This project is to purchase 16 threshing machines for the households in Heluoshi Xuma Village in order to lessen the villagers’ work load, save time and improve the villagers living conditions.

The German Embassy funded this project

Lhamotso is the project manager of this project and she is from Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. She graduated with an associate’s degree in English at Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department English Training Program in 2005. She worked for Shem Women’s Group from 2006 until 2010. Currently she is a student in Miriam College, in the Philippines. For this project, she designed and produced the project proposal.

Dongtso is the co-manager of this project and she is from Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. She graduated from Qinghai Tibetan Medical College in 2007. In this project, she managed and implemented the actual project. 

What: to purchase 16 threshing machines for 52 farming households consisting of 295 people.   

Where: Huoluoshi Xuma Village, Tiegai Township, Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China.

Photos of the project implementation

The company’s truck transferred the threshing machines to the project site.

The villagers are unloading the threshing machines from the truck. 

The local contribution of the project is collected.

 

 

Project Summary
Project Title: The Threshing Machine Project for Heluoshi Xuma Village 

Project goals: The immediate goal of the project is to purchase 16 threshing machines for the households in Heluoshi Xuma Village in order to lessen the villagers’ work load, save time and improve the villagers living conditions.  

Location of the project: This project is located in Heluoshi Xuma Village, Tiegai Township, Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Heluoshi Xuma Village is in the south-eastern part of Gonghe County, and it is approximately 170 kilometres from the capital city of Qinghai Province, Xining City.

Project beneficiaries: By implementing the project, 52 households of 295 villagers have directly benefited in Heluoshi Xuma Village.  

Implementation organization/individual: The respective group leaders of the entire village, Dongtso(co-project manager) and Shem Women’s Group.

Contact group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds received: Amount and date received

On 7^th September 2011, the co-manager of this project, Dongtso received 80% of the project funds, which was 45, 727RMB from Shem Women’s Group as the first instalment of the funds. Shem Women’s Group will distribute the final 20% of the funds as the second instalment when the project manager finishes the final report.

Details of project activities 

1.  11^th July 2011, Shem Women’s Group was informed that the project was approved by the German Embassy.
2. 21^st August 2011 Lhamotso was informed (that) the project was approved to the villagers.
3. 7^th September 2011, the first instalment of the funds was received by the co-manager of the project.
4. 10^th September 2011, all the villagers gathered together to have a meeting for purchasing the threshing machines and the distribution of the machines
5. The first 10 threshing machines were purchased from the main county town, Gonghe County. 
6. 1^st November 2011, the representatives from the German Embassy visited the project site.
7. 8^th November 2011, six threshing machines were purchased from the company in Gonghe County.
8. Started working on the narrative and financial report of the project.

Project Finance

 Explanation of the changes in the project finance:

1. This project proposal was designed around two years ago, at that time the villagers desperately needed the threshing machines, however after two years, only 52 households needed the threshing machines badly and because of that, the project only bought 16 threshing machines.
2. The price for the threshing machine was higher than the project proposal was proposed primarily due to the change of the market price. In the proposed project, it only included the machine’s price but in the actual project, tax needed to be paid for the purchasing the machines in order to get the official receipt which is called FAPIAO in Chinese language.
3. Originally, the project asked for 57,750rmb from the donor and it happened two years ago. Due to the instability of the currency exchange rate, the actual fund from the donor was 57,158rmb.
4. The transportation fee for transferring the machines to the project site has been increased to 2,400rmb compared to the original price proposed of 250rmb.    
5. There was no money left from the donor’s fund and the local people paid the project expenses including transportation fee, scans of  the photos and receipts, as well as the phone bill.  
   

Delay
This project implementation was delayed for some unexpected reasons; firstly, the project manger was pursuing further education out of town when the project was approved. The project manager requested to the implementing organization, Shem Women’s Group whether it worked if the project implemented in March 2012 or a co-project manager could implement the project instead of the project manager. After Shem has negotiated with the donor agency, the German Embassy, the response was that the project had to be completed in 2011 and a co-project manager could implement the project. After all this efficient communication and negotiation, the project was implemented. At the time, the co-manager planned to do the project, some villagers did not want the machines due to various reasons, so only 10 threshing machines were bought according to the villagers’ needs. However some villagers from other villages wanted threshing machines but it was not the original project. Therefore the co-manager contacted Shem again asking for permission and Shem asked the donor agency.
In the end, the project was delayed again until the representative from German Embassy visited the project site and agreed to the request. When the co-manager was about to buy the threshing machines, the villagers asked that they would desperately like to have the machines because the machines could be multifunctional in terms of threshing wheat, beans and other agricultural products. Finally the project was just happened in the same village as the project originally proposed.

Difficulties

There were some major challenges during implementing this project. First of all, it was complicated situation to implement the project while the project manager was out of the town because it was hard to find another co-project manager with development project experience. In this very condition, the candidate of the co-project manager should have been the best choice in the respect of relevant experiences, the familiarity of the project site and the project manager herself and other factors. Finally, the project manager only managed to have her elder sister to implement the project. Due to lack of the experience, the project manager and the co-manager had communicated constantly through phone call and online discussion regarding to the project. In this case, it was time consuming and also it wasted money.
Secondly, for the co-manager of this project, it was much more complicated due to her lack of experience doing projects at all and she was very busy in the hospital. She needed to manage each step of the project very carefully with the consultation of the project manager meanwhile she needed to schedule her time wisely. Experience was needed to implement the project. Even the small things like whose name to write on the receipts are important. Even worse, the co-manager borrowed a digital camera from a friend but unfortunately only few photos were printed before they were all deleted, therefore only few scanned bad quality photos were presented in the project report. According to the co-manager of the project, it was very difficult to cope with the constant changes of the villagers’ need when they did not want the machines and later they wanted the threshing machines again. During this process, it was really hard to control the update situation which was not expected.

Lastly, the co-manager constantly expressed it was difficult to implement a project, and every step of this project was involved with a great challenges and unexpected situations. 

Lesson learned  

There are always new lessons that the project manager learns from implementing a project , no matter how rich experience that you have and how professional you are in the development project field. Here are some of the lessons learned after doing this project:

1. It is always better to be prepared to confront unexpected problems during implementing the project like to have a candidate of the co-project manager with experience.
2. Communication and negotiation played a key role in having the project go smoothly and successfully, especially since the project was implemented by someone who was unaware of how to implement the project and no experience at all.  
3. Support and advices should be offered to the co-manager of this project constantly from the implementing organization and the project manager.
4. After a certain time, the project proposal should be revised according to the changes of the market and development of the village.

This project is to purchase 25 plough machines for 50 households in Hor Village. The overarching goal of this project is to reduce the local people’s heavy workload and improve the villagers’ poor economic situation.

The Canada Fund funded this project

G.yang mtso skyid is from Hor Village, Cuozhou Township, Jianzha County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Currently, she is working towards a BA degree in English and Tibetan at Qinghai Normal University.

What? Purchased 25 plough machines for 50 households in Hor Village.

Who? 51 households with 300 people in Hor Village.

Photos of project implementation

 The machines are unloaded and the villagers are trying to assemble them.

The contractor person is explaining details about machine maintenance to the villagers.

The machines are assembled and the villagers are ready for distributing them.

Project summary

Project title:  Plough machine for Hor Village

 Project goals: The immediate goal of this project is to purchase 25 plough machines for 50 households in Hor Village. The overarching goal of this project is to reduce the local people’s heavy workload and improve the villagers’ poor economic situation.

 Location of project: This project is located in Hor Village, Cuozhou Township, Jianzha County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, PR China. Jianzha County is about 112 kilometers south of Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province. 

 Total beneficiaries: By implementing this project in Hor Village, around 300 local villagers will directly benefit from this project. 

 Implementation organization/individual: Shem Women’s Group/ G.yang mtso skyid

 Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

 Email: kalwangjyid@shemgroup.org

Phone: 0971-6302115, 13997297104

 Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received

On the 31st of December 2011, the project manager received 80% of funding (10323.2 RMB) from Shem Women’s Group. On June 14^th, 2011, the project manager received the remaining 20% (2580.8RMB) of the total funds from Shem.

 Details of project activities

Originally planned project activities:

1 Interview the villagers and discussed what they really need

2. Buy the plough machines

3. Collect the information of the village for the project

4. Get the government’s permission

5 Find out the price of the plough machine

6. Write a proposal

7. Receive funds

8. Inform villagers that project is funded and discuss how to implement the project

9. Purchase good quality machines

10. Distribute the machines
11. Hold a meeting with some villagers to discuss how to use the plough machines and how to take      care of their machines.

12. Interview the local beneficiaries and take photos

13. Write a final report and send the report to the donor with all receipts

 Activities realized in the framework of the project:

December 31^st, 2010, received Canada grant

January 3rd, 2011, checked with the village leader about the plough machines’ price and quality

January 9^th, 2011, project manager checked out the actual price and quality of the plough machines and discussed the contract and receipt.

January 10^th -11^th, 2011, village leader and some local women collected local contribution..

January 12^th -13^th , 2011, bought 25 plough machines.

January 14^th, 2011, distributed plough machines to local people.

January 14^th, 2011 (afternoon), held meeting to emphasize the importance of the project’s sustainability, as well as the agreement, contract, budget, and local contribution to the beneficiaries.

January 15^th, 2011, posted agreement and budget in the village’s Mani Hall.

July 28^th, 2011, project manager took pictures when the villagers were ploughing after harvest.

July 29^th -30^th, 2011, project manager interviewed the beneficiaries and worked on the final report. 

 Project Finances:

 Actual budget realized in the framework of the project:

Delays, Difficulties, and Lessons Learned

 Delays and Difficulties

When the project manager and some local women went to collect the local contribution, most of the heads of household had gone to play archery in another village, so it took 2 days to collect the local contribution.

 Lessons Learned

It is important to take advice and suggestions from all the local people when working with the local people. They can provide some practical ideas and valuable problem solving skills. It is useful and important for the project implementation, and also can improve local people’s group work ability and cooperation.

 Interviews

After finishing the harvest, G.yang mtso sgrol ma’s family begins to plough their fields. 

 On July 29th, 2011, the project manager interviewed G.yang mtso sgrol ma’s family.

“This time I can quickly plough my fields before the weed seeds spread in the fields, and also I can earn some money by ploughing other villagers’ fields. The price of hiring Hui people to plough the field is higher than last year (before, it cost 60 RMB per mu of land; now, it costs 75 RMB per mu). Now, we don’t need to hire Hui people or borrow other people’s plough machine. Farmers need tools to work, and this project is useful for us. Thanks to the people or the group who helped us. ”

Pag ris is ploughing his field

On July 30th, 2011, the project manager interviewed Pag ris’s family.

 “Thanks to the donor and Shem Women’s Group. The plough machine is useful and it has more functions than other plough machines. Before we use these plough machines, we need to adjust the machines’ size because each family’s tractor is different. It costs only 25 RMB. We can handle it.”

Letter of appreciation

 Translation in English

 Thanks Letter

Dear Canada Fund and Shem Women’s Group:

I represent Hor villagers to say thank you from our heart that you donated 25 plough machines to us. It solved villagers’ ploughing difficulties and improved work efficiency. But also, it improved the villagers’ poor economic situation. Again, I represent the villagers in wishing you good luck.

                                         From village leader Guan Qie

                                          2011, 10, 4  

Receipts

 1#

2#

Contract

Original proposal

Plough machine for Hor village

G.yang mtso skyid is from Hor Village, Cuozhou Township, Jianzha County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Currently, she is working towards a BA degree in English and Tibetan at Qinghai Normal University.

Project location
This project is located in Hor Village, Cuozhou Township, Jianzha County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, PR China. Jianzha County is about 112 kilometers south of Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province.

Population
There are around 51 households of 300 people in Hor Village, and all the villagers are Tibetan. Specifically, among 300 villagers, there are 94 women, 99 men, and 107 children.

Agriculture
In Hor Village most of the villagers are farmers. They grow crops, beans, potatoes and rapeseed on the farming lands. Most families don’t have excess products to sell, only enough for them to eat. In summer time, when it rains, a flood comes from a valley at the north of Hor village and it carries stones into the some of families’ fields which are below the valley and they have to abandon their fields. In summer time, there are also a lot of insects on the fields. The insects are very harmful for crops, but Hor villagers have no money to buy the pesticide. So, the crops don’t grow very well. Some rich families own 12 mu (one mu=0.067 hectares) and they also never sell out their grain, because they want to save the grain for next year in order to prevent some disasters like fire and drought. In Hor village, most of the families have at least 5 mu of land. On average, each mu of the land can produce 600~700 jin (one jin=0.5kg) wheat per year.

Herding
Most of the villagers in Hor village are farmers. Only eight families have cows and goats because most villagers are busy earning money and they have no extra people to take care of the livestock.

Cash income
In Hor Village most of the villagers（except old people）usually dig caterpillar fungus which is a medicinal herb found at high altitudes and it is the basic way people earn money in this village. People must climb high mountains where horn bushes grow, and usually it is snowing and raining. People go there from the end of April and come back in the middle of June. Each caterpillar fungus can sell for 12-15 RMB. On average, each household can earn 2,000-3,000 RMB. The other source of income is that both women and men leave their home to do road work and go to Xining City to do construction work. On average, each woman can earn about 40 RMB per day and each man can earn about 50 RMB per day. Usually, they stay one month and earn 1200-1500 RMB in one month. On average, each household earns about 4,000 RMB in a year. Money earned is spent on children’s school tuition. A student in university usually costs 10,000 RMB for two semesters, including the student’s tuition, food fee and other essentials in a year. The students from middle school and high school usually need 500 RMB for the yearly school tuition. Also, money is spent on New Year festivities, fertilizer, and electricity, building houses, water fees, food, clothes, and hiring cultivator machines and other essentials. In total, each family spends more than 4,000 RMB in a year. Most of the time there is no surplus from their income. If the family has students attending university, they have to borrow money from the bank and other families to pay the tuition.

Education
In Hor Village, there are 18 university students (8 girls and 10 boys); 23 middle school students (12 girls and 21 boys); 15 primary school students (8 boys and 7 girls). On average, two children from each family are receiving an education. Generally, the families’ workload is heavy and the way of farming is traditional. For example, people weed by hand and use their livestock to plough the fields. Approximately 90 percent of the village people are illiterate.

The project goals
The immediate goal of this project is to purchase 25 plough machines for 50 households (not including the project manager’s family because her family has one) in Hor Village.
The overarching goal of this project is to reduce the local people’s heavy workload and improve the villagers’ poor economic situation.

The problems
1) Costs money
In Hor Village, there are no livestock and no plough machines to plough their fields, so they have to hire Hui people to plough their fields. It cost 60 RMB per mu to hire people to plough the fields. If the villagers don’t plough their fields, the crop will not grow very well and most families will not have food to eat. Because, people in Hor Village depend on farming。Usually, one family has to spend 300 RMB, because each household has at least five mu. If a family has 12 mu, they have to spend 720 RMB to hire a cultivator.

2) Heavy workload for the villagers
Hor Village is relatively a warm area compared to other areas in Qinghai Province. Thus some fruits and crops are ripe for harvesting earlier than in other places, so the weeds also grow quickly during the harvesting time, which is usually around July and October. Right after the harvest, the villagers have to plough their fields in order to prevent a lot of weeds for the next year. But the villagers don’t have plough machines, so the villager’s women need to crawl on the fields to weed by hand for three and four days. They don’t want the weeds ripe seeds to fall into the fields because it will mean more weeds in the next harvest year.

3) Reduce the production
In Hor Village, most families have no plough machines; only two or three families have machines. Those families who have machines will not receive the machines during the project implementation. The machines will be given to the poorest families in Hor Village and they will get their own machines while other families share one machine with two families. When the villagers begin to plough the fields, they have to hire Hui (both cultivator and owner) people to do plough their fields. They only can plough one time, because of the high cost, which doesn’t make the soil very soft, and crops don’t grow well in hard soil. Usually, farmers get around 230~270 jin less grain from each mu if they don’t plough twice.

4) Wastes time
In the past, Hor villagers used their spades to plough the fields, which took more than five or six days. Now, all the Hor villagers usually hire the cultivator machine. They need one or two days to finish their fields. But, it is also hard to find Hui people to plough the fields. There are always delays, and sometimes they will not come if you have small fields. This wastes time for people who are ready to go do construction in other places, and it also creates a chance for weeds to ripen.

Project benefits
1) Saves money
If this project is approved, Hor Villagers won’t need to spend money on hiring Hui people to plough their fields, and the villagers can use their money to buy pesticide and other essential things they need for farming. If this project is funded, Hor villagers can earn money hiring out the ploughs. They can earn 250-300 RMB in one day, although it is heavy work. If most of the villagers use their own plough machines to plough fields for other people, each family can get 1,000 RMB (this number is based on an interview with a Hui person).

2) Reduces the villagers’ workload
If this project is funded, Hor villagers don’t need to crawl on their fields to weed by hand, and also it can prevent weeds from growing. If they have the cultivator machine to plough the fields, then they can save lots of time that they used to spend on weeding the fields, and the villagers can go outside to do construction work and earn some money for their families.

3) Increase the production
If this project is funded, Hor villagers can plough their fields twice, which will improve the crops next springtime. Usually, they will get an extra 230~270 jin of grain from each mu.

