Project Manager: Tserangtso (Tabitha)
This Solar panel project will provide electricity to 35 of the poorest households in Okor village. Women and girls will especially benefit as they are typically assigned the bulk of the village’s burdensome tasks and can get information from the radios.
Asia Foundation funded this project
Tserangtso is from Oko Village, Xiaduo Township, Guinan County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. She is currently teaching English at Guinan Tibetan Middle School.
What? To provide 35 solar electricity panels to 35 poorest households in Oko Village. Women and girls will benefit as they are typically assigned the bulk of the village’s burdensome tasks.
Who? Oko Village, Xiaduo Township, Guinan County, Hainan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.
Photos of the project implementation
A company member transferred solar panels to the village and he teaches villagers how to use the solar panel.
Some local people and the project manager demonstrate how to use the solar panels.
The project manager and some villagers (recipients) are learning some detailed information about solar panels.
Some women are waiting in the yard for the distribution of solar panels.
Villagers are waiting for all other recipients.
A view of a recipient: Duo De received the solar panel and he is signing his name. (Everybody who received a solar panel had to sign their names and provide a fingerprint)
Another recipient is signing his name.
The project manager is showing where the female recipient should place her fingerprint on the paper.
After distributing the solar panels, the village leader is explaining again how we received these solar panels. He said “We should remember the Asia Foundation forever and their great generosity.” All villagers are very thankful for the Asia Foundation’s support.
Project summary
Project title: Solar Panel Project for Oko Village
Project goal: This project provides 35 solar panels to 35 of the poorest households in Oko Village. Women and girls will especially benefit as they are typically assigned the bulk of the village’s burdensome tasks.
Project location: This project is located in Oko Village, Xiaduo Township, Guinan County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province, China. Oko is an administrative village made of five natural parts and is about 205 kilometers away from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province. If the villagers go to Xining city they always go through a town called Guo Mang Ying. This town is also in Guinan County. Usually villagers come to Guo Mang Ying to purchase their needs, because this is the only town which is near Oko Village. Guo Mang Ying is 35 kilometers away from Oko Village.
Benefits
1. This project reduces women and girls’ burdens. If they have light, they will not need to spend much time collecting fuel and will have more leisure time. Also girls could spend more time on their homework and reviewing lessons. Other possible benefits include access to electric technology that reduces labor, such as milk churning machines.
2. Villagers are able to access more outside information from radios. Also they can use mobile phones because they could recharge their batteries by solar panel.
3. Girls have more time to review lessons and do homework, because they won’t need to go out to collect fuels as often. In this way girls can also gain rewards on their studies. Furthermore, at night, they can study under the light. These factors positively affect girls’ attitudes toward school and also teachers’ attitudes about female students.
4. Villagers have brighter light without economic difficulties. For example, villagers do not need to spend money on real wire electricity.
5. If they have light, they don’t have to use oil, butter, rapeseed and kerosene lamps. This reduces health hazards people face from smoke-producing light.
6. Solar panels improve villagers’ quality of life. As they don’t need to spend as much on candles, solar panels enable villagers to save some money so they can afford enough food and are able to buy new clothes.
Total beneficiaries: This project directly benefits about 250 local people of 35 households in Oko Village.
Implementation organization/individual: Project manager Tseringtso, Tarijia and Nanbu, Oko Village’s leaders, the villagers of Oko Village, and Shem Women’s Group.
Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group.
Funds received: Source, Amount and Date received
The Asia Foundation gave 36,550 rmb on June 6th, 2008. The project manager received this money on June 8th, 2008.
Details of project activities
Originally planned project activities
1. Visit the village and talk with the villagers about their most pressing difficulties.
2. Talk with the village leader and gather necessary information to complete project.
3. Select 35 poorest families with villager leaders.
4. Visit ten families and interview them about why they want solar panels.
5. Ask other people who have already implemented solar panel projects and choose the best company.
6. Talk with the company manager Dre Jie and ask about price and quality.
7. Write proposal.
8. Receive funds.
9. Collect local contribution.
10. Purchase the solar panels from Nima Company.
11. Transport solar panels from Xining to Oko Village, Xiaduo Township, Guinan County, Hainan Province.
12. Discuss with the village leaders and the villagers to appoint project supervisors. These project supervisors will prepare the project and decide how to fairly divide the solar panels among the villagers.
