader, Tsezen and I discussed the Rega solar panel project with the township leader, Garma. Both leaders are in agreement of the need and usefulness of this project, and provide their full support.
Project steps
1. Visit Rega village and ask village people what it is that the villagers need most. (done). Meet with the village people to evaluate how many families have no solar panel and why they do not have one.
(done)
2. Decide with Rega villagers to propose the solar panel electricity project.(done)
3. Take the pictures which are related to the project. (done)
4. Write project proposal. (done)
5. Receive project funding.
6. Hold a meeting with the villagers to discuss the dates of the project, logistics of buying the solar panels, and individuals who will purchase them from Nima Company.
7. Have meeting with the village people before buying the solar panels and decide who will purchase the solar panel.
8. Purchase the solar panels from Nima factory with selected villagers and village leader.
9. Give the solar panels to each family and take pictures.
10. Teach families how to use the solar panel.
11. Write final report.
12. Send final report and photos to donor
Budget
|
Items |
Price per item in RMB |
Number of items |
Donor Contrib |
Local Contrib |
Shem Contrib |
Total cost in RMB |
|
Solar Panel(Including transportation fee) |
1,300 |
50 |
50,000 |
15,000 |
0 |
65,000 |
|
Management expenses |
|
|
150 |
150 |
0 |
300 |
|
Management payment |
|
|
0 |
0 |
500 |
500 |
|
Total cost |
1,300 |
|
50,150 |
15,150 |
500 |
65,800 |
Total donor contribution requested: 50,150 rmb ($7,076 US)
Total project cost: 65,800 rmb
Sustainability
The solar panels will be purchased from Nima Brand Company, which guarantees the battery for one to two years and also guarantees the generating panel for ten years. The company promised that they will fix the all solar panels if they will break within in ten years. I have spoken to past customers of Nima solar panels who are extremely pleased with their product. If the solar panels have problems, the villagers will contact the township leader (Caizhen) and he can contact the Nima Company for repairs or replacement. If the problem arises after the warranty, the township leader will find someone to repair the damaged solar panel and the cost will paid by the villagers.
Past Experiences
On May 19, 2007, Mehla did a solar panel project in Rega village, which was funded by the Canada Foundation.
Map of the project site
Photos of the project
She is churning milk by her hand, she has no time to take of her little son and she has tied him with a rope on the pole. All my village’s women are doing as same as her. They use hand to churn milk by their hands for making butter and cheese for five months.(June, July, August, September and October) Then they have to spend at least an hour on churning milk.
There are very few families use to solar panel electricity for churning milk. They can charge the milk churn to solar panel and make butter and cheese. In this case the women can do other things like doing housework, taking care of children and cooking meal with the extra time which is used to churn milk by hands. It is really easy and convenient for women to churn milk during five months.