4) Save time
Once the villagers have the plough machines, they won’t need to spend much time ploughing the fields. The cultivator takes only two days to plough the fields, even if a family has 12 mu of land. Also they won’t need to delay ploughing their fields, and instead they can plough their fields on time. Furthermore, the village women can do other things while their husbands and their sons are ploughing their fields. For example, they can do construction work or house work.

Project beneficiary
By implementing this project in Hor Village, around 300 local villagers will directly benefit.

Gender equality
Hor Village is like most rural villages in Qinghai: most villagers have traditional ideas towards women, and they think men are always better than women. The local women do not have much position in their community or their family. For example, women don’t have a chance to keep their own money and women don’t have a chance to talk when an important event is discussed in the family. But at the same time, the village women are the ones who have the heaviest workload on their shoulders. For example, most of work is done by women, such as weeding fields, doing housework, cooking, cleaning house, washing clothes, fetching water, collecting fire wood, reaping crops, taking care of children, feeding animals, and sewing clothes. So, if this project is funded, it will be good for local village women. They won’t need to weed in the fields and they can go do construction work in Xining or other places to earn some money and broaden their views about the outside world. Also, if this project is funded, it also can directly benefit the project manager, Gyang mtso skyid. It helps her to collect many experiences like how to write a proposal, how to interview the local villagers and how to communicate with people like village leaders or officers in the county town. And also it will give her a chance to show her ability to others, and show that she is able to contribute to her home village.

Governmental approve
The project manager, Gyang mtso skyid, called Hor village’s leader, Da zhou, and he contacted the government officer Zhuo guo in the county town and asked their permission to conduct this project. The government officer said they really appreciate this project and said they will support the project manager fully.

Time frame
This project will take around 12 days to complete.
1 day: Inform the villagers that the project is funded.
4 days: Purchase the plough machines in Jian Zha County.
3 days: Look for a truck to transport the plough machines to Hor Village.
1 day: Hold a meeting with the villagers to discuss how to take care of the plough machines.
3 days: To interview the villagers and take some photos.

Project Steps
1 Interviewed the villagers and discussed what they really need. (Done)
2. Decided to buy the plough machines. (Done)
3. Collected the information of the village for the project.
4. Got the government’s permission. (Done)
5 Find out the price of the plough machine
6. Wrote a proposal. (Done)
7. Received funds.
8. Inform villagers that project is funded and discuss how to implement the project.
9. Purchase high quality machines
10. Distribute the machines
11. Hold a meeting with some villagers to discuss how to use the plough machines and how to take care their machines.
12. Interview the local beneficiaries and take photos
13. Write a final report and send the report to the donor with all receipts

Project Budget

Project Sustainability
This plough machine project is sustainable. Firstly, the village leader and project manager chose a government factory that is considered the best factory in Jianzha County. And also the village leader and project manager compared many types of plough machines in the factory, and chose the best one with the highest quality.

Secondly, that factory manager guarantees that if the plough machine breaks it, Hor villagers can change it for a new plough machine within one year of their first time using it.

Thirdly, the villagers agreed to contribute 2,720 RMB to this project. And they also guaranteed they will use the new machines properly. Two families will share one machine and they will be responsible for any future costs, like repairing and purchasing the broken parts of the machine. Also the villager leader and project manager guaranteed that after each year, the villager leader will go to the families and check the plough machines to see if they are broken. If a family’s plough machine is broken, that family will be responsible for it and will repair it.

Map of the project location

This project is to buy 15 cows for the 15 poorest households in Lha khang Village. The overarching goal of this project is to provide those 15 families a way to make extra income by selling the products. The 15 poorest families were chosen by the village leaders and the project manager, according to those families with the least income, such as families with less land, fewer people to make money, families who have patients with medical problems and more students who need to pay tuition.

The Canada Fund funded this project

Lumokyi is a student at Qinghai Normal University. She has been attending in Shem’s workshop since 2008. 

With Shem’s help, she completed a second hand clothing project, a book project and a cow project. 

What? Buy 18 cows for Lha khang Village, Rebgong County 

Who?  150 villagers of Lha khang Village 

Photos of project implementation

The beneficiaries and project manager Lumokyi holds meeting before the project implementation.  

Project manager Lumo kyi and 18 recipient families hold second meeting and collecting local contribution. 

Recipient families receive their own cow. Village people check each cow after they receive it. 

Project summary 

Project title:  Cow project for Lha khang Village 

Project goals:
The immediate goal of this project is to buy 15 cows for the 15 poorest households in Lha khang Village. The overarching goal of this project is to provide those 15 families a way to make extra income by selling the products. The 15 poorest families were chosen by the village leaders and the project manager, according to those families with the least income, such as families with less land, fewer people to make money, families who have patients with medical problems and more students who need to pay tuition.  

Location of the project:   

Lha Khang Village is located in Mapa, Bao’an Town, Tongren County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Tongren County is about 181 kilometers away from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province. 

Total beneficiaries: 350 Tibetan people in Lha Khang Village 

Implementation organization/individual: Shem Women’s Group/ Lumo kyi 

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group 

Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received  

Shem Women’s group got 80% (41600total * 80%=33280RMB)of the project money from Canada Fund on 23^rd December 2010 on it’s mother organization’s account, according to the rules, Shem can only get 80% of the money from the mother organization. So on 28^th, December 2011, Shem has got 26624 (80% of 33280). Since Shem’s rule is to let the project manager to have 80% of the total funds of the donor contribution for implementation of the project, Shem has lent the 20% of the money6656 (26624+6656=33280RMB) to the project manager to implement the project. On June 14^{th ,} 2011, the project manager got the rest of 20% (8320RMB)  from Shem, and Shem also has got the rest of the money back from the mother organization and the Canada Fund. 

Project activity details

Originally planned project activities: 

1. Discussed with the villagers about the urgent needs of the village.
2. Collected village background information.
3. Talked about the benefits and problems with cows with several households that owned the cows in Rdzo nnga Village.
4. Calculated the price of the cow.
5. Checked exact transportation fee with a driver.
6. Wrote project proposal.
7.  Received funds.
8. Purchased the cows in one of the cow selling factories in Xunhua (which was introduced by a villager called Rta rgyal) area.
9. Distributed the cows.

10.  Take pictures and interview the project beneficiaries. 

11.  Write the final report. 

Activities realized in the framework of the project:

January, 2^nd, hold a meeting for the whole village to discuss the process of this cow project. 

January, 3rd, 4^th, 5th, 18 recipient families discussed how to implement the project in the project manager’s family and project manager collected local contributions. 

January, 6^th, Gyang gip went to check the cows in Linxia City and the other nine people went to different places in Reb gong County to check the prices. 

January, 7^th, 8 ^th, 9 ^th, 3 people as a group (totally 6 groups) went to different places to buy the cows. The groups paid 12% of the cow’s price for each cow. 

January, 10^th, villagers checked 18 cows. 

January, 11th, 2 groups went to change two cows, which were found in bad quality. 

January, 12nd, checked budget and distributed the money for the cows.  

January, 13^th, six groups went to pay the rest of 88% of the cow price. 

January, 14^th—15^th, project manager interviewed the beneficiaries and worked on the final report. 

Note: They didn’t buy cows in Xun hua, because after some villagers did research again on the cows in Xunhua, they found the cow factory was demolished.  

Project Finances:

Explanation: Before we were afraid that it would be hard to find 18 cows that were the same size and cost 2500RMB. In reality we found it was hard to find them. As a result, 3 recipient families voluntarily added 100RMB more which means their cows were relatively bigger and cost 2600RMB. 200RMB is cost for management fee and it is less than originally planned, which was 300RMB. 

 List of recipients: 

Recipients’ in English

Delays, Difficulties, and lessons learned 

The unexpected challenge was the cows in Linxia City and Xunhua County was risky. Since the cows in those places were raised in greenhouses, we were afraid that it would be very difficult for the cows to adapt to an adobe domestic animal room in Lha khang Village. Moreover, it was a great risk to transport the cows in a truck in a cold day. For these reasons, villagers decided to collect cows in each village and then buy it. In this way, we were not only saved transportation fee, but also we don’t need to worry about the cow’s adaptation in Lha khang Village. 

After completed some research, we found the price of the cows was different from one place to another. So we checked the price in seven villages and then paid the proper price for each cow. 

Delays

None 

 Difficulties 

The unexpected challenge was the cows in Linxia City and Xunhua County were risky. Since the cows in those places were raised in greenhouses, people worried that it was not proper to keep the cows in the adobe animal room in Lha khang Village. Moreover, it was a great risk to transport the cows in a truck on a cold day. For those reasons, villagers decided to collect cows in each village and then buy them. In this way, we not only saved the transportation fee, but also we don’t need to worry about how the cows are adapting in Lha khang Village. 

After completed some researches, we found the price of the cows were variable from place to place. So we checked the prices in seven villages and then paid proper price for each cow 

 Lessons learned 

It is very important to discuss and let the beneficiaries and the project manager to do the research. Through this project, 3 villagers and the project manager went to different places to check the cow quality. Finally, they did their best choice to buy the cows in the nearby villages, even though it is very hard to do so. 

 Interviews 

 An interview to Gyang mo shem on January, 13^th  

“The cow is so helpful to my family. I can’t go outside to earn money, because I need to take care of my sick husband and work on my family field, so I have no other way to earn money. Luckily, since my family got the cow, I can earn some money by raising the cow. I can use this money to support my husband’s medication fee and my son, Pedma’s tuition. Thank you very much to give me the cow to generating income.” 

Letter of appreciation

Translation in English 

Thanks letter 

Dear donor 

With your help, 18 households from Mapa Lhakang village, Reb Gong County received 18 cows. We appreciate it and thank you very much. The cows are another income for us and you made this possible for us. So we are going to spend all money from cows on our childrens’ education to enhance our living condition. Finally hope everything going well with you and thank you very much. 

                                    Drolma on behalf of all villagers from Lhakang. 

                                                                                        January, 5^th, 2011 

Project Receipts 

 Original proposal 

Cow project for Lha khang Village 

Klu mo skyid is from Lhakang Village, Bao’an Township, Tongren County (Rebgong County), Huangnan Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. She is studying for her Bachelor’s Degree in Qinghai Normal University. 

Project Location
Lha Khang village is located in Mapa, Bao’an Town, Tongren County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Tongren County is about 181 kilometers away from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province. 

 Population
There are 67 households with a total population of 335 people – 120 children (about 60 boys and 60 girls), 110 men and 105 women – in Lha khang Village. 

 Education
In Lha Khang village, 64% of the people are illiterate. Around 36% of the people who are literate, include people who attended schools and monks who have studied Tibetan in monasteries. Among those who are literate, around 70% are primary and middle school students and 30 % are high school and university students and monks and governmental officials.
The high rate of illiteracy is caused by a number of factors, including:
1) Poverty, i.e., families unable to afford school tuition.
2) Labor, i.e., families need all family members to work on the farmland.
3) Lack of motivation, i.e., families doesn’t know the importance of education. 

 Cash income
In this village there are three main ways to earn income: farming, digging caterpillar fungus, and unskilled labor such as construction work, building walls or digging ditches.
The average income per family is about 6,500 RMB per year. Most families only have three or four mu of land (one mu is about 667 m²). Families can earn about 500 – 600 RMB per year by selling excess wheat. Families can also earn income by digging caterpillar fungus, a highly-prized medicinal herb. On average, each person can earn about 2,000 RMB per year from digging cater pillar fungus, and there are usually two people who go to dig caterpillar fungus from each family. Additionally, families send family members to work on construction projects, such as building walls or digging ditches. On average, each family earns 2,000RMB in total in per year from construction work. Therefore, in total each family earns 6,500 RMB (550+4000+2000).
50% of the money they earn is spent on their children’s tuition fees. They spend about 1,000 RMB for other essentials, like clothes, electricity and instruments that are needed for their family. The money earned from excess wheat, about 500~600 RMB, is spent on fertilizer in the spring. All the farmers spend at least 1,000 RMB to celebrate Tibetan spring festival days every year. As a result, it is quite difficult to have enough money, so they always borrow money from the banks or their relatives. 

 Agriculture
The families in this village mainly grow wheat, potatoes and rapeseed once a year. On average, they produce about 1,500 kg wheat, 100 kg rapeseeds and 150 kg potatoes. Some families own 4 mu of land and are able to sell their excess wheat to earn about 500 RMB each year. Most families only have 3 mu of land, which produces only enough for the family to live off. 

 Herding
All of these villages are farming areas and the villagers generally do not keep animals.  Among all of the families only about 30% keep one cow, for milking, and one mule, for cultivating lands. 

 Problems
1) Most of the women lack a way to earn money
Since it is quite cold during the winter, it is difficult to leave the village to make money. So summer is the period of time for the villagers to work. But most of the women need to stay at home to weed and water the fields during the summer time. So they have no chance to leave the village to generate income. Additionally, since the village is located in the countryside and most of the available work involves manual labor, the women are not hired by the bosses because they are physically weaker than men. Therefore, for women in this area, it is very difficult to generate income by labor. Women dig caterpillar fungus, which is a medical herbal. However, since this is a farming area, women always need to watering and weeding during the summer time, when people go to dig caterpillar fungus.
Since the families spend a lot of money on tuition, and farming instruments, such as tractors and mules, they don’t have enough money to buy any cows. So there is a limited income for the families.
2) Low education is caused by low income
Since the families have low incoming from 3 or 4 mu of land and their physical labor work, the families encounter difficulties with their children’s tuition.
3) Low income causes malnutrition
Since the families lack money, they don’t spend any money on food. As a result, the problem of malnutrition is quite serious, especially for elders. In July when I was doing the research for the cow project, almost all (about 40) of the older people said milk is better than any other food. They think it is very helpful to them. 

Benefits
1) If this project is funded, there will be a new way for women to earn income by selling products such as milk and cheese in Long bo Town.
2) If this project is funded, it will o=provide a way for women to help with their children’s tuition and make them more independent. They can make income by raising calves, selling milk, butter and cheese.
3) If this project is funded, the family members could drink milk, make butter and cheese. The living conditions would be better than before. 

Beneficiaries
This project will directly benefit at least 150 people of 15 families in Lha khang Village. 

Gender equality
The project manager will choose 4 people – 2 women and 2 men – to go to Xunhua County to buy cows. Since before the women could not get any chance to deal with the village matters, this time the two women are given a chance to get involved, and it could show the villagers that women also have ability to deal with the matters. As a result, people might let the women be involved in the project in the future.  Additionally, as a young woman from this community, the fact that I will implement and manage the project that will improve villagers’ perceptions about educated girls. This will also change villagers’ views about sending girls to school. Furthermore, after implementing the project, selling cow products could raise the women’s income. This will help women be more independent in finance, since they will no longer need to depend on males in their families. In that way, women could feel confident and comfortable mentally. 

Governmental Support
On August 19th, 2009 the project manger asked the township leader ‘Jigs med rdo rje whether we could do this project. The leader gave full permission to do this project. 

 Steps of the Project
1. Discussed with the villagers about the urgent needs of the village. (Completed)
2. Collected village background information. (Completed)
3. Talked about the benefits and problems with cows with several households that owned the cows in Rdzo nnga village. (Completed)
4. Calculated the price of the cow. (Complete)
5. Checked exact transportation fee with a driver. (Complete)
6. Write project proposal.
8. Receive funds.
9. Purchase the cows in one of cow selling factories in Xunhua (which is introduced by a villager called Rta rgyal) area.
10. Distribute the cows.
11. Take pictures and interview the project beneficiaries.
12. Write the final report. 

Timeframe
The project will take 2 weeks to complete.
First week: purchase the cows in Xunhua County, distribute the cows and interview project beneficiaries.
Second week: write final report. 

Project Finance 

Management Expenses*: Phone calls, internet fee, photos and bus fare from Xining to project location
Donor Contribution: 34,100 RMB
Local Contribution: 5,100 RMB
Shem Contribution: 500 RMB
Total Cost: 39,700 RMB 

Sustainability
This project is sustainable, because each of the 15 poorest families will get a cow, and those cows may have calves, which will increase the money they can earn. If the cows get diseases, the families need to take full responsibility. But if the cows get a disease within one month from when they are purchased from the factory, the factory will sign an agreement letter taking responsibility to cure the diseases or change the cow with another cow. Moreover, there is another agreement letter that will be signed with the families who are getting cows, saying that the families shouldn’t sell the cows. If they sell the cows secretly, they need to buy a cow for another family. If any family doesn’t want the cow for some reason, the village leader and the project manager will choose another family, depending on their economic level. 

Additional Information
Klu mo skyid has completed four projects. Under the supervision of Charlotte (a teacher at Huangnan Nationalities School), in 2005, Klu mo skyid completed a second-hand clothes project. More than 30 poor people in Lha khang Village benefited from this project. In 2006, she implemented a solar cooker project that benefited more than 250 people in Lha khang Village and Yigar Monastery, Bao’an Township, and Rebgong County, a project funded by the ETWA Foundation. With the help of Shem Women’s Group, she completed a second-hand clothes project in May of 2009 that benefited around 30 people. She completed a book project for Mapa Middle School, funded by TRA Fund, benefitting about 300 students and teachers. 