13. Distribute the solar panels to 35 households.
14. Find some helpers and company members to help families how to use solar panel.
15. Take pictures.
16. Interview the recipients.
17. Write final report.
18. Send final report with receipts to the donor.
Activities realized in the framework of the project
1. Project funds received from Asia Foundation in the middle of May, 2008.
2. On 28th May, had a meeting with villager leaders (first called them and made sure when they had time to get together).
3. On 10th June, 2008, collected local contributions with the village leader.
4. On 14th June, 2008, I received Asia Foundation donation from Shem.
5. Contacted the Nima Company and re-checked quality of solar panels as well as price. Also made sure to have an available time for transporting panels.
6. On 15th June, 2008, paid 30,000 rmb to the Nima Company, and completed the first installment.
7. On 18th June, 2008, transported solar panels from Xining to Oko Village, Xiaduo town ship, Guinan County, Hainan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province and let the company members teach the villagers how to use the solar panels.
8. On 19th June, 2008, the project manager and the village leaders held a meeting with recipients. Distributed the solar panels to the recipients.
9. Tried some solar panels to taught recipients how to use them and warned of things they needed to be careful of.
10.Took pictures.
11.Visited some recipients’ families to check the panels and interviewed the family members.
12.On 2nd, July, 2008, paid the rest of the money (14,800 rmb) to the company as the second installment.
13.Wrote the final report.
14.Sent the final report to the donor
Budget
|
Original Budget |
Actual Budget |
|||||||||
| Rec eip t |
Item | Donor Contri bution in rmb |
Local Contri bution in rmb |
Shem Cont ribut ion in rmb |
Total in rmb | Donor Contri bution in rmb |
Local Contri bution in rmb |
Shem Cont ribut ion in rmb |
total in rmb |
Differ ence (Betw een o rigina l and actua l bud gets) in rmb |
| #1 | 35solar panels (includ in Tra nspor tation fee) |
36,05 0 |
9,450 | 0 | 45,50 0 |
35,35 0 |
9,450 | 0 | 44,80 0 |
+700 |
| #2 | Project Manage ment expen ses |
500 | 0 | 0 | 500 | 488 | 0 | 0 | 488 | +12 |
| #3 | Miscella neous |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 0 | 0 | 50 | -50 |
| Project Manage ment payme nt |
0 | 0 | 500 | 500 | 0 | 0 | 500 | 500 | 0 | |
| #4 Tot al |
36,55 0 |
9,450 | 500 | 46,50 0 |
35,88 8 |
9,450 | 500 | 45,83 8 |
+662 |
|
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 1,280 rmb.
2) Project management expenses includes taxi, bus fee, hotel fee, phone calls and service fee for taking out and transfer project money from the project manager’s bank card. (Receipt is in last pages).
3) Some minimum fees for which I could not get receipts (Project manager rented motorcycle to town to make phone calls and pick up the transport truck).
4) After the project was completed, 662 rmb was left from donor contribution.
The name list of solar Panel Recipients
Difficulties and lesson learned
Difficulties
After I finished distributing the solar panels to villagers I wanted to write the final report right away, but at the place where I am working the internet is not available for most of the time. There is only one computer in head master’s office, so it was really inconvenient for me to write final report in his office. Therefore, I just waited until school vacation and visited Xining city to finish my final report.
Lessons learned
I have learned many things by implementing this project:
Before starting to implement the project, as a project manager, we always have to contact the actual company manager to check when they have time to deliver the items, such as solar panels, to the villagers. We should tell them they have to hire a good truck driver and accurately describe the road conditions. Otherwise, the driver may meet difficulties on the way to the village.
For example, this time when I was implementing the project, the truck driver didn’t know the condition of the road and the distance from the company to the village. He didn’t arrive on time. Actually he was delayed 6 hours and the village leader and I waited in the township with wariness. Secondly, I learned that if a project has met the local people’ needs, and then the result will be more appreciated by the local people. The project will be more sustainable. Therefore, when implementing projects it is really crucial to ask what sorts of help do the local people need rather than determine on one’s own.
Interviews
I have interviewed two of the villagers who are the beneficiaries of this project:
Abai: I interviewed him on 8th July, 2008. He is fifty five years old. When he was 48, he came to Oko Village and married a woman called Cuori. She is 52 years old. At that time, they owned about 20 sheep and 9 goats. Cuori has four children. The oldest one was married out, the second one is disabled, the third and fourth are still very young. One day, Cuori always became sick and the family sold all their animals so he could see a doctor. Then some villagers gave them few animals and Cuori is a little better now. Abai is hard-working with animals, but the money they earn from produce is just enough for them to survive. He says he can sell sheep wool for about 200 rmb and goats’ wool for about 400 rmb. Therefore, the couple is grateful for the Asia Foundation’s help and said many thanks to the Asia Foundation.
Lha zhuo, I interviewed her on 8th July, 2008. She is 49 years old. There are seven people in her family. They are her mother who is 87 years old, her five children and Lhazhou herself. Her husband died 15 years ago. There are 39 sheep and one cow. She never goes out to work, because she has no time to do so (she is responsible for all house chores, i.e., taking care of her mother, young children, and animals). Two of her oldest children were married out. Also she has one Tibetan robe. She wears that in summer and in winter. Her children change new clothes once a year after they sell the sheep wool. Also, she said that she never planned to buy a solar panel, because it is so expensive. She is extremely grateful about solar panel and she says many thanks to the Asia foundation.
Thank you letter
Translation of thank you letter
Dear Asia Foundation,
I’m the village leader of Oko Village, Xiaduo town ship, Guinan County, Hainan Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Here I represent all my villagers to say, “Thank you very much,” because our 35 poorest families received 35 solar electricity panels and they are very grateful for your generous donation. They cannot earn this money in a year from working outside. All these families annual income are lower than 1,000 rmb. Moreover, these families could listen to the radios and charge mobile phones. It made many things more convenient and useful. Also these families send many thanks to the Asia Foundation. Now I can see that these families have more smiles on their faces. Thank you very much again!
From Oko Village, Ta Ri Jia
Receipts
#1
Contract with Nyima Company
#2
The service fee for taking out and transferring project money is 70 rmb.
#3
Project manager rented motorcycle to town to make phone calls and pick up the transport truck.
Original Proposal
Project location
This project is located in Okor Village, Xiaduo Township, Guinan County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province, China. Okor is an administrative village made of five natural parts and is about 205 kilometers far away from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province. If the villagers travel to Xining city they always go through a town called Guo Mang Ying. This town is also in Guinan County. Usually villagers come to Guo Mang Ying to purchase their needs, because this is the only town near Okor village. It is 35 kilometers away from Guo Mang Ying to Okor Village.
Population
Okor village has approximately 329 households comprised of 2,000 people, out of which 1,080 are women and 920 are men. There are about 510 school-aged children and 360 children actually attend school, out of which 150 are girls and 210 are boys.
Education
This village has only had a primary school since 1991. Before that there was not any schooling for children. At that time only two people had government jobs. One was a doctor; another was a teacher (both males). Therefore, almost all people were illiterate except for the small population of monks and nuns (around 50 and 7, respectively). They mainly learned Tibetan writing and reading.
When the first schools opened in 1991 there were 30 students, about 13 girls and 17 boys. There were two teachers.
Now, this village has 5 female and 3 male college students. Out of the 15 current high school students, 6 are girls and 9 are boys. There are about 30 middle school students, of whom 15 are girls and 15 are boys. There are 360 primary students, of whom 150 are girls and 210 are boys. The village’s only two college graduates are women.
Cash income
Now, 90% of villagers are herders who live on the grasslands. 10% of the villagers have become farmers since the government provided land to this village. The government lands are located in a valley of Mergtang area. Farmers mainly grow barley, rapeseed, and wheat. Recently, people started to sell their livestock and produce for cash. 70% of farm families earned about 600 RMB from selling half of their harvest and 30% farm families just support themselves living. 50% nomads can sell some livestock to earn about 400 to 1500 rmb each year, 30% of them haven no more livestock to sell, so they work for other rich families to earn less than 8 to 10 rmb for per day per person. So on average income in this village is about 400 to 1500 rmb each year.