 Map of the project location 

This project is to supply 18 harvest machines for 36 households in Mani Chukor Village to increase villagers’ income and decrease local people’s work burden, especially that of students and women.

The German Embassy funded this project

Chiyang Zhorma is from Mani Chukor Village, Dongdatan Township, Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, Wuwei Region, Gansu Province, PR China. She graduated with an Associate’s degree from Qinghai Normal University English Training Program (ETP) in December 2009.

What：Supply 18 harvest machines for 36 households in Mani Chukor Village to increase villagers’ income and decrease local people’s work burden, especially that of students and women.
Who: Mani Chukor Village, Dongdatan Township, Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, Wuwei Region, Gansu Province, PR China.

Photos of project implementation

The manin the picture is an expert with harvest machines.He is checking the quality of the machine with the project managers.

The villagers are unloading the harvest machines.

The villagers are placing the harvest machines into rows number them.

Villagers finding their harvesting machines.

The villagers put this symbol (cooperation of China and Germany) on every harvest machine that they bought.

The village leader and the project manager are collecting local contributions and letting villagers make fingerprints on the paper.

The project manager is holding a “thanks flag” with two village women in the picture and the thanks flag is presented to Shem Women’s Group by the villagers.

The village expert is teaching the villagers how to use the machines and how to care for them properly.

After the training, the villagers try to use the machines by themselves.

Project summary

Project title: Harvest Machine Project for Mani Chukor Village

Project goals: The immediate goal of this project is to buy 18 harvest machines for 36 households in Mani Chukor Village. Around 253 local villagers will benefit from this project. The overarching goal of this project is to increase villagers’ income and decrease local people’s work burden, especially that of students and women.

Project location: This project is located in Mani Chukor Village. Mani Chukor Village is in the north of Dongdatan (Bde Yang Tang in Tibetan) Township, which is in the eastern part of Tianzhu (called dPa’ Ris in Tibetan) Tibetan Autonomous County, Wuwei Region, Gansu Province, China. Dongdatan Township is 78 kilometers from Tianzhu County Town (also known as Hua Zang Si), which is 145 kilometers from Lanzhou city, the capital city of Gansu Province. Lanzhou city is about 230 kilometers from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province.

Total beneficiaries: There are about 253 people in Mani Chukor Village who directly benefited from this project.

Implementation organization/ individual: Chiyang Zhorma, the project manager, the villagers, and Shem Women’s Group.

Contact group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds received: Amount and date received
The project manager Chiyang Zhorma received 100% of project funds (57,266rmb) on May 27th 2010 from Shem Women’s Group.

Details of project activities

1. In 2008, during the May holiday, the project manager discussed the problems with villagers and asked about local needs.
2. May 2008: talked with the village leaders about the most difficult problems and found out what could be done to solve harvesting problems.
3. May 2008: held a meeting with all the villagers and discussed details about the project. Also chose three villagers (one woman and two men) to be responsible for the project.
4. June 2008: collected all the information about the project.
5. July 2008: found out the price of the materials for the project (harvest machines) from Agricultural Machine Company in Hua Zang Si County Town. Figured out the price of materials in Hua Zang Si County Town.
6. Completed the proposal.
7. May 2010: project was funded.
8. 27th of May 2010: funds were received.
9. 19th of July 2010: project manager and village leader collected local contributions.
10. 20th of July 2010: three villagers (one woman and two men) went with the project manager to purchase 18 harvest machines from Agricultural Machine Company where they had booked 18 machines before.
11. 21st of July 2010: transported harvest machines from Agricultural Machine Company in Hua Zang Zi County Town to Mani Chukor Village.
12. Held a meeting again with the villagers and unloaded the machines from the trucks.
13. Harvest machine expert trained the villagers how to use the machines properly and the methods of how to take care of the machine.
14. Distributed the harvest machines to the villagers and villagers signed their names.
15. Took pictures during the project implementation.
16. Started to write the final report of the harvest machine project.

Project Finance:

NOTE: There are three reasons for why this budget is different from the original one. Firstly, because the euro rate decreased recently, so when the euro was converted into rmb, it was less than the original amount. The project’s original budget requested 60,900 rmb from the donor, but we only received 57,266 rmb due to changes with the rate. Secondly, the price of machines increased by the time of purchase. The project manager changed the type of machine (the reasons are shown in the project delay section), which means the price of this machine is higher than the original one. The original price for each machine was 3,500; the purchase price was actually 3,980.
Thirdly, the tax on the machines was an unexpected cost. So this amount (＊-6,425) was paid by locals and the project manager’s relatives.

Delays and lessons learned

Delay
There were two main reasons to delay the implementation of the project. The project was delayed for almost two months. When the project was funded, the project manager contacted the person who sells the harvest machine in her county town to see whether they had the machine that she wanted to buy. Unfortunately, they did not have that type of machine this year because the company stopped producing them, so she had to choose another type of harvesting machine. Later, she went to the village and talked through the problems with the villagers. Together they decided on another type of machine. Another reason for delay was that after the project manager ordered the harvest machine, the company said that it would take awhile to produce the machines because there were so many people who ordered this type of harvest machine. Therefore the project manager almost delayed two months for implement this project.

Lessons learned
By doing this project, the project manager learned how to deal with different kinds of problems and people. Also, her experience of doing development projects was expanded. As a female, she feels so proud of helping people and making their lives easier. She learned that whenever you do things, do not be afraid of facing difficulties; there must be some solutions waiting for you. Especially as a female, you have to try to do everything and then you will see good results. The most important thing she learned was to “be confident.” If you have enough confidence, then everything will be done with great success.

List of the recipients

Thank you letter

 Translation of the thank you letter

Dear German Embassy,

On behalf of all the villagers, I want to sincerely thank you for your contribution to my village and buying eighteen harvest machines for us. The harvest machines that you contributed to our village will change our traditional ways of harvesting by increasing villagers’ income generation opportunities and decreasing the women’s workload.

Before, the villagers used a reaping hook to reap the crops and had to spend almost three months to finish harvesting. Also, sometimes weather hinders the harvesting. Right now, we have harvest machines and this decreases the villagers’ workload and shortens the harvest time. It allows the villagers to experience the advanced society and also encourages villagers to look at their work more positively.

Therefore, I represent all the beneficiaries to sincerely thank you again, thanks for your great contribution to us. Lastly, we hope your work will be continually flourishing and Tashi Delek!

Faithfully,
Presenter of all the villagers: Zhorma
22nd of July, 2010

Receipt#1

It is 71,640rmb for purchasing 18 harvest machines.
Receipt#2

2,975 rmb for the tax on 18 harvest machines
Receipt#3

90 rmb for the bus ticket from Xining to Huazangzi and the return trip, 40rmb for bus tickets from Dongdatan to Huazangsi.(Four people went to order the machines, including the project manager. Each ticket was 10 rmb.)
Receipt#4

130 rmb for treating a meal for the harvest machine company’s leaders, in order to bargaining the price
Receipt #5

50 rmb for a phone call fee during the project implementation

Original Proposal

Project Location
This project is located in Mani Chukor Village.  Mani Chukor Village is in the north of Dongdatan ( called Bde Yang Tang in Tibetan) Township, which is in the eastern part of Tianzhu ( called dPa’ Ris in Tibetan) Tibetan Autonomous County, Wuwei Region, Gansu Province, China. Dongdatan Township is 78 kilometers from Tianzhu County Town (also known as Hua Zang Si), which is 145 kilometers from Lanzhou city, the capital city of Gansu Province. Lanzhou city is about 230 kilometers from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province.

Population
There are 264 people of 38 households in Mani Chukor Village, and there are 82 men and 67 women, and 115 children.

Education
There are about 35 young children（26 girls and 9 boys），who stay at home instead of attending school in the village. There are 39 students in the village which includes: 7 university students (5 boys and 2 girls), 7 high school students (4 boys and 3 girls), 11 middle school students (6 boys and 5 girls), and 14 primary school students (9 boys and 5 girls). On average, one child in each family currently attends school. Almost two thirds of the students are male. Only a few students are female students. Some families do not want to send their children to school. They think it would be more useful let their children go outside to earn money for the families or to let girls stay at home do housework. Also in this village, twenty percent of the people are literate (not including students). Of those twenty percent, eighteen percent of them are men, and most of them learned how to write and read from the monastery, not in school.

Cash Income
All of the villagers in Mani Chukor village earn money by growing crops and raising livestock. They cut the yaks’, sheep’, or goats’ hair in the summer time and sell it. On average, each family can get 1,000 RMB from selling wool. During the fall season they can sell four or five sheep, and earn about 1,000 RMB from selling livestock. Also after harvest, they sell crops such as beans and wheat. If the weather is not so bad, families can earn around 2,000 RMB from selling crops. In total, they can get 4,000 RMB in a year. However, their costs outnumber their earnings in a year. They spend money on children who attend school and have other costs like New Year festivals. In one year, people spend about 1,500 RMB on food (vegetables, meat, and flour) and 450 RMB on clothes. For one month, a household will spend about 150 RMB on electricity and other essentials. Also they need to buy grass or animal feed for their livestock; this costs 1200 RMB. During the cultivating time, they need to buy fertilizer, which costs about 700-800 RMB. Thus this leaves the family no extra money for saving. If the family has a child who studies in university, then they need to take out a loan from the bank or borrow from their relatives to afford their tuition.

Agriculture
Mani Chukor village is the smallest village in Dongdatan Township, and it is a half herding and half farming area. Villagers do not have many fields. On average, each family has six mu of land(1mu=0.0666 hectares). They grow crops like wheat, beans, barley, grass, and rapeseed. They mostly grow wheat and beans. By selling their excess beans and wheat, depending on favorable weather conditions, they can earn about 2,000 RMB in a year.

Herding
All of the villagers in Mani Chukor village herd livestock. On average each family has 25 heads of livestock. Some families have goats, some have sheep, and only three or four families have yaks. Also, each family has one horse and one pig. From selling four or five livestock in a year, each family can earn about 1,000 RMB. People are not able to milk livestock like sheep and yaks, because of the poor environmental conditions. So the animals are not able to provide enough milk for selling; families just feed the animals in order to sell them.

Project goals
The immediate goal of this project is to buy 19 harvest machines for 38 households in Mani Chukor Village. Around 264 local villagers will benefit from this project.The overarching goal of this project is to increase villagers’ income and decrease the local people’s work burden, especially that of students and women.

Problems
1.Increase women’s labor
Traditionally all of the household chores are completed by women. During the harvest season women have the extra burden of completing the housework in addition to doing the harvest work.  In this area, men sometimes do not contribute to the harvest work. In the evening at about 5:oo pm, women or girls should quickly go back home and cook dinner for the family. It is hard for women to do both housework and harvesting.
2.Time consuming
The harvest time is also the rainiest season. Due to the unpredictable weather, villagers often have to delay harvesting. Because of this, it will take almost two and half months to complete the harvest. Additionally, villagers live about 4 km away from their fields.  So it takes almost one and half hour to go to the fields. At 5:00 pm they need to return home to prepare the dinner and look for the livestock on the mountain. Moreover, villagers harvest by hand-held tools.  As there is only limited time to complete the harvest, the process is much slower than it would be if the villagers had machines. For the reasons listed above, harvesting is really a time consuming task.
3.Affect the children’s study
The harvest takes two and half months. During this time parents often ask their children to come to the field to harvest after they finish their classes. Also sometimes they ask their children to leave school to help them harvest for about one or two weeks. During this time, children have almost no time to do complete their homework or prepare for courses.
4.Reduced income from village farming practice
In this village, the villagers wait until everybody’s crops have been harvested before bringing the cuttings to another field to prepare the crops. For example, if one family finishes cutting their wheat they must wait for all of the other villagers to also finish. Then all the families move their crops to another field at the same time. This ensures that when families let their livestock graze on their fields (after harvesting), the livestock cannot destroy other families’ crops. However, some families finish cutting their crops much faster than others. When these families leave the cut crops on the fields, the crops can easily become rotten or eaten by mice. This causes families to lose income from the ruined crops.
5.Physical problems from harvesting work
Since the villagers harvest their fields by hand, they often get physical problems from the repetitive manual labor. Many farmers get arthritis, back pains and other physical problems related to harvesting work. During the harvesting time every adult must do this work, even pregnant women.

Benefits
If harvesting machines were available for every household, then several of these problems will be solved.
1. Women’s labor will be decreased; they can finish the harvest in a short time and use the free time to do other things like make shoes that their children will wear in the wintertime.
2. The time it takes to complete the harvest will be shorter than harvesting by hand. To harvest in the traditional way takes almost two months, depending on the weather. If they use the machine, the harvest will only need five to ten days. People can use the saved time to find outside manual labor jobs that will supplement the family’s income.
3. Villagers will not need to ask their children to help them with the harvest. Children will not have to do harvesting work during Autumn and can instead concentrate on their studies.
4. Villagers crop production will be increased, because using the machine is quicker than harvest by hand. The harvest time will be shorter than harvest by hands. The crops will not be destroyed by mice and other animals. Villagers can sell more crops and so their income will increase.
5. Physical problems, such as back pains and arthritis will decrease, and the safety of pregnant women who are pregnant will improve.

Beneficiaries
This project will directly benefit 38 households of 264 people in Mani Chukor Village.   The students and women will especially benefit because they will have to spend less time in the fields.

Gender Equality
If this project is implemented, it will mostly benefit women, because in my hometown women do most of work in the families, including harvesting. If the burden of women’s labor is reduced, then women can join more community activities during their free time. For example, they can attend the community meetings during fall and learn more about village affairs. If more women go to community meetings, it will increase women’s position in the village; most people think that men are more knowledgeable than women. Generally, only men have time to attend community activities or meetings, where they can learn news and ideas, women have no time to join them. Also if I can implement this project, many people will see that women also have the ability to help the local people. They will see that if they let the girls attend school, then girls can also be knowledgeable and helpful as men.

Governmental support
In June 2008, I discussed this project with the township leader, Mr. D. He discussed this project with the county leader and gave me permission to go forward with this project. He encouraged this project because it can help villagers increase their income and can help poor families in an important way.

Project Activities
1. Visit Mani Chukor Village and ask about local needs.(already completed)
2. Decide what can be done to alleviate these problems.(already completed)
3. Collect the information about the community’s background.(already completed)
4. Get official permission to carry out the project from our county leader and township leader.(already completed)
5. Talk to other managers who have experiences working on this type of project. Ask what kinds materials are needed.(already completed)
6. Figure out the price of materials in Hua Zang Si County Town.(already completed)
7. Hold a meeting with the villagers and choose three people (one women and two men) to be responsible for the project.(already completed)
8. Find a skilled worker, Ma Qi Rong who works in the ministry of agriculture to ask what kinds of materials can be use for the long time.
9. Take picture of the current local conditions.
10. Write project proposal.
11. Funds are received.
12. Purchase materials in Hua Zang Si County Twon.
13. Distribute the harvesting machine to the villagers.
14. Lets the experts teach them how to use the machine
15. Take pictures of the project after it is completed.
16. Interview the villagers and see how the project benefits in this village.
17. Send final report to donor.

Detailed Budget

*There are 38 households living in the village, after we had meeting with the villagers, we decided two households should share one machine together, so we will buy 19 machines to the villagers.
*Each household will contribute 200 rmb for the harvest machine.
Total Donor Contribution in RMB 57,266
Total Local Contribution in RMB 7,600
Total Shem Contribution in RMB 500

Sustainability
In order to make the project sustainable, firstly, the project manager Chiyang Zhorma chose three people, one woman( Lhomo Tserang) and two men( Donzhi and Huazang), who will be responsible for this project. If the machines break, first they will try to fix it. If they can’t do it, then they will send the machines to the company where the project manager bought the machines. Also the company already promised that after the project manager buys the machines, the company guarantees that the villagers can return or exchange faulty parts under an eight-year warantee. Additionally, the villagers will also take good care of the machine; if they break the machines without following the usage guidelines, then they will fix it by themselves.

A map of the project location

Photos

The villagers are harvesting in the fields.

This picture can show how the fields are next to each other.

Local people are collecting the crops from the fields and transporting them to their home.

In October 4^th, 2008, Chiyang Zhorma tested a machine with the company manager in some fields close to the machine company.

This is the company of harvest machines where the project manager planed to buy machines if the project gets funding.

This project is to purchase to buy one harvest machine for Rixiuma Village and the overarching goal of this project is to save villagers time, money and energy, thus improving their living conditions.

Dining for Women from US funded this project

Lhamo Tsering is from Rixiuma Village, Baoan Township, Rebgong County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Currently, she is working toward her BA degree at Qinghai Normal University.

What? Supply one harvest machine for Rixiuma Village. 

Who?  223 people in 53 households in Rixiuma village in Baoan Township, Rebgong County, HuangNan prefecture, Qinghai province.

Photos of the project implementation

This machine was bought by the village.

 One of the villagers tries out the new harvesting machine.

The tool in the picture is only for reaping rapeseed。The villagers do not use it for reaping wheat.

Inside this box are tools for repairing the machine, which were provided by the company.

Project summary 

Project title: Harvest machine project for Rixiuma village.