Agriculture
As Okor village has traditionally been a nomadic village, now only 10% of the population does farm work. There is not much land, only about 6 mu(acre) for each family. They generally grow barley, wheat, and rapeseed.
Herding
90% of people in this village are nomads; on average each family herds about 150 animals. These animals include sheep, goats, horses, cattle and one or two donkeys. There are few yaks in this village. From 329 households, approximately 70 families are able to earn about 1500 rmb per year. 150 families earn an average of about 600 rmb per year. Families who cannot sell livestock do not earn significant income. Some farm families own animals, about 20 to 40 sheep, goats or heads of cattle and their income is minimal.
Project goals
The primary goal of this project is to provide 35 solar panels to the families of Okor village and to directly improve the lives of about 235 people.
These solar panels will provide electricity to 35 of the poorest households in Okor village. Women and girls will especially get benefit as they are typically assigned the bulk of the village’s burdensome tasks and can get information from the radios.
Problems
1. No light
Women and girls are assigned the task of collecting fuel for cooking, light, and warmth. In the past, fuel was easier to gather due to flourishing grasslands and more livestock. Due to economic changes and environmental changes such as desertification and drought, people are no longer able to keep as much livestock as they did before. So, it is much more difficult to find fuel from animals. They must save fuels for fire, light and cooking fuel. Also almost all the time women and the girls must walk about 5 or 6 kilometers further to collect fuels; it is difficult and time consuming to get a whole bag of yak dung in a day.
2. Lack of access to information
Okor village is located in the grasslands and is about 75-100 kilometers from the county town. The roads between the town and Okor village are in poor condition, so it usually takes three or four hours by tractors or Jeep to get from this village to the town. Therefore, villagers have little access to outside information. Without electricity villagers are unable to use resources such as TV, radio, video, and telephone. Radios and television provide news from all around the world. Further, if the villagers had phones they would be able to know the market price of livestock without having to travel, and the phone makes life much easier for the people.
3. Low education rates for girls.
Because girls are always busy for collecting fuel and doing housework, they have less time during the day to do their homework and review. At night, there is enough time to finish their homework but there is no light. Hence, they cannot finish their homework or review the class course and have to go to bed early. This negatively impacts the girls’ grades, which in turn affects their interest in going to school.
4. No access to real line electricity
This village is about 75-100 kilometers from the county town. Also, Okor village is so large that people often live 2 – 6 kilometers from each other. The government still has no plans to supply wire power.
5. Health and Safety hazards
Villagers’ burn oil, butter, and rapeseed oil for brighter. It is very smoky and is harmful for people’s health. For example many people hate smokers because smoke causes diseases like lung cancer and chronic coughs. Smoke is also harmful for people’s eyes. Also, there is a constant threat of fire. Last year two families’ houses were completely destroyed by a fire accident at night and three people were hurt.
6. Cost of Candles
People in the village use many candles, especially during festivals. Usually, some families use one candle, costing about 1 rmb per night. Some families use two or three per night, costing upwards of 3 rmb, which is too much to spend for one night. The solar panels would enable villagers to cut costs of candles and save money.
Benefits
1. This project will reduce women and girls’ burdens. If they have light, they’ll not need to spend as much time collecting fuel and would have more leisure time. Also girls could spend more time on their homework and reviewing lessons. Other possible benefits include access to electric technology that reduces labor, such as milk churning machines.
2. Villagers will be able to access more outside information from radios and televisions. Also they will be able to use mobile phones because they could recharge their batteries by solar panel.
3. Girls will have more time to review lessons and do homework, because they won’t need to go out to collect fuels as often. In this way girls can also gain rewards on their studies. Furthermore, at night, they can study under the light. This will positively affect girls’ attitudes toward school and also teachers’ attitudes about female students.
4. Villagers could have brighter light without any certain difficulties. For example, villagers don’t need to spend money on real wire electricity.
5. If they have light, they will not have to use oil, butter, rapeseed and kerosene lamps. This will reduce health hazards people face from smoke producing light. Furthermore, solar panels will reduce the threat of fire, making villagers’ homes safer.
6. Solar panels will improve villagers’ quality of life. As they will not need to spend as much on candles, solar panels will enable villagers to save some money so they can afford enough food and be able to buy new clothes.
Gender equality
Besides practical benefits for women (i.e., they will spend less time on collecting dung for fuel and will have more time to devote to education), this project will contribute to gender equality by providing a positive model of the benefits of educating girls. If I accomplish this project, the villagers would see that girls are capable. Men and women could see first hand the ability of women and the benefits of educating young girls. Also seeing a women accomplish this project might empower other women by inspiring them to complete similar projects.
The steps of the project
1. Visited the village and talked with the villagers and asked about most pressing difficulties. (Completed)
2. Talked with the village leader and gathered necessary information to complete project. (Completed)
3. Selected 35 poorest families with villager leaders. (Completed)
4. Visited ten families and interviewed them about why they want solar panels. (Completed)
5. Asked other people who have already done solar panel project and chose the best company. (Completed)
6. Talked with the company manager DreJie and asked the price and quality.
(Completed)
7. Write proposal. (completed)
8. Finish proposal.(completed)
9. Receive funds.
10. Collect local contribution.
11. Purchase the solar panels from Nima Company.
12. Transport solar panels from Xining to Okor village, Xiaduo Township, Guinan County, Hainan Province.
13. Discuss with the village leaders and the villagers to appoint project supervisors. These project supervisors will prepare for the project and decide how to fairly divide the solar panels among the villagers.
14. Distribute the solar panels to 35 households.
15. Find some helpers and company members together to help families how to use solar panel.
16. Take pictures.
17. Interview the recipients.
18. Write final report.
19. Send final report with receipts to the donor.
Timeframe
This project will take twenty-three days from the time the proposal is approved:
10 days: receive funds and collect local contribution.
2 days: purchase the solar panels from Nima Company.
1 day: transport the solar panels to Okor Village.
1 day: hold a meeting with villagers and village leaders and find some volunteers that who are using solar panels and company members who transport it to the village together to teach these new recipients how to use the solar panels.
5 days: distribute solar panels.
2 days: interview.
2 days: write final report
Detailed Budget Detailed Budget
| Items | Price per item rmb | Number of itmes | Local contri bution per family (RMB) |
Total Donor cont ribution (RMB) |
Total Local contrib. ution (RMB) |
Other resou rces (Shem) |
Total cost (RMB) |
|
Solar |
1,300 |
35 |
270 |
36,050 |
9,450 |
0 |
45,500 |
|
Management |
0 |
0 |
0 |
500 |
0 |
0 |
500 |
|
Management payment |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
500 |
500 |
|
Total |
0 |
0 |
0 |
36,550 |
9,450 |
500 |
46,500 |
Total cost of project: 46,500rmb
Total donor contribution: 36,550rmb.
Total local contribution: 9,450rmb.
Shem Women’s Group: 500rmb
Sustainability
The project manger talked with the manager of Nima Brand Company on May 2nd, 2007. The project manager planned to purchase 35 solar panels from in this company if this project is funded. One reason why the project manager has planned to purchase from this company is that they guarantee the battery for two years and guarantee the generating panel for ten years. Also the company promised that they would fix all solar panels if they break within ten years. The project manager also got information from other Shem members about the company; they said that all the previous customers of Nima Company who bought solar electricity energy are extremely pleased with their products. If the solar panels have problems during ten years, the villager leader will contact the Nima Company for repairs. After that, if the solar panel has problems villagers can still find the company repair workers to repair the solar panels, and villagers will be responsible for paying for additional repair costs.
Governmental support
On May 3rd, 2007, the project manager talked with the village leader (Tarijia), and together asked township leader (Sanpo), they were very excited about this project and gave permission to do this project.
Additional information
Tserangtso designed and implemented a second-hand clothes project in 2006 and a solar cooker project in 2007 to Okor village, Xiaduo Township, Guinan County, Hainan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.
The map of the project location