Project goal:
The immediate goal of this project is to buy one harvest machine for Rixiuma Village and the overarching goal of this project is to save villagers time, money and energy, thus improving their living conditions.
Location of the project:
Rixiuma Village is located in Baoan Township, Rebgong County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province. Langjia Village consists of seven small villages and the project is located in one of those small villages called Rixiuma Village.  It is about 180 kilometers from Xining City, the capital city of Qinghai Province.
Project beneficiaries:
All the villagers from Rixiuma Village are the beneficiaries of this project. In total there are 223 people: 84 women, 81 men and 58 children. All of them get direct benefits from this project.
Implementation organization/individual
The project manager Lhamotsering, villager leader Mkha `bum, group leader `Bum `aba, Sha Bo Rgyal and Bu Mo Mchog and Shem Women’s Group.
Contact group: Shem Women’s Group
Funds received: Amount and date received
The project manger, Lhamotsering, received 80% of project funds (38320RMB) from Shem Women’s Group on July16th, 2010, and will receive 20% (9580RMB) after the project manager implements the project successfully and submits the final report for the project.
Details of the project activities
1.  Contacted the villagers to find out their biggest need.
2.  Held a meeting with the villagers and collected the information about the project.
3.  Set up a project committee to be responsible for the project. The members are the village leader Mkha `bum, group leader `Bum aba, Sha Bo Rgyal and Bu Mo Mchog.
4.  Found out the price of materials.
5.  Asked permission from the government.
6.  Completed the proposal.
7. The project was funded.
8. Collected local contributions.
9. The village leader and three men from the village went with the project manager to purchase one harvest machine from a agricultural company in Xining where they had previously ordered one reliable harvest machine.
10.  Two village men were trained by the company for three days and they drove the machine to the village.
11.  Held a meeting again and made some rules for using the machine.
12.   Two men trained the villagers on how to use the harvest machine properly in the village.   
13.  Took pictures during the implementation of the project.
14.  Started to write the final report of solar panel project.

Project Budget

Explanation for※- 34,220 RMB follow:

Originally we planned to buy a harvest machine with 69,000RMB, but this year the factory improved the quality of its materials. This resulted in an increase in the price of the machine. Therefore34, 220rmb was not enough for the project. Even though this harvest machine is for agriculture, it is almost impossible for a farmer family to spend this much money to buy a machine. Because of this, the villagers asked help from the local government and it donated 30,390RMB for the project. This solved a big problem for us and the remaining 3,830RMB was paid by local people.
Lessons learned
The project manager learned many lessons from implementing this project successfully for Rixiuma Village. The most important thing is to be flexible and be able to quickly solve problems when you get in difficult situations. For example, when the company said the government payment would not be received for another month, she was really worried because the harvest time was nearly coming and the villagers were expecting the machine. She thought she could not wait for one month and the machine should be given to the villagers immediately. Thus, she tried her best to negotiate with the company. Finally, the company agreed that they take the responsibility to get the government payment and the villagers can have the machine after they paid all pay all of their portion of the money. So, the project manager successfully solved the problem.

The project manager also learned the importance of speaking Chinese fluently. For example, the staff members from the agricultural company are Han Chinese and they can only speak Chinese; some even speak other Chinese dialects and it is really difficult to understand. However, the project manager could speak Chinese fluently and she could express herself to the company. So it was no problem for her to communicate with the company when bargaining and buying the harvest machine from the company. It is really important to speak Chinese fluently to be a project manager because most of us we have to purchase things from Han Chinese companies for the projects.
Delay
As mentioned above, the planned budget money was not enough for buying the machine when the project manager was implementing the project. The villagers also could not pay the remaining money. So finally, the villagers asked help from the local government and it donated 30,390RMB for the project. Unfortunately it took almost three months to get the money from the government, especially the receipt.  Without the government money and receipt, we couldn’t get the real receipt for the machine for almost three months. So, the project was delayed for about three months.
Interviews:
Zhuomajia
Zhuomajia is 36 years old. There are five people in her family: her father, brother, nephew, and her 10-year-old daughter. The problem is both her brother and nephew are disabled. Her father is already 83 years old. Due to this, none of her immediate family members can help her do housework; she is the only one who does the harvest. Thus, she is the only laborer in her family.  Each year she always has to wait for help from her relatives and villagers for harvesting. Harvest time is really busy for all of the people and there are a lot of things to do for their own families. Every time Zhuomajia gets help from her relatives or the villagers she feels really embarrassed and ashamed. She said she owes a lot to her relatives and villagers and she feels she cannot repay their kindness in her lifetime. She said that she felt appreciation for the donor’s and the project manager’s help. She also said the harvest machine is very useful for other families, but for her it is the most useful because she doesn’t need to ask help from her relatives and the villagers again and again as she did before. She said she didn’t know how to express her very strong, grateful feelings toward the donor and the helpers.
Dangzenji
Dangzenji is 20 years old. She stopped going to school after her father’s death. There are four people in her family: her mother, two younger sisters and her. She and her mother are farmers and her two sisters are going to school. There is no man in her family and every day she and her mother must do both the male’s and female’s work. Usually, her mother is responsible for the housework and she must go elsewhere to do temporary work to earn money. Every year, during the harvest time, Dangzenji has to come home and help her mother harvest.   Every year, they are the first ones to start the harvest and last ones to finish it. She said that this year she doesn’t need to worry about the harvest and everything has become easier. She offers many thanks to the donor for funding this project.
Xiawuji
Xiawuji is a 48–year-old woman. There are nine family members in her family: her husband, parents-in-law, two sons, daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters. Her parents–in-law are too old and cannot work anymore. The oldest son and daughter-in-law are responsible for herding sheep in a nomadic area. Xiawuji and her husband are the main laborers in her family. She said there are many people in her family and compared to others, she has many household chores. In addition, her family has many fields and she is always busy, especially at the harvest time. It is impossible to finish all of the reaping by herself. Every year, her family must hire people to finish the work.  She feels that the machine is more efficient than people and it makes her family’s life easier. Xiawuji would like to thank the donor from the bottom of her heart. 

Thanks letter
 

The translated thank you letter

Dear Dining for Women and Shem Women’s Group:

The harvest machine project has been completed successfully in my village. The villagers really appreciate your generosity and what you have done for us. Our village is an agricultural village where donkeys and mules are the main force in doing harvest work. But nowadays the villagers only have very little livestock. Because of this, our village experiences many difficulties during harvest season. You have greatly helped us and solved a major problem for our village. Your help not only made our lives more convieniant, it also has improved our living conditions. We will not ever forget your kindness and will pray for you. We really appreciate your great compassion and help. All of the Rixiuma villagers say thanks for your great help from the bottom of our hearts.

From Rixiuma villagers
August 2^nd, 2010 

The recipients 

 #1 

This is the receipt for the machine and it is 101,300RMB in total (47,800RMB from the donor, 23,110RMB from the local people and 30,390RMB from the local government) and the receipt for 3000 RMB for the equipment for the machine

#2

The tickets above show the round-trip fee from Regong county to Xining City for the project manager and a member of the project committee in the village during implementation of the project.  It was 120RMB in total.
Original Proposal
Project location
Langjia Village is located in Baoan Township, Rebgong County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province. Langjia Village consists of seven small villages and the project is located in one of those small villages, Rexiuma Village, about 180 kilometers from Xining City, the capital city of Qinghai Province.

Population
There are 223 people in 53 households in the village: 84 women, 81 men and 58 children. All the people in Rexiuma Village are Tibetan.

Education
There are 165 adults in Rexiuma Village, and two-thirds of them are illiterate. Of the 58 children in the village, 40 of them are school-aged children, but only 29 are going to school: 15 (9 boys and 6 girls) in primary school; 5 (3 boys and 2 girls) in middle school; 3 (2 girls and 1 boy) in high school, 6 (4 boys and 2 girls) in college. In primary school, students don’t need to pay school fees.

Cash income
Villagers from Rexiuma Village are farmers, and on average each family owns ten mu (1 mu= 666.6m2 ) of land. There are at least five people in each household. The villagers earn cash income through selling surplus grain, and on average, each family can earn 600-800 RMB per year.
The villagers also do temporary work. Almost every adult who is able to work leaves the village in May and June to dig caterpillar fungus, a medicinal herb found at high altitudes. In the past, each caterpillar fungus has sold for 8-10 RMB, and each person could earn 3,000-3,500 RMB during a good season. However, since last year the price of caterpillar fungus suddenly went down and each family can only earn around 2,000-2,500 RMB.
Another way to make money is to work in construction, and each person earns 500-800 RMB. In total, each family earns around 3,350 RMB per year.
Money that the family earns is mostly spent on children who attend school, the New Year festival, Naga festival, buying fertilizers, electricity, and other essentials. Each year they must spend approximately 3,500 RMB. So usually there is only about 50 RMB left each year. If the family has students attending university they borrow money from others, usually from relatives and friends, but some families also borrow from the bank to pay the school fees.

Agricultural
Rexiuma Village is an agricultural village. People grow wheat, rapeseed, and potatoes in their fields. Usually, one mu of land produces 1,000 jin of wheat, because the land is irrigated at least three times in a year. Rexiuma villagers own 600 mu of land in total. Wealthy families own at least 13 mu of land. However, some poor families have little land, so two or three households share about 8 mu of land on which they can grow enough wheat for subsistence.

Herding
All of the people in Rexiuma Village are farmers, and most of the families have three animals: a mule, a donkey and a cow. Mules and donkeys are used for farming, and cows are used for collecting fuel and for milking. Because Rexiuma Village is located 14 km away from Rebgong County, people cannot make extra money by selling the milk in the County town.

Project goals
The immediate goal of this project is to buy 1 harvest machine for Rexiuma Village and the overarching goal of this project is to save villagers time, money and energy, thus improving their living conditions.

Problems
1> Hardship without the machines
Rexiuma Village is an agricultural village, and the villagers use animals such as donkeys and mules to help harvest and transport the crops from the field to a place where the villagers thresh it, which takes about one month. However, the villagers have fewer and fewer animals to help with the harvest, because most of families’ mules and donkeys have been stolen. Now there are only four mules for the whole village and no one in the village has a harvest machine. Villagers get into groups of three families and buy a small tractor that they can use to transport the crops instead of the animals. It puts a big burden on the villagers, because losing donkeys and mules makes harvest very difficult.

2> Time consuming
In Rexiuma Village, each family owns an average of 10 mu of land, and for this much land, the villagers need to spend almost one month harvesting with a sickle. This takes up time that could be spent earning money elsewhere. For example, currently it is popular in the village for young people to go out to earn money, not even coming home for the New Year, because they can earn much more by staying at the work site during that time. However, they have to come back home for harvest to help their families, so it takes about one month away from their work.

3> Decrease village income
Harvest time is the busiest time of year for farmers. To stay healthy and productive during this time, they need to buy nutritious foods that give them more energy and strength to deal with the hard work. So they need to buy a lot of meat, vegetables, eggs, fruits and drinks during the harvest time, which cost about 500 RMB.

Also, the villagers need to employ other people to help them reap the crops, because if they can finish the harvest quickly then they can continue their temporary work earning extra money elsewhere. They also want to finish the harvest fast, because it is considered shameful for a family to be the last one to finish. So each year during harvest, villagers spend about 300 RMB hiring women from other villages to help them reap the crops. In additional, villagers need to hire machines from Chinese drivers for the harvest, and for one mu of land it costs 50 RMB. So on average each family needs to spend about 150 RMB for three mu of land.

4>Consume energy
Harvest is really heavy work for farmers. They need to work hard for one month. At the end of that time people felt really tired, and most people lose weight. After they finish harvesting, they need to rest for half a month. So it not only affects people’s health, but also stops people from doing the work they need to do.

Benefits of the project
1)If the villagers have a harvest machine, then they can easily finish the harvest without a hand tractor, donkeys or mules.
2)If they have a harvest machine, people can finish the harvest in five days instead of one month. Then they will have extra time to make money and thus improve their living conditions. Also, the other temporary workers who have left the village to earn money won’t need to come back to help with the harvest.
3)If they have harvest machines then the villagers won’t need to buy lots of food for harvest, and also they won’t need to employ other people to help them reap the crops. In addition to that, they won’t need to rent harvest machine from Chinese drivers. So they can save a lot of money. Every year each family needs to spend 500 RMB for harvest, but if they have a harvest machine, they won’t need to spend money on all of this.
4)If they have a harvest machine, then people won’t need to work so hard and they can store their energy to do other things like temporary work to earn cash.

Beneficiaries
All the villagers from Rexiuma Village are the beneficiaries of this project. In total there are 223 people, and all of them get direct benefits from this project.

Gender equality
Every year in Rexiuma Village, during the harvest time, women are the main laborers. They need to reap the crops every day by sickle, and no matter whether the weather is hot or rainy, the women have no time to rest. Men don’t help women with reaping, because traditionally it is shameful for men in the village to reap the fields. So the women shoulder this burden. If this project funded, it will reduce women’s work a lot, because women no longer need to reap the crops for months and the work can be done in three to five days. Also, since men are mostly in charge of machines in the village, they could help with the harvest without needing to worry about whether it is shameful. Also, the project manager is a woman who designed, and will implement and manage the entire project. At this point, she sends an important message to the other people that women can also accomplish great things. So this might change villagers’ attitudes towards women, because formerly they haven’t believed women possess the ability to do things like this project.

Government support
On June 10th 2009, the project manager talked with the village leader, Huadan, about getting permission from the government. The village leader was so impressed with the project that he volunteered to talk to the township leader about the permission. The village leader told the project manager that the official leaders also think it is a great project and gave the full permission for going forward with the project.

Time frame
It will take total of 10 days to complete this project:

1. Two days to hold a meeting and discuss the starting date of the project.

2. Two days to go to Gansu province to prepare purchasing the materials.

3. Two days to purchase the material.

4. Two days to transport the machines to the village.

5. Two days to hold meeting and distribute the material.

Project steps
1. Contact the villagers to find out their biggest need. (done)

2. Hold a meeting with the villagers and collect the information about the project. (done)

3. Set up a project committee to be responsible for the project. The members are the villager leader Mkha `bum, group leader `Bum `aba, Sha Bo Rgyal and Bu Mo Mchog. (done)

4. Find out the price of materials. (done)

5. Ask permission from the government. (done)

6. Write proposal. (done)

7. Secure the funds.

8. Discuss with the villager about how to purchase the materials.

9. Purchase the material from Gansu Province and distribute the machines to the villagers.

10. Take pictures of the project after it is completed.

11. Interview the villagers to see the impact of project

12. Send final report to donor.

Project Budget  

Total cost: 70,700RMB

Donor contribution: 47,900RMB

Local contribution: 22,300RMB

Shem Women’s Group: 500RMB

Sustainability
First, the project manager is going to buy the best quality of harvest machine and will require the receipts of return and replacement policies. Second, when the project manager purchases the harvest machine, she will ask the factory workers to teach her and the villager leaders how to use the harvest machine properly and safely. After the harvest machine is distributed, the village leaders and the project manger will teach the other villagers how to use it correctly.

Third, the villagers will contribute an adobe house to shelter the harvest machine and protect it from sun, rain and snow. In addition, the harvest machine company will guarantee the quality of the machine for a year; during that time, they will repair the machine for free if it is broken. After the year warranty expires, the families will take responsibility for repairing the machine. For the above reasons, this harvest machine will be very sustainable

Photos of the project

This is the project location and women are reaping the field during the harvest time with the sickle. Usually, the weather is very hot during the harvest time, which makes the harvest even more difficult.  

This is the machine I want to buy. This machine has many functions: It can reap and thresh the crops at the same time. So the villagers don’t need to first reap the crops and transports the crops to the threshing ground and it will save lots of time and energy.

 Map of project location  

This project is to buy a reaping machine for 160 households in Tagrig village to alleviate their works and financial burden as well as family living condition.

The New Zealand Embassy funded this project

Kajee Gyal is from Tagrig Village, Shar Long Township, Guide County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, and China. She completed an associated degree at the English Training Program at Qinghai Normal University’s Nationalities Department.

What? Supply one reaping machine for Tagrig Village.

Who? 160 households of 868 people in Tagrig Village in Shar Long Township, Guide County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China

Photos of project implementation

The villagers are holding a meeting and the village leader is informing them of the good news that the reaping machine project is funded by the New Zealand Embassy.

The project manager and the driver are selecting the machine at the Qinghai Sheng He Machine factory.

The project manager went to Guide County Agricultural Management Center to see the agricultural management leader to get the license plate number for our reaping machine.

The villagers drove the machine into the public house in the village.

The local villagers are showing their appreciation and thankfulness with the white and yellow Tibetan khada to their benefactors: the New Zealand Embassy and Shem Women’s Group.

Project summary

Project title: Reaping machine project for Tagrig village.

Project goals:

The immediate goal of this project is to supply one reaping machine to Tagrig village. The overarching goal is to alleviate villagers’ workload during the harvest time and to improve the living conditions of Tagrig villagers. This project will decrease villagers’ health problems, especially women’s, and increase education levels. The reaping machine project will reduce women’s heavy labor burden and workload, and it will also help to save time and money and gives the villagers more opportunities to make extra cash income.

Location of the project:

Tagrig Village is a semi-nomadic village located in Shar Long Township, Guide County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, in PR China. Tagrig Village is about 8 kilometers from Shar Long Township, and it is around 143 kilometers from Shar Long Township to Xining city.

Project beneficiaries:

This reaping machine mainly benefited 160 households with 868 people in Tagrig Village.

Implementation organization/individual:

Khajee Gjal, Tagrig Village leader Jiulu, Village women’s officers Zhuomacuo and Shem Women’s Group.

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funding - source, amount, and date received

Khajee Gyal (Project manager) received 41,300 RMB (80% of the project money) from Shem Women’s Group on April 1^st 2010, and will receive the remaining 20% of the funds (10,325 RMB) after the project manager completes the project successfully with a final report.

Details of the project activities

1. Asked villagers about the problems they face by meeting with locals and the leaders.
2. Collected data from Tagrig Village for designing and writing the project proposal.
3. Found out the price of the machine.
4. Took pictures and wrote proposal.
5. Receive project funds on April 1^st 2010.
6. Purchased reaping machine on 13^th April 2010 in Qinghai Sheng He factory.
7. Delivered the machine to the village on 14^th April 2010.
8. Wrote final report from April 16^th to 26^th, 2010.
9. Sent final report with receipts to Shem Women’s Group on May 15^th 2010.

Project Finance

Original Budget

Actual Cost

Explanation

Originally we planned to buy a reaping machine with 75,000 RMB, but fortunately the government set up a new policy that if a village wants to buy a reaping machine then the local government donates 30% of the funds for a machine. Therefore the villagers could buy a bigger and better quality reaping machine compared to the original one. Thus they changed the original plan and bought a reaping machine that costs 101,300 RMB. So the 30,390 RMB was paid by the local government and 5 RMB was paid by the project manager.

Delays, difficulties and lesson learned

Delay

The local government paid 30% the project funds for the village, but they did not give the money at the same time that the project manager got funds from the donor, so the project manager had to delay the implementation of the project by about one month.

Difficulties

When the project was funded, the project manager hoped that she could implement this project quickly, because all the villagers expected to see the machine as soon as possible. But things were not that easy, as she faced a problem when implementing this project. After she received the first installment of the project funds, she needed to borrow or find a way to get the other 20% of funds in order to implement the project. She was worried about where to borrow the funds from.. She went to the village to ask the villagers who are familiar with her to borrow money, but none of them were able to help her, because they used their money to build houses this year. Then the village leader and the project manager went to the local Agricultural Bank to borrow the money, but unluckily, the bank leader had gone to another place and would not return soon. Then the project manager finally decided to go to another village where she has a friend whose father is a teacher and after she told him everything he supported her immediately. Finally she borrowed the 20% of the project funds and completed the project successfully.

Lessons learned

The project manager learned many lessons from implementing this project successfully for Tagrig Village. The most important is being patient and having a good relationship with all the people around her. For example, when she didn’t receive the subsidy money until  May 4, 2010, she felt very anxious, but she realized that anxiety can’t do anything, , so she patiently solved the problem.

Another one is the importance of having good relationships with many people and having more experience, which can make things run more smoothly. For example, the project manager is an ordinary young woman without any experiences and good relationships with the people in the community, and she also didn’t have much experience  meeting and talking with the leaders. Therefore, she needed to take village leader where her everywhere so that she could accomplish things more easily. So from this project she has learned that building positive relationships with others is very significant, as well as having experience with things such as solving problems like borrowing money; talking with the leaders; going to the market and buying the machine; giving speeches to the villagers or holding meetings with the villagers, etc.

Thank you letter

Translated thank you letter

Dear New Zealand Embassy and Shem Women’s Group

I am the village leader of Tagrig and my name is Jiulu. Tagrig Village is a semi-nomadic village, we are dependent on both herding and farming, but this place is very much lacking in rainfall, therefore, we do not have much grass and water to feed the livestock and water the fields. We have tried our best to work hard to change this poor living condition, but we have failed for many reasons and villagers don’t have other skills to improve their lives. Our only income source is migrant labor, but it is not a stable and reliable income for us, because most construction work places are unwilling to hire illiterate workers, so it is very difficult for us to find stable work to earn money and send our children to school.

But we are really grateful that the New Zealand Embassy helped us to improve our living condition, and supported us in buying this reaping machine. For us, this is the first time to receive this kind of great help from another country. We really appreciate your great compassion and help. Here I represent all the Tagrig villagers to thank for your great help from the bottoms of our hearts.

Sincerely from village leader Jiulu

April 16^th, 2010

Receipts

#1

It is 101,300 RMB for the machine. The donor contribution is 51,000 RMB, local contribution is 19,910 RMB and the central government’s contribution is 30,390 RMB .

#2

It is 4,000 RMB for the machine’s equipment such as such as 90hp rape machine configuration and board teeth.

#3

This receipt is for reaping machine’s oil fees; that means the villagers drove the reaping machine to the village and it cost 400 RMB.

#4

This receipt is also for the reaping machine’s oil fee and it is 45 RMB.

The project management expenses:

#5

This receipt is for the project manager’s transportation fee from Xining city to Guide county when the manager interviewed the issues in local village for the project and it is 24 RMB.

This is the ticket for the project manager from Xining city to Guide county when the manager impleminted this project and it is 24 RMB.

#6

It is 25 RMB for project manager’s return fee from Guide county to Xining city.

#7

It is also 25 RMB for the project manager from Guide county to Xining city during the implementation of the project.

#8

These two are the phone fee for the project manager during implementation of the project and it is 80 RMB in total.

#9

The above the receipts are for the meal fee for the the project managers and the machine driver during the implementing the project and it is 67 RMB in total in Guide.

#10

These are the taxi fees for the project managers during implementing the project, total of 30 RMB.

Original Project Proposal

Population

There are approximately 160 households and 868 people in Tagrig Village: 320 women, 368 men and 180 children.EducationIn this village, 20 percent of the people are literate (not including students). Most of the people went to primary school and then stopped going school. Ninety percent of children are attending school; there are 17 university students, 5 high school students, 10 middle school students and 60 primary students. On average, one child in each family attends school currently. Some students did not finish their high school education because their parents cannot afford their school fees. If a family has a high school student, then her or his parents need to pay 2,500 RMB for her or his tuition fee for one year.

Cash income

Ninety-six percent of villagers are farmers and 4 percent of villagers are students and government officials in Tagrig. The local villagers plant barley, wheat, potatoes and beans and also raise domestic animals such as pigs and cows. On average each family owns seven mu of land (1 mu = 0.0666 hectares) and most families own only one cow. The villagers produce butter and cheese from the cow’s milk, but because of the hot weather, there is not enough grass to feed the livestock, and they don’t produce much butter and cheese to sell.

The first way of earning cash is from migrant laborers. Adults who are able to work usually go to urban areas and do constructions work for two or three months during the summer. One person can earn up to 30 RMB per day (women can earn 25 RMB and men can earn 30 RMB per day); however, the work is very dangerous, and we have heard of many people injured or killed from construction work.

The second way to earn money is to dig caterpillar fungus. The people mostly go to Golok Prefecture, which is approximately 200 kilometers from Tagrig Village. On average one person can earn 3,000 RMB from digging caterpillar fungus. In 2007, the government established a new policy, which does not allow people to dig caterpillar fungus anymore. The policy is aimed at protecting the environment, and anyone who breaks this rule is strictly punished by the government. Since the new rule was implemented, people prefer to work near the city and no longer go Golok.

Herding Tagrig Village is a farming village; most of villagers own a few livestock. An average, each household owns one cow, one pig, and one sheep. These animals are used for milking and meat. Agriculture Tagrig Village is the biggest village in Guide County, and villagers do not have enough fields. Many of the fields are arid farmland, so people do not have extra wheat to sell to others. In addition, there is not much grass on the mountains due to the lack of rainfall.Project goals The immediate goal of this project is to buy one reaping machine for 160 households in Tagrig Village, and alleviate their burden.The overarching goal of this project is to improve all the villagers’ living conditions, and alleviate villagers’ work and financial burden.Problems• No income: Ninety-six percent of Tagrig families are total farmers, and majority of them can‘t earn any money from livestock. As a result, most of the Tagrig villagers depend on their land to subsist. However, the village is located in a place where the rainfall is very low. Therefore, villagers often don’t have enough water for irrigation, making it hard for them to farm the land. Also, since the villagers need to spend lots of time on harvesting, they can’t go out to earn extra money. In addition, they have to wait for the village’s public threshing machine to thresh their crops after they reap all the crops by hand. Because there are only three threshing machines for 160 households in Tagrig Village, all the villagers have to wait their turn. This process is very long, and the villagers need to spend 25 days threshing their crops. The villagers would like to hire a reaping machine to reap and thresh their crops at the same time, then use the extra time to go to an urban area to earn money. But the problem is they can’t get the reaping machine during the harvest time. Finally, all of the family members have to work together on their field by hand, which takes around two months. If they had a reaping machine, then it could reap and thresh at the same time and they wouldn’t need to do extra work.

• Time consuming: During the harvest time, people often spend more than two and half months reaping and threshing crops. In Tagrig Village, each subgroup only has one threshing machine to thresh all the crops, and often the village has electricity outages caused by the poor quality of the electrical lines, which can mean many hours of delay for the villagers. Sometimes there are sudden storms that soak and sometimes even destroy all the crops. Then the villagers have to wait three or four days to dry the crops, and if it takes too long then there is the danger that the crops will go bad, decreasing the village’s agricultural productivity and putting the villagers in a difficult situation.

• Heavy labor: Harvesting is a very big workload for the villagers, but especially for the women, as this village’s custom is for the women to do all the reaping. Frequently they get up around 6 a.m. and spend 14 hours a day harvesting. During the day, the weather is very hot and many of women are exhausted from their day’s work, but they still have to do the housework, such as cooking, taking care of children, etc. In addition, after they collect their crops in their yards, both men and women need to work in thick dust to thresh the crops. The women have to carry grass to the caves for storage and also throw crops in the air in order to clean or separate the grain. Then they have to dry it on the ground by carrying the crops on their backs, and then again they have to collect crops at sunset. They do all of this work by hand.

• Health problems: As mentioned before, villagers need to spend a large amount of time harvesting, and women need to work whole days from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the field during the harvest period because of the shortage of workers. Because of the hot weather, they need to drink cold water a lot despite the fact that a local doctor suggested local women not drink cold water. So local women have health problems, such as stomachaches, backaches, headaches, and sore limbs from bending in the fields for so long every day in the heat.

• Limiting educational opportunities: During harvest time, many households want help from their children who are attending schools. So they often take their children out of school, which makes students more stressed and causes them to get lower scores. As a result, their chance of getting into middle school is lower, because the middle school teachers select students depending on their study scores in primary school.

Benefits

1. Help villagers to earn income:

If Tagrig villagers get a reaping machine, they will be able to spend less time on the reaping and threshing. In that way, villagers would have more time to spend seeking work in urban areas to earn income for the families, thus improving their families’ conditions.

2. Reduce time: Tagrig villagers could save time by using this machine, because this machine would reduce the time that they have spent reaping and threshing in the past. Also, if they are able to do the reaping and threshing quickly, then they won’t need to worry about crops getting wet or being destroyed by a storm.

3. Alleviate heavy labor: If Tagrig villagers had this machine, then they wouldn’t need to reap and thresh the crops by hand, which would not only can reduce the heavy labor in the fields, but also save the women lots of time for finishing the housework earlier and having some leisure time.

4. Improve health: If they had this machine, it would help local women to improve their health, because it would reduce the amount of time women spend in the hot weather. Also, since they wouldn’t need to work whole days in the field, they would not need to drink as much cold water, which could be an important factor in improving their health.

5. Education: If the villagers had this machine, parents wouldn’t need to interrupt their children’s studies. So children could improve their scores by using their time to study, eventually increasing their chances to go to a better middle school.

Beneficiaries

This reaping machine would mainly help 160 households in Tagrig Village. On average each family has five people, and the total population is 868.

Gender equality

During harvest time, all the village women are responsible for reaping their fields in the hot weather. According to the village’s custom, men do not join in this kind of activity; they are only responsible for collecting the barley and wheat from their fields with a handcart. But women and girls need to reap, collect wheat and barley, and dry rapeseed. These days it is a common for some female middle school students and college students to return late to their schools during harvest time, because there is so much work to do. It takes approximately two months to reap and thresh their crops. If the harvest was completed in less time, then female students could go to school on time; and it would also alleviate the labor burden on the local villagers, especially women.

Government approval

Every year the local government gives some almsgiving to Tagrig villagers, such as barley, but it cannot solve their financial problems and also it cannot reduce their heavy workload. If we can secure funding, the government fully supports the implementation of this project. The project manager asked permission from Shar long township government leader Huakejia to implement the project and he supports this project wholeheartedly because they really want this project to happen and hope all the poor families become rich.

The steps of project:

1. Ask villagers about the problems they face by meeting with locals and the leaders. (Done)

2. Collect data from Tagrig Village for this proposal. (Done)

3. Find out the price of the machine. (Done. The machine costs 75,000 RMB)

4. Take pictures and write proposal.

6. Receive funds.

7. Purchase machine from an agricultural machine factory in the city of Danyang in the Jiangsu Province with the village leaders.

8. Distribute the machine to the villagers and give them instructions for using it correctly.

9. Have a meeting with the village leaders about the sustainability of the project.

10. Take photos and interview the villagers about the impact of the project.11. Submit final report.Time FrameThis project will take 11 days to complete.

Four days: Purchase machine from the city of Danyang in the Jiangsu Province and transport it to the Tagrig Village.

Six days: Tell the villager leader and subgroup leaders about the sustainability of each machine and how to use them. Take photos and let them write a letter of thanks to the donor. Hold a meeting for all the villagers and let them know that every year I will visit Tagrig and interview them about how the harvest is going.

One day: Interview the beneficiaries of the project.

Project Finance

Total donor contribution is 51,625 RMBLocal contribution: Each household contributes 150 RMB to this project; the total in RMB is (160 households) × (150 RMB) = 24,000 RMB

Project sustainability

This machine will have positive impacts on both women and men. It also can be a long-term alternative for all the Tagrig villagers to improve their living conditions year by year. Moreover, this project is supported by both villagers and the village leader. They see this as a beneficial project that will reduce their burden. In addition, they will not sell the machine, because the machine will be kept by Khajee Gyal and the village leader, and we will keep the machine in Tagrig Village’s public house. We have already chosen a good quality reaping machine in a Xining agricultural factory, and the factory boss told us he guarantees repairs on the machine for at least 10 years, so during that period we won’t need to pay money for repairing the machine. In order to make sure he keeps his word, we will sign a contract when we buy the machine. Every year Khajee Gyal, the project manger, will interview the villagers about the impact of the project, and report the project outcome to Shem Women’s Group.

Map of the project location

Photos

This is a deaf man called Lhaqianjia who is from Tagrig Village. There are only three people in his family: his sister, brother and himself. Because of their poverty, none of them are married now. When he was 15 years old, he got a disease that caused him to become deaf. At that time there were medicines to treat his illness, but because of their poverty, they couldn’t afford the treatments.

This is an aged blind women called Laguoji from Tagrig Village. She has a daughter, but no husband; because of their poverty, her daughter herded livestock for another family in order to fill their stomachs. In 1998, she left her family and went to urban area, and her mother Laguoji still doesn’t know where she has gone. However, some kindhearted villagers help her to do her work, such as reaping the field, threshing crops, drying wheat, and so on.

This is a 70-year-old woman from Tagrig Village. She has a son and daughter-in-low in her family; all of her other daughters and sons are married and they have their own families. Her granddaughter is a primary school student, and her son is still not married. There is no cash income to augment their family’s living condition, and now her daughter-in-law may not be able to continue her studies.

To improve Yehe villagers’ living conditions by supplying purchasing 8 threshing machines for 64 households.

The New Zealand Embassy funded this project.

Gawangjyid is from Yehe Village, Cuozhou Township, Jiantsa County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. China. She started learning English in September, 2003, and graduated from the English Training Program, Qinghai Normal University in January 2008. Currently she is working in Shokay (Ventures in Development).

What?
To improve Yehe villagers’ living conditions by supplying 8 threshing machines, 8 electromotors and 8 winnowing machines for 64 households.

Where?
Yehe Village, Cuozhou Township, Jianzha County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province

Photos of project implementation

In this picture, four men are loading the machines onto their hand tractors to carry them from the factory to the village.

They are fastening the machines well since they will be driving the machines a long distance to the village.

The four hand tractors are leaving the factory with a threshing machine, a winnowing machine and an electromotor.

The next morning, on 28^thNovember, the villagers gathered in the village Mani hall (the house where they usually discuss things or chant scripture) to get their own group machines. Each villager came to see the machines with great happiness and excitement.

The village head is listing each family, letting them know which families are their group members, and emphasizing that the villagers need to take care of the machines since it is really difficult to get such help from other people.

The groups started moving their own electromotor and winnowing machines to the home of the family that will take care of it.

This group is moving the winnowing machines to their home from the Mani hall.

These are two groups’ machines; they decided to drive them to the house from the Mani hall.

This group is unloading the machines from a hand tractor after they decided which family is going to take care of the machine.

Here are the three machines: The biggest one is the threshing machine, the next is the winnowing machine and the closest one is the electromotor.

Project summary

Project title: Threshing machine project for Yehe village

Project goals: To improve Yehe villagers’ living conditions by supplying 8 threshing machines, 8 electromotor, and 8 winnowing machines for 64 households.

Project location: This project is located in Yehe Village. Yehe village is located in the north of Maketang (County Town), Jiantsa County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, and People’s Republic of China. It is about 180 kilometers away from Xining City (the capital city of Qinghai). Yehe is an agricultural and nomadic village with 70 families (all Tibetan). Fifty families are located at the foot of a mountain, in a valleywhere they farm, and 20 families are located on the mountainside, where they herd livestock.

Total beneficiaries: This threshing machine project directly benefits approximately 448 people with 64 families from both the top of the mountain and the bottom of the mountain.

Implementing organization/individual: Gawang Jyid (project manager), Bama Wangjay and Geidan (the village leaders), Lorwang (one old man from the village, he usually takes care of the village with village heads), Donbi and Tsering Droma (two village women who usually represent women to attend village meetings) and Shem Women’s Group.

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funding ¾ source, amount, and date received: Gawang Jyid received 35,096 RMBRMB from Shem Women’s Group
on November 26^th, 2009, and will receive 8,774 RMBRMB after the
project manager implements the project successfully.

Details of project activities

1.Had a meeting with the family leaders (men and women) to collect information about
their urgent needs or biggest problems.

2.Chose four people to take responsibility for any kind of work related to the project.
One person is our village leader, named Aldan. Another is a man named Lorwang. He often takes care of the village and villagers respect him. Two other are village women named Tseringzhoma and Donbi. Chose another eight men to carry the machines to the village and set
them up.

3.Found the threshing machine company selling the cheapest and best quality machines and made sure we know how much each threshing machine costs. We contacted Guide Threshing Machine Factory first because of their great reputation and history
of success.

4.Wrote project proposal.

5.Waited for funds.

6.Held a meeting with villagers (men, women and children), and discussed each person’s contribution of labor (e.g. carry threshing machine to the village, unload them from the truck and set them up for each group, take responsibility for not damaging the threshing machine.)

7.Had a meeting with Lorwang, Bama Wangjay(the new village head), Tseringzhoma, Dobi and the other ten men to arrange a time to carefully carry the threshing machines.

8.Purchased the threshing machines and transported them in four hand trucks to the village.

9.Took pictures.

10.Completed the final report.

11.Sent final report with all pictures and receipts for implementing the project to Shem.

12.I will send the interview and pictures of threshing the grain with the new threshing machines in August 2010.

Project finance

The donor contribution is 43,870RMB and the local contribution is 10,560 RMB for the project, so the total is 54,430 RMB for the project.

Note 1:
Originally the project manager planned 8 hand tractors for transporting, but when she was
implementing the project, she found out that one hand tractor can carry two
machines, so it saved some money.

Note 2:
Instead of hiring the transporter from the town or factory, the project manager decided to let the villagers find some hand tractors and transport them by themselves, and give the transportation fee to them to help with a little money for their daily lives.

* Note 3:
The original total funding for the project wass 54,930 RMB, and the actual cost is 50,437.41RMB, so 4,492.59RMB is left.

Delays, Difficulties and Lessons Learnt

Delays
When the threshing machine was funded, all the villagers were out for construction work to earn some money except children and old people. So the project manager had to wait for about one month for the adult villagers to get back to the village.

Difficulties
With the villagers’ help and great cooperation, the project manager didn’t face any serious problem or difficulties during the implementation of threshing machine project. The factory that the project manager decided to buy the machines from is a Muslim factory, and when the project manager went to the factory, the factory was closed, and the boss and all employees were on the holiday since it was their New Year time. So the project manager had to stay there for one day to meet the boss and bargain for the machines. Also, when the villagers came to carry the machines, there weren’t any factory people there to help us uploading the machines except the factory boss.

Lessons learnt
The project manager Gawang Jyid learnt two important things during the implementation of the threshing machine project.The first lesson that she learnt is communication. For example, the village head was changed recently and the project manager didn’t know till the day she started implementing the project, so it took a long time to explain the project details to the new village head. Therefore, it taught the project manager Gawang Jyid that communication is very important; there might be changes to everything at any time, so it is important to contact the target party every day. Another important thing that the project manager learnt is that everything should be planned in detail very carefully before starting to implement the project. For example, the project manager didn’t check out or ask the four drivers if the four hand tractors are strong enough to carry the machines or not. As a result, two hand tractors couldn’t move very fast, so two of the hand tractors lagged behind and got to the village very late in the evening. Driving such heavy machines in the remote area like the project site can be very dangerous, but we reached there safely at night.

Thank you letter

Translation of thank you letter
Dear donor,
My name is Padma Wangjay and I’m the leader of Yehe village. Here I’m going to say thank you very much from the bottom of my heart to the kind donor on behalf of Yehe village. The threshing machines that you gave us are the things that we needed most in our life, so we will take care of the machines and use them properly, and will never forget your help and kindness. Finally, all of my villagers wish you health and success with everything that you want to accomplish.

From village head,
Padma Wangjay
November 29^th,
2009

The list of receipts

Receipt #1

This receipt is for threshing machine, 26,400 RMB.

Receipt #2

This receipt is for winnowing machine 2,400 RMB.

Receipt #3

This receipt is for electromotor, 16,800 RMB.

Receipt #4

These two receipts are tax of formal receipt for three machines (threshing machine, winnowing
machine, and electromotor), 1,441.05 RMB.

Receipt #5

This receipt is for both the transportation fee and tax for transportation fee formal receipt,2,525.76
RMB.

Receipt #6


These receipts are for the project manager’s management expenses. A bus from Xining to Jianzha, back and forth costs 44.6 RMB. The project manager took a taxi from Jianzha County town to the factory and back to Jianzha County town cost 150 RMB. From Jianzha County town to the project site cost 100RMB for a taxi, and the project manager spent 50 RMB for a phone fee to communicate during the implementation the project. Also, a taxi from the office to the bus station and back to the office cost 26 RMB. In total, 276 RMB was spent on taxis (here the project manager posted only one taxi sheet to represent them all). Therefore, the project manager’s total expenses were 370.6 RMB.

Original Proposal

Project Location
This project will be located in Yehe Village. Yehe village is located in the north of Maketang (County Town), Jiantsa County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, and People’s Public of China. It is about 180 kilometers away from Xining City (the capital city of Qinghai). Yehe is an agricultural and nomadic village with 70 families (all Tibetan). 50 families are located at the foot of mountain in the valley, where they farm, and 20 families are located on the mountain-side, where they herd livestock.

Population
Out of the 490 people in Yehe village (70 households), there are 171 women, 165 men, and 154 children. 350 people (50 households) are located at the bottom of the mountain and 140 people (20 households) are on the mountainside. This project will benefit 64 households from both the top of the mountain and the bottom of the mountain. 14 households out of 20 who are on the mountainside will also receive some land to plant some barley and wheat from the rest of the village (i.e., those who are living at the foot of the mountain). Therefore, 6 households from the mountain do not have land and will not directly benefit from the project. 50 households from the bottom of the mountain, plus 14 households from the mountain top, 64 households in total, will benefit from this project.

Education
Very few of the adults and old people have had an education because there were no schools when they were young. Even if there had been schools, they wouldn’t have had enough money to pay for tuition. In the 1990s, parents started to send their one child to school because they thought children should be educated in a developed society. As society continues to develop, and modern technology is rapidly imported, people know that they shouldn’t lag behind if they want to survive. They know that their children have to attend school and study. Therefore, among 154 children, there are 6 university students (2 girls and 4 boys); 14 middle-school and high-school students (9 boys and 5 girls); 32 primary school students (15 girls and 17 boys) in Yehe village right now. Usually only one child can attend school even though families usually have more than one child, because they don’t have enough money for tuition. Moreover, some families even don’t send one child to school because they need them to help work in the fields.

Cash income
Yehe village people usually earn money by digging caterpillar fungus in the nomadic area during the summer. Caterpillar fungus is a kind of plant and medicine that grows in nomadic areas; we can sell it for around thirteen yuan per fungus. However, Caterpillar fungus is difficult to find in the forest or on the grassland, and villagers have to pay 3,000 rmb per person to dig for caterpillar fungus on others’ grasslands. Hence after they pay the landlord fee, some people have only 800-900 rmb to take home – this is not quite sufficient enough to buy clothes, salt, tea, medicine, and pay for electricity. In total these expenses come to above 1,000 rmb per year, but local families can only earn seven or 800 rmb for a whole year for per family. Still, some unlucky people don’t have any income, because digging caterpillar fungus is difficult and they can’t find any sometimes. Also, some villagers can’t afford the landlord fee. On average there will be one person to dig caterpillar fungus per family. While some families don’t have any cash income, they do have wheat to eat. Since 2007 some of the villagers have started to do construction work outside the village, and they were paid 30 rmb per day. In conclusion, Yehe villagers have great difficulties generating adequate financial income.

Agriculture
Yehe villagers plant wheat, barley, potatoes, and beans. The richest families have 5-acres of fields to plant those crops (just enough for a year’s worth of food without surplus). Each year they can produce 600 jin of barley, wheat or potatoes per acre. However, the poor families only have 2 acres of fields, which means 2 acres to feed all members of the family. If one year has less rain, those poorer families have more difficulties because they don’t have money to buy food. Sometimes the government might give one or two sacks of flour to the poorest families, but this is not sufficient.

Herding
On average, those 50 families located on the bottom of the mountain only have one acre of land for each family, and those families located on the mountain have around 20 sheep or goats and 6-7 yaks for each family. As you see this is not a big number of livestock, so they only have around one hundreds jin of yak hair and sheep wool together to sell for a year, which warns around 300 rmb.

Project goals and benefits
The overarching goal of the project is: to improve Yehe villagers’ living conditions by supplying a threshing machine to them.
The immediate goal of project is: to purchase eight threshing machines for 64 households, and let eight households share one threshing machine.

Problems
Destruction from rain: After they carried the grain to the threshing ground, then they thresh the grain by beating it with long sticks or by leading a pair of donkeys to pull a big stone threshing ball. (You can see from the picture at the end of proposal). To thresh and winnow all the grain takes about one month to finish. Therefore, during this one month, rain falls from time to time, which may cause the crops to germinate again and thus be wasted. So, on average thirty percent of their grain is destroyed by rain.

Attack from birds: At this time, the crops should be stacked in a pile in the family’s threshing ground. The threshing ground is fenced off to prevent animals from going in, but this does not prevent the birds from eating their grain for this one month’s threshing time; usually the villagers say that at least two hundred jin of wheat are eaten by birds.

Prevent the children from school: Families normally tell their children to stay home and help during the threshing time, which means they can’t go to the school for one month. Some school aged children stay at home for other reasons, such as they cannot pay for tuition, but threshing grain is another reason for children to miss school.

Prevent the villagers from other work: They need to do the threshing for such a long time, hence they can’t do some work to earn some money to make their living condition better, such as construction work.

Health and safety: During this one month, half of the family members have to sleep on the pile of grain, because it is possible that people from other counties or neighboring villages would steal their grain. No matter if it is cold or raining, they have to sleep on the grain to protect it. As a result, sometimes they get terrible colds from the cold weather. In addition to raining from time to time, the pile of grain can become unstable and it can fall down when people are sleeping on it. Moreover, when women are winnowing the grain in the cold wind after they finished threshing, the sharp chaffs will some times blow into women’s eyes, which is harmful to women.

Benefits
Prevent the destruction from rain: If they have the machine, they can do the threshing on a sunny day and the harvest will not be destroyed by rain.
Birds don’t have time to eat the grain: all of the grain that they harvest will not be wasted, because the threshing machine will thresh all the grain in one day and they can collect them into their house. Birds also will not have time to eat the grain.
Students can improve their marks: the students don’t need to miss any classes during threshing time and those school aged children will have a higher possibility to attend school.
Save time: the villagers have more time to do some work to improve their living condition economically.
Health and safety problems during the fall will be reduced: the villagers at least won’t get cold from rain at this time by protecting their grain in the threshing ground. If this project succeeds, they will not have to sleep on the pile of grain and they will avoid safety hazards from sleeping on the grain.

Gender equality
This project mostly focuses on women, because women do most of the threshing jobs in Yehe village. Because of this, women are also involved in the planning of this project. We had a meeting with both women and men from the village, and they will be involved with the implementation and sustainability of the project. Older villagers and I chose two men and two women to take responsibility for the whole process of the project, and chose ten men and ten women to carry the machines to the village and set them up in each group. Women will gain the most benefit from this project because they are doing the most difficult job of threshing. Also, in Yehe village, people have an idea that women are not capable of anything. So, if a woman gives birth to a girl, the family would complain about it. After I’ve done my solar cooker project in December, in 2006, the villagers’ idea toward girls had changed, and they started to saying “actually to have girls and boys are the same.”

Government support
Gawangjyid talked to one of government leader Namlah February 5^th, 2008, who is the Education leader of Jianzha County and has the most power in the Jianzha area. He gave enthusiastic consent and said that he would appreciate it if the donors realized our difficulties and funded the project.

Steps of the project

1. Have a meeting with the family leaders (men and women) to collect information of their urgent needs or biggest problems. (Done)
2. Choose four people to take responsibility for any kind of work related to the project. One person is our village leader, named Aldan. Another is a man named Lorwang. He often takes care of the village and villagers respect him. Two other are village women named Tseringzhoma and Donbi. Choose another eight men to carry the machines to the village and settle them up.(done)
3. Find the threshing machine company selling the cheapest and best quality machines and make sure we know how much each threshing machine costs. This step has already been completed, and we contacted Guide Threshing machineThreshing machine Factory because of their great reputation and history of success. (done)
4. Write project proposal.(completed)
5. Find a Donor for funding and send the proposal.
6. Hold a meeting with villagers (men, women and children), and discuss each person’s contribution of labor (e.g. carry threshing machinethreshing machine to the village, unload them from the truck and set them up for each group, take responsibility for not damaging the threshing machine.)
7. Have a meeting with Lorwang, Dorjay, Tseringzhoma, Dobi and other ten men to arrange a time to carefully carry the threshing machine.
8. Purchase the cheapest, best quality threshing machine and carry them in those eight people’s hand truck to the village.
9. After setting them up for each group, teach them how to use it, supervise the process of the project with four people, who are already chosen.
10. Complete project.
11. Interview villagers (men, women and children). August, threshing time is the best choice.
12. Take pictures.
13. Complete the final report.
14. Send final report with all pictures and receipts of implementing the project.
15. Send the pictures of threshing the grain with new threshing machine in the future.

Time frame
This project will take a total of 30 days from the time it is funded.
4 days: Go back to the village and have a meeting with the villagers and make sure those ten people we chose before to carry the machines to the village are available. And emphasize to Aldan, Lorwang, Tseringzhoma and Donbi their responsibility. (Choose some other people to help if some of those eight people are missed.).
10 days: Purchase threshing machine and transport them to the village.
2 days: Distribute threshing machines to 8 groups
2 days: Interview residents and take pictures.
12 days: Complete the final report and send to the donor with receipts and pictures.

Detailed Budget

Sustainability
This project is a sustainable project. As I mentioned all the villagers (men, women, and children) are involved in planning and implementing this project. And also they are the indigenous people, so they are clear about the difficulties that I mentioned in the ‘problem’ part. Therefore, they will recognize the benefit of threshing machine and take care of them as if they are treasures. This project will be sustained for at least ten years because the threshing machines that we will buy are of good quality. Also, the neighboring village is hiring a threshing machine from an individual who is driving around the area to do the threshing and making money. I spoke with that man and he said he bought that machine from Guide Threshing Machine Factory and he used that machine for six years and it does not have any problems yet. The factory said that if we found problems of machine in one year, they will change it for a new one. Moreover, the villagers use the threshing machine once a year, after they use the threshing machine in fall, they will carry them to their households and take care of them, no raining and sunshine on it, not damaging at all.

Photos

Xia wu is driving two donkeys with the ball of stone to thresh the wheat.

Sonam Jyid, her brother and her daughter are threshing the wheat by hitting them with sticks.

Xiawu drove these two donkeys for a whole day’s time, finally the wheat was threshed.

Map of the project location

Here is the project site with Xining city, the capital of Qinghai Province, and Yehe village.

This project directly benefits 68 villagers, making up 12 households, in the first three years. Every three years a different 12 households will benefit from this project. After 10 years about 200 villagers, making up 36 households, will benefit from this project..

Asia Foundation funded this project

Rinchen Jyi is from Metog Lungba Sholma Village, Chacha Town, Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, and Qinghai Province, China. She has studied English for almost four years and she graduated from Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department English Training Program.

What? To buy 60 piglets for 12 households in Metog Lungba Sholma village.

Who?  12 poorest households in Metog Lungba Sholma Village, Chacha Town, Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, PRC.

Photos of the project implementation

Rinchen jyi and the recipients are having the meeting to discuss about how to raise, feed and prevents diseases for piglets, meanwhile talking the pig loan contract.

Rinchen Jyi is signing contract with the pig owners.

The piglets are in the pigsty.

One of the project beneficiaries whose name is Tsebu and he is preparing the food for the new piglets provided by this project.

The vet was taking month injections to prevent infectious diseases in Metog Lungba Sholma Village.

Project summary
Project title: pig loan project for Metog Lungba Sholma village

Project goals: The immediate goal of this project is to buy 60 pigs for 12 poorest families in Metog Lungba Sholma Village; ultimate goal of this project is to generate these 12 poor families’ annual income, to be able to send their children to school, and to alleviate education poverty in the Metog Lungwa Sholma Village.

Location of the project: Metog Lungba Sholma village is located in Chacha Town, Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. Metog Lungba Sholma is north of Chacha Town and it is 7 km from Chacha Town and 157 km from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province.

Project Beneficiaries: This project will directly benefit 68 villagers of 12 households in the first three years, every three years different 12 households can be benefited from this project. After 10 years, about 200 villagers of 36 families out of 94 families will get certain benefits from this project, and meanwhile this project will help the development of whole village

Implementation organization/individual: The village leader, Tselo Gyal, Renchen jyi (project manager) and Shem Women’s Group.

Contact group: Shem Women’s Group

Fund received: Source, Amount, and Date Received
On January 1^st, Rinchen Jyi received 28,900rmb from Shem Women’s Group.

Details of project activities

1)        On June 15^th, Rinchen Jyi began to design the project proposal;

2)        On September 4^th, Rinchen Jyi completed and polished the proposal;

3)        On January 1^st, the Asia Foundation funded this project;

4)        On January 10th, Rinchen Jyi and the villagers had a meeting and discussed about the project;

5)        On January 8^th, Rinchen Jyi and the village leaders set the nominated 12 households;

6)        On February 15^th, Rinchen Jyi discussed buying pigs with the 12 households; decided to buy the piglets;

7)        On March 1^st, householders and Rinchen Jyi together buying the piglets in the market;

8)        On April 1^st, Rinchen Jyi visited the 12 families, took photos of pigs and project beneficiaries;

9)        On April 10^th, Rinchen Jyi and the 12 households had a meeting, clarified the project contract;

10)    On April 15^th, Rinchen Jyi and the 12 households set the contract; and divided the funds;

11)    On April 16^th, Rinchen Jyi visited the 12 households and interviewed some women and men.

12)    On April 18^th, Rinchen Jyi wrote the final report.

Notes * in the original budget, one month old piglet is about 580 rmb, in the actual cost, three months old piglet is about 500rmb each. Rinchen jyi planned and designed, the market price of one month old piglet is about 580 RMB, but since beginning of 2009, one month old piglet is about 350 RMB. After discussing with the villagers, Rinchen jyi purchased 60 three months old piglets, each piglet is about 500 RMB on March. Therefore, in the actual local contribution, 1,200RMB, actual local contribution less than original local contribution since one piglet’s price is 80rmb cheaper than original. Originally the locals planned to pay 100 for per pig and but since the locals already paid a lot for pigsties so then let them pay 20RMB for per pig, so the project manager did not collect 4800RMB.

The name of recipients


The translation of recipients

Difficulties and lesson learned

Difficulties
There are lots of difficulties during this project implementation. But of all, the most difficult thing that encountered with this project is to choose who should be the beneficiaries. Everybody says “I am poor, please help my family.” At the end, village leaders’ nomination, villagers’ votes, and my observation during the two months, together we selected 12 families which are in need to raise those piglets to improve their living condition.
Secondly, some villagers are mad at me after the project, because many villagers want to receive the piglets from this project in the village; people who didn’t get the piglets are kind of angry with the village leaders and project manager. At last, the leaders and I, as the project manager promised and convinced the local villagers, and also we determined who and how many piglets would receive after three years.

Finally, since the time I received the funds to complete this project, managed the money is not an easy job. Losing Bank Account is another mess to me, delay my project time and work. But fortunately, I reported loss to the bank immediately and all funds are safe.

Lesson Learned
Through this project’s implementation, my life experiences are expanded and I have more experience and skill at solving problems practically. Moreover, the important lesson that I learnt from this project lead me to be a better project manager and be the first young woman leader in my community to help my own communities. However, there are lots of lessons I can learn from implementing a different project with different people. At the same time I realized that there are lots of experiences and knowledge I need to learn and experience in my future.

Interviews of the project beneficiaries

Gasang Drolma: She is 48 year- old woman, has three children, one son and two girls who are students. Her husband and she are illiterate. Her first daughter is a university student, and the second daughter is a high school student. The couple believes that education only makes them out of poverty. Therefore, even though the family couldn’t afford two students’ tuition, but the couple got loans from bank and encourage the girls to school.

Tsebu: The middle one is Tsebu, left one is his wife, Yintso, right one is his son Wenchang Tar. When Rinchen Jyi visits his family, his daughter is out for school. Tsebu is 45- year old man, and he has two children, one son and a daughter and the daughter is high school student. He has owned 10 mu of farming land that only can feed family members. He is illiterate, has no access to other family income. His son has been working in the construction sites and making a little money for family expenditures. But the family expenditures are always higher than they produced each year, therefore, his daughter’s school tuition becoming a problem for his family.

Dorjee Tashi: Dorjee Tashi is one of the project beneficiaries and he is feeding his piglets happily. He is a 46 years old man, has two daughters who are studying university and middle school. His wife, Chintso is always sick and the family currently spends half of income on her health, plus two daughter’s school tuition, he always worries about how to manage the family. Now he is very confident that he can make enough cash for children’s tuition and his wife’s medicine. He says thanks many times to the Asia foundation and Shem women’s group’s donation and help that he doesn’t need worry so much after this.

 
Lhamo Tsering:Lhamo Tsering and her two grandchildren are sitting on the ground. She is Nima Tsering’s mother, a sixty-one years old woman, living with her son and daughter-in-law. She has three grandchildren, who are under 10 so she is hard working with them. Nima Tsering and his wife have no time to look after children after New Year; it’s the time when planting time started. Now thanks to the donors for alleviating her family life standard, the children will get good education when they are in age to school.

Appreciation letter

Translation of appreciation letter

Dear donor,

My name is Tselo Gyal; I am the leader of Metog Lungba Sholma village. It is an agricultural village, majority of us depending on planting wheat, beans, rapeseed and potatoes. Our farming land most depend on rainfall water only, therefore, we make little amount money from our relatively large farming land.

Most of our children like to go to school and achieve their dream in school, though as parents, we have lots of problems for their tuition and other expenses. To make a new income is very emergent thing for our children and our life. Your donation will be like spring rainfalls moisten our field. Here I am representing my entire village saying thanks for your donation of piglets for my village. We appreciate your help very much, from today on, we would encourage our children to school for repaying your help. Thanks a lot.

Respectfully
Tselo Gyal

April 1^st 2009

Sample contract:

Translation of the contract:

Pig loan contract

A: Drukgyal (the pig householder’s name)

B: Rinchen jyi (project manager’s name)

Through A and B’s discussion, to sustain and improve farming village life standard, relieve poor family’s economic burden, and make more school-aged children get to the school, A and B make agreement as following:

1)      From the day the project funds receive, A should be responsible for piglets’ health, feeding and protection. B has the responsibilities of supervising A during the contract period.

2)      During the three years, A can not sell and give the piglets without B’s agreement; otherwise, B has the right to require 1,500 or three piglets from A.

3)      A must gives three piglets to other nominated family after three years; otherwise, A won’t be any other project beneficiaries after this.

4)      A, B should have this contract. This contract is available from April 1, 2009.

Householder B’s SIGN: Drukgyal

                               Project manager: Rinchen Jyi

2009.4.1

Receipts

#1

The total amount of money in this receipt is 30,000RMB of purchasing 60 three months-old piglets. The donor contributed 28,800rmb and local people contributed 1,200rmb.

#2

The photocopy fee is about 34 rmb.

Phone calls fee for managing the project during the implementing was about 70 rmb (50 rmb +20rmb) in total.

Original Proposal

Project Location
Metog Lungwa Sholma Village is located in Chabucha Town, Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. Metog Lungwa Sholma Village is 7 km north of Chabucha Town. Chabucha is 157 km from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai.

Population
Metog Lungwa Sholma Village has 94 households and a population of 450 people, out of which 203 are men and 147 are women. There are 100 children. On average, each household has five family members, with three generations. 20 percent of the population are over age 55 and are unable to support their families.

Education
The majority of the population in Metog Lungwa Sholma Village is illiterate. People who are in their forties did not have the chance to pursue education in their early years. Two thirds of adults over twenty have completed elementary level education; one third of adults over twenty have graduated from junior middle school. There are about one hundred school-aged children in Metog Lungwa Sholma Village: half of them are receiving education in the primary school or town schools; the rest of them stay home with their families to help with household chores, raising livestock and taking care of the fields. There are twenty (9 girls and 11 boys) middle and high school students in total. There are nine college students in different provincial capitals, such as Beijing (1 girl), Chengdu (1 boy), Lanzhou (2 boys) and Xining (4 girls and 1 boy).

Agriculture
In Metog Lungwa Sholma Village, the main planting crops are wheat, beans, rapeseed and potatoes. Each family owns about 25 mu of planting land; each mu produces an average of 300 kg of crops each year. Beans are used to feed livestock, such as pigs, sheep, cows and mules. Selling crops yields 2000-3500 RMB per family, that used for buying pesticide, fertilizers, and harvest machine rent fees.

Herding
About 20% of families have 50-250 sheep, 15 % have 1-3 cows and 65% of families have 1-2 mules for plowing land. Families with sheep can sell wool and a portion of their sheep for about 3500-5000 RMB each year. Families with cows can sell milk to yield 1500-2000 RMB per year. Families with only mules make almost no income from herding.

Cash Income
Metog Lungwa Sholma Village is a semi-agricultural community. People mainly make income from agriculture, selling wheat, beans and rapeseed. Among them, a small number of families have tended 50-250 sheep privately and are considered richest in the village. They can sell wool or some sheep to make 3500-5000 RMB per year. The rest of 73 families are living on agricultural practice, since the weather here is unpredictable and dry during summer and lot of rain or sudden storm in the autumn. Therefore, the production from each year is only enough for feeding family members.

In Metog Lungwa Sholma Village young adults can find construction jobs outside the village. They can earn about 25 RMB per work day, earning 2000 RMB in two and a half months. This additional income is not enough to cover yearly expenses and children’s schooling.

Project goals
The immediate goal of this project is to buy 60 pigs for the 12 poorest families in Metog Lungwa Sholma Village. The overall goal of this project is to generate sustainable income for these 12 poor families, enabling them to send their children to school, and to alleviate education poverty(education poverty means Metog Lungwa Sholma Village school education cannot reach what the government requires, and incomparable with county town school education, in the terms of qualified teachers, teaching material, and school equipment) in the Metog Lungwa Sholma Village.

Beneficiaries
This project will directly benefit 68 villagers, making up 12 households, in the first three years. Every three years a different 12 households will benefit from this project. After 10 years about 200 villagers, making up 36 households, will benefit from this project.

Problems

1. Poor income leads to school withdrawal, early marriage and teenagers work forcedly
In Metog Lungwa Sholma Village, the most villagers have no other access to produce family wealth; the only way to get some income is from selling portion of crop production to buying basic needs such as salt and tea bar, and pay for electricity fee, telecommunication, and other government miscellaneous fees. Some families can not buy the basic needs, and most families are unable to afford children’s further education; some students must drop out of school before the family outcome is overweighed instead of attend school. Girls are arranged early marriage; Boys are sent to work in the construction sites. Only few parents encourage the students who are doing well in the school, but they must get loan from the agricultural bank, after 10 months they need to pay high usury with the original money. And they borrow some money from other relatives. Generally, Metog Lungwa Sholma Village families have no ability to raise money and improve their life standard.

2. Education poverty drives the village falling behind others, decrease school enrollment
As mentioned in the education section, many students drop out of school before entering junior or senior high school. This is due to the following reasons: firstly, many families cannot afford to send their children for further education. Secondly, they are unable to pass the entrance exams to enter junior high school or university, because of their poor education. Only 5-7 students from Metog Lungwa Sholma Village enter junior high school and high school each year. On average, 2 students attend college or university each ear. In 2003-2007, the high school enrollment declined to 2-4 students from this village, because village education has no improvement and at the same time the high education level challenge(gap between county town primary school and village school education) at junior middle school. Another reason that students drop out of school is high tuition that families cannot afford at the same time for two children. Some families even cannot afford one’s school fees. Generally speaking, the most families don’t want to risk on children’s education because the students are unable to enter high level schools.

3. Health problems make the family lacking of wealth producers, family helpers
Gall stone, cholecystitis, tuberculosis, high blood pressure and appendicitis are normal diseases that people get anytime, but medicine treatments fee is not affordable for families who are basically depending on agriculture productions. Other diseases such as fever, stomachache, headache, knee ache, backache and diarrhea are considered as small illness which treated at home. The most serious health problems are women’s; the poor women are usually tolerated and until the illness become very serious and fatal. If the woman in the family gets sick, the family business mostly falling on man’s shoulder, such as taking care of children, do house chores and involuntary village labor and less chance for the man to generate family income. Moreover, some women’s death is caused by child birth and the baby is died because of mother’s poor nutrition.

Benefits

1. Increasing income
If this project is funded, every family with pigs will be able to earn an additional 2500 – 4000 RMB per year by selling piglets. One mature female pig can give birth to at least 5-8 piglets per year. Therefore this added income will alleviate many problems simultaneously. For example, sales of cheap labor in the construction sites, teenagers work force and early marriage for girls. Meanwhile it can ease family basic needs, such as tea, salt, electricity fees and telecommunication fees which are I mentioned in the income poverty.

2. Improving education level
Firstly, this pig loan project will increase school enrollment rate in Metog Lungwa Sholma Village. Most villagers are unable to afford school fees for children so they force them to drop out of school. If the family has a certain income annually they would be able to send their children to school. Secondly, this project will elevate majority of villagers’ education to be the same level, break the education poverty line even if the children cannot get high level education but most of them can get basic or higher education at school which can help them in the future. At last, in turn children who get education will help the development of the whole village.

3. Improving awareness of health importance
The consideration of health care will be improved if the basic needs and education are elevated by funding this project as well as shrinking the death rate of women delivering children, and under-5 mortality. The women who get some education will understand doctors’ suggestions if they go to hospital and clinics check their body health. And they will be aware of health importance under doctor’s supervision, or not delay the small illness to become serious if this project is funded and is succeed.

Government support
On May 22^nd, 2008, the village leader Tselo Gyal went to the Chacha Town Government office to present a report about this project. The leader of the town government agreed and endorsed this project.

Gender equality
From this project, the beneficiaries in Metog Lungwa Sholma Village will have first hand experience about the importance of education for female students. Many of the villagers think that sending girls to school is not helpful for the family. This kind of idea started to change after I implemented several projects for the village, including the Solar Cooker Project, Flashlight Project and also Second Hand Clothing Project. So this project will further build on people’s changing values about young women.

Effect on children
The most positive side of this project for children is the improved possibility of getting further education in the school. Parents’ willingness and eagerness to send their children to school is an important factor in the family selection process for this project. Families who show more sincere interest in sending their children for further education will be more strongly considered as initial beneficiaries of this project.

Project activities

1. Rinchen Jyi contacts the village leaders, discusses what the villagers need most urgently. The village leader, Tselo Gyal, recommends a Pig Loan Project.(completed)

2. Rinchen Jyi visits the village and conducts a survey to find out who are the poorest families in Metog Lungwa Sholma Village. (Completed)

3. Project manager compares findings from survey with a list compiled by village leaders. Consolidate findings. (completed)

4. Conduct research in the local market to find out the price of one piglet. (completed)

5. Hold a meeting with village women and men to talk about how this project will work in the village. (completed)

6. Write pig loan proposal. (completed)

7. Secure the donor funding.

8. Choose a day and purchase pigs with the villagers.

9. Take pictures of implementation of this project.

10. Write final report.

11. Submit the final report

Time frame
This project will take 25 days to complete

17 days: visit village, discuss pig purchase with villagers, purchase baby pigs in the local market, take pigs to the village.

1 day: distribute pigs to the 12 selected families.

2 days: take pictures of pigs

5 days: interview the families

Detail Budget

Note: each pig cost about 580 RMB in the local market. The local people will contribute 100 RMB for each pig and each family will build a pig sty which costs about 1,500 RMB for each.

The donor contribution: 28,900 RMB

The local contribution: 24,100 RMB, includes pig sty

The Shem group: 500 RMB

Sustainability
This project is going to benefit the 36 poorest families in Metog Lungwa Sholma village after 10 years. At first, 60 pigs will be distributed to the 12 poorest families. The first 12 families will buy 5 piglets with project manager Rinchen Jyi. There are 4 female pigs and 1 male pig for each family. After three years, each family will contribute 5 piglets to the second round of selected 12 families. The second round of 12 families will contribute 60 piglets after three years. This way, every three years, a new 12 families will receive 5 pigs from former families. After the first round of 12 families’ initial contribution, they will be able to keep the remaining pigs to generate income. The local people will sell two-month-old piglets to others to develop their income.

To secure piglets are in good health and to sustain this project, the villagers are willing to make a contract with project manager. The first round of 12 families will take good care of the pigs and will be responsible for the health care and costs for keeping the pigs. They are also responsible for contributing 5 piglets after three years.

This project will be sustainable for at least ten years. Since half of the village is living in poverty, they understand the importance of being responsible for this project. The village leader Tselo Gyal will be responsible for the project if project manager Rinchen Jyi is not present in the village during the ten years. The last 12 families will contribute 2,000 RMB each to village errands. If the piglets die accidentally, the families are still responsible for contributing 3 piglets after 3 years. If the families sell out the piglets, Rinchen jyi will request 2,000 RMB from that family.

Past experiences
Rinchen Jyi (Audrey) started her English studies in September 2004. She has completed two second-hand clothing projects for Metog Lungwa Sholma Village that were supported by Sue Bishop at the British Consulate in Shanghai. On May 5^th, 2008, Audrey completed a solar cooker project for Ragongma Village and Dzelangtang Village; following that she implemented a flashlight project for Metog Lungwa Sholma Village on May 18^th, 2008.

Map of the project location

This project is to supply 10 harvesting machines to Bailing Village to improve the living conditions of the villagers and decrease villagers’ health problems and increase education levels. The harvesting machines will reduce women’s labor burden, and will save a considerable amount of their time. With more time, women will have the opportunity to raise the cash income for themselves and their households as well.

The Global Fund for Women and Shem’s private donors funded this project

Renchen Tso is from Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, Gansu Province, China. She is currently working toward an associated degree in English at the Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department English Training Program.

What? Buy 10 harvesting Machines for Bailing Villagers
Who? 93 people who reside in Bailing Village and the 67 people who are currently working outside the Bailing Village in Huazang Township, Huarei County, Gansu province, PRC.

Photos of project implementation

The Villagers and the manager of the Agricultural Machine Company in Tianzhu County Town are loading the machines.

The villagers are unloading the harvesting machines.

The Villagers are helping each other to transport the machine to their own home.

This is a couple and the man is disabled (his right hand is artificial hand).After they got the news that the machines are going to be delivered to every two households, they are coming and to see it in the cold weather.

The villagers are trying to get general information how to use the harvesting machine.

The man is checking the tools and other parts of the harvesting machines.

This is picture of two village women and the project manager.

She is a 76 years old woman, she has arthritis because of the heavy labor of harvesting for her whole life, but now she is happy with having harvesting machines and the young generations will have to do less heavy labor for harvesting.

Project summary

Project title: Harvesting Machine Project in Bailing Village.

Project goals: The immediate goal of this project is to supply 10 harvesting machines to Bailing Village and 20 households will benefit from this project and two households will share one harvesting machine. The overarching goal is to improve the living conditions of Bailing Villagers. This project will decrease villagers’ health problems and increase education levels. The harvesting machines will reduce women’s labor burden, and will also save a considerable amount of their time. With more time, women will have the opportunity to raise cash income for themselves and their households.

Location of project: Bailing Village is one of four agro-pastoral villages in Huazang Township. Huazang Township is located in the northern part of Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, which is in Gansu Province. The village is 20 kilometers from Tianzhu County Town (also known as Hua Zang Si). The county town is 145 km from Lanzhou City, the provincial capital, and 230 km from Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province.

Project beneficiaries: The harvesting machines will directly benefit 93 people who reside in Bailing Village. The project will also benefit the 67 people who are currently working outside the village because if they come back they also can use these harvesting machines as their own.

Implementation organization/individual: Renchen Tso, and the village leader of Bailing and a village woman and Shem Women’s Group

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds received: Amount, date and date received
On11th January 2008, the project manager; Renchen Tso received 17,000rmb from Shem Women’s Group.

Details of project activities
originally planned project activities
1) May 2nd, 2007: A meeting was held between Renchin Tso (the project manager) and the villagers of Bailing. The village leader and sixteen village people attended the meeting.

2) May 4th – May 5th, 2007: Discussed the details of the project, the local contribution, how to distribute the machines equally, and maintenance. Photographs were taken to illustrate the problems that villagers face.

3) Submit proposal. And also choose six project committees include the project manager by the villagers and the village leaders. The project committees are three men and three women.

4) Proposal receives funding.

5) Buy the machines from Agricultural Machine Company in WuWei City.

6) Transport and distribute the machines

7) Teach villagers how to use the harvesting machines

8) Evaluate the project

9) Interview the villagers (men, women, young and old) and take pictures

10) Write the final report

11) Submit the final report with the receipts and photos.

Activities realized in the framework of the project:

1) May 2nd, 2007: A meeting was held between Renchin Tso (the project manager) and the Bailing Villagers. The village leader and sixteen villagers attended the meeting.

2) May 4th – May 5th, 2007: Discussed the details of the project, the local contribution, how to distribute the machines equally, and maintenance. Photographs were taken to illustrate the problems that villagers face.

3) Submit proposal. And also choose six project committees include the project manager by the villagers and the village leaders. The project committees are three men and three women.

4) Received the project funds on 11th January 2008

5) Purchased harvesting machines from Agricultural Machine Company in Tianzhu County Town (known as Huanzang Si) on February 25^th, 2008.

6) Delivered harvestings to Bailing Village and distributed the machines to the villagers on February 25^th 2008.

7) Took photos of the villagers getting the machines and learn how to use the machines on February 25^th-26^th 2008.

8) Interviewed four people (two men and two women) from Bailing Village on February 28^th 2008.

9) Wrote final report from March 3^rd to 27^th, 2008.

10) Sent final report on March 28^th, 2008.

Project finances

Notes: all figures are RMB in the above table
(1) Before the project founded I planned to buy the harvesting machines in Gansu Province, Wuwei region Agricultural Machines Company which is 132 kilometers far from Huazang Town. But actually I brought the machines from Huazang Town (the detailed reasons why I bought the harvesting machines from the Agricultural Machines Company in Huazang town but not the Agricultural Machines Company in Wuwei are explained in Difficulty section. So people’s transportation fee to Wuwei City is saved. The project manager, Renchen Tso gave the left over money to the village.

List of recipients

Difficulties and lesson learned

Difficulties

When the project funded I was really happy, but things were not as easy as I thought. My project was funded in the winter, so I decided to complete my project during the winter vacation. When I got home I told the village leader to collect all of the local contributions and we decided to buy harvesting machines after the Losar (Tibetan New Year). After the Losar I called the manager of Agricultural Machines’ Company in Wuwei which was the company that I planned to buy the machines. Before the village leader contacted with the manager of this company and he gave me the price of the harvesting machines and contact information of the company in order to let me make sure the information are correct. So I called the manager of the company, he said I could buy machines any time I wanted. The problem was that after the Losar I called the company and he said there are harvesting machines, but the price was much higher than before. It was spring and usually the agricultural companies are lack of the autumn agricultural stuff, because during the spring the company managers thought nobody would buy autumn stuff (such as harvesting machines, threshing machines) in that case if they import a lot of autumn machines that will cause the financial problem for the company. Such as they can’t sell these machines then they don’t have enough money to import machines or the next year maybe there will be a new style machine which is effective, then their machines can’t be sold. In this case the Agricultural companies usually don’t import autumn machines in spring. In order to make sure they have plenty of machines, one of the Bailing Villager told his relatives to check out whether there were enough or not. On the contrary his relatives found out that there was only one harvesting machine in that company and it did not work very well. At the same time that I and two of our villagers planned to go there. When we found out the manager was cheating, we called him again and he said he thought I was cheating, because I was a girl and also it was spring time we didn’t need to buy machines in such a hurry. He also said he could import some machines but the price will be much higher, we bargained but it’s still not the appropriate price that we wanted. So we gave up buying machines in that company. Then the village leader started to contact with other companies, several days later, he found out one of the company in Huazang Town has the machines which are the same quality that we planed to buy. Also the price was appropriate for the villagers. So I decided to buy the machines in that company named Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County Agricultural and Nomadic Machines Company.

When I was going to complete the project, the village leader said that in March, 2008 will be some subsidy for agricultural machines. If you buy a machine the government will endow 30% of the cost. When I heard it, I thought it was really great. Then I and some of the villagers, including the village leader, discussed the issue of whether we should wait for the subsidy or buy it before. After our discussion we decided to wait to buy machines until we could get the subsidy and I called Shem group to get the permission. After I got permission we asked government leaders when we should buy machines. They said that the best time is around March and if we bought the machines at that time the price would be around 2500 rmb. In that case if we bought harvesting machines earlier the price would be lower and if we bought them later the machines would be expensive even with the government subsidy, just the same as the machines we were trying to buy earlier. So we decided again to buy harvesting machines before March without waiting for the government subsidy.

Lessons learned

After this project, I learned that every time we do anything we shouldn’t believe certain people so easily. We should check out what the real situation is by us and then decide what to do. For instance, this time if I believed the manager of the Gansu Province Wuwei Region Agricultural Machines Company, and went there without making sure, then we would have waste money and time to go there for nothing, because there was only one machine but he said there were enough for our needs.

We should always believe ourselves and do the things we want. Don’t think you are not able to do anything and give up your ambitious dreams. Unless you tried and you will discover that if you put effort in, then everything is possible. When you have a dream or hope first you should try to do it and put the efforts in, and then there will be something in return. There is saying “no pain no gain”. For example before I did this project, I thought it was really difficult and I couldn’t handle it. After I started this project many times I wondered to give up, fortunately by others’ encouragement I tried my best to implement it. Actually we all could do everything that we want; the problem is that we don’t believe ourselves. So I want to encourage everybody that we should believe ourselves.

Interviews of the project beneficiaries

1) Drolma Jyi

She is a 38 year old woman. There are four people in her family, her husband, a son and a daughter. Her husband is a disabled person, he has no right hand just a prosthetic one. In this case Drolma Jyg carries a big burden: she needs to take care of her whole family. During the harvesting season she spends twice much time to harvest than others, because she must harvest alone and her husband can’t. After we bought harvesting she said that her burden will be much less than before because her husband can drive the tractor. So he can do the harvesting in the future also. So she doesn’t have that much labor. She also has more time to do other things such as: embroidery, knitting work to improve her family’s income. She was really appreciated about the donors’ help. She said that she will never forget donors’ help and wishes the donors’ future will be more and more brilliant. She also hopes that more and more women like her who can get this kind of helps.

2) Tseirang Jyi

She is a 20 year old girl. She stopped school two years ago—-after her father’s death. Now there are three people in her family and her younger sister is going to school. After her father’s death she stopped going to school to ease her mother’s heavy burden. So the harvesting work would always be done by her mother and her. It is really tiring work. After we bought the harvesting machines she said she didn’t know how to describe her grateful feeling, so she just wants to say countless thanks to all of the people who helped her family. She got married ten days ago and knew that her mother would be okay on her own. Then during the harvesting season they can use harvesting machine that will be much easier for her mother. She also needn’t worried about her mother that much. The reason is that two families will use the machine together, and there will be more people. She also said she will always remember this help and pray for the donors.
3) Geining Shang

He is 57 year old man. There are 6 people in his family, but taking care of family is his and his wife’s burden. There is also an 80 years old man in his family. Actually there are six people in his family, but there are always three people staying at home. The reason is that he has a 6 year old granddaughter. She is going to primary school, because there is no school in my village and the children in my village usually go to school at downtown which is 20 kilometers away from Bailing Village. In this case, his son and daughter-in-law live downtown in order to let their child go to school. His son is a driver; they only come home during the Losar. So the house chores are really heavy and his wife has arthritis and cannot do much work. After we bought the harvesting machine he said that it is really great that two families can do the work together. Then they can finish the harvest in a short time and to do other work to get more money. He said he will bless the donors and project manager in order to show his thanks.
4) Samdrob

He is a 23 years old boy. There are four people in his family. His sister is a high school student. He always does part time jobs outside the whole year to get more money for his family and raise the tuition fee for his sister if she can go to college. Because of the harvest he needs to come home and quit his part time job for almost two months. He said now they have a harvesting machine and two families will work together during harvesting season. Then he does not need to come home during that time and can earn more than one thousand Yuan than before. He is really happy and grateful for the donors help. He said he hopes donors will help him in the future.

Letter of appreciation

Translation of the thanks letter

Dear Global Fund for Women and Shem’s private donors,

The harvesting machine project has been completed successfully in my village. The villagers are really grateful to the kind donors. After the villagers have the machines, then the students will not need to help their parents with harvesting. In this case they can go to school without any worries. Also they can study comfortably at school during the harvesting season. So whole families feel great joy. I will remember your (donors’) help forever and pray that your dreams will come true every time. Finally I want to say thanks very much again to the great donors.

Best wishes

Sincerely

Bailing Village committee

Receipts

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

Original Proposal
Project Location
Bailing Village is one of four agro-pastoral villages in Huazang Township. Huazang Township is located in the northern part of Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, which is in Gansu Province. The village is 20 kilometers from Tianzhu County Town (also known as Hua Zang Si). The county town is 145 km from Lanzhou City, the provincial capital, and 230 km from Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province.

Population
There are 34 households in Bailing Village, with 167 total inhabitants, but 20 households have been chosen (93 inhabitants in total) specifically for this project. The remaining 74 villagers (from 14 households) are all currently residing outside the village for work purposes. It is uncertain whether they will return, so they are not being included in this project proposal. Of the 58 selected working-age participants in this project, 31 are men and 27 are women. Twelve elderly people live in the village. The oldest woman is 74 years old, and the oldest man is 81. There are 23 youths who are under 18 years of age.

Education
In Bailing Village there are only three literate adults. Two of them are men who are farmers, and the third is a male college graduate who works as a teacher. There are 23 youths who are of school age. Currently, 6 of these children are working instead of attending school. This leaves 17 students attending school in the village. In the student population there is one female college student, four high school students (two girls and two boys), 5 middle school students (three boys and two girls), and seven primary school students (four girls and three boys). The six school-aged children in the village who don’t attend school (four girls and two boys) are needed to work at home, farming or herding. Girls are kept home from school more often than boys, as education for girls is often seen as a waste of money since many of them will marry out of the village when they are older.

Cash Income
Cash income in Bailing Village is generated through selling livestock and labor. The average household makes about 5,340 rmb per year. This is earned through:

- Selling livestock products (meat, yak hair and sheep skins) – around 4,100 rmb per year.

- Labor or construction work (1,200 – 1400 rmbper year, depending on whether the men or women do the work) If men go out and do construction work he can 1400rmb and if a women go out and do construction work can earn 1200rmb.

A family’s approximate living costs for one year amount to 5,250 rmb. This amount can be separated into the following categories:

- 1,200 rmb for purchasing fertilizer for fields

- 2,200 rmb for food and drink (flour, radishes, potatoes and other vegetables, tea, milk)

- 900 rmb on important festivals such as Losar

- 350 rmb on clothes

- 600 rmb on electricity, petrol, medicine and other essentials

One can calculate then that the average family only has 90 rmb each year to spend on other items. If a family has a student, they must apply for a bank loan to afford school fees.

Herding
On average, each family has 90 sheep and 25 yaks. Recently the grassland has suffered desertification, due to a decrease in rain and snow. During the winter and breeding season, villagers must feed the livestock grass and hay two times a day to raise the breeding rate of the animals. From the livestock villagers can earn 4,100rmb. They spend this money on food, Losar festival, and fertilizer.

Agriculture
In Bailing Village each person owns approximately 5.8 mu (1mu = 666square meters). Usually a family owns 23.5 mu of land as determined by the government. The people of Bailing grow barley, wheat, and oats on 10 mu, and grass on 13.5 mu. All of the crops grown are used as food for yaks and sheep in the winter and breeding season. During the winter, lambs are fed oats and barley, and in the breeding season mother sheep are fed barley. Sheep are also fed grass and hay in these two seasons in order to keep them fully nourished. Families use their own crop production to feed the livestock to avoid needing to purchase them food. This grain is also appropriate for animal feed, as the high elevation of Bailing village (almost 3000 km) makes the grain unsuitable for human consumption.

Project Goals
The immediate goal of this project is to supply 10 harvesting machines to Bailing Village and 20 households will benefit from this project and two households will share one harvesting machine. The overarching goal is to improve the living conditions for the Bailing villagers. This project will decrease villagers’ health problems and increase education levels. The harvesting machines will reduce women’s labor burden, and will also save a considerable amount of their time. With more time, women will have the opportunity to raise the cash income for themselves and their households.

Problems

Health
In Bailing village the harvest is usually done by women. Girls begin harvesting at fifteen (if they are not students) and work well into their fifties. They usually use a small hand-held sickle to harvest. After one day’s work, women will often have aching backs, arms, knees and shoulders. As time goes by they become afflicted with arthritis and other painful conditions in their wrists, knees, elbows and shoulders. Humpbacks, swollen joints and weak bones are incredibly common in Bailing women. If a woman has an illness caused by harvesting, she can’t knit sweaters, make shoes or do embroidery. As well as causing intense, chronic pain, this also affects her family’s income. The chronic illnesses caused by harvesting are also a significant financial drain on households. It is expensive for a woman to go to the county town for treatment, and the cost of long term medical care is too expensive for all but the richest families. There are three women in Bailing with severe arthritis. All of these women have been living with this debilitating illness since their thirties.

Education
When the villagers harvest, it’s usually during children’s school time. Some of the families in Bailing have less labor capacity than others (for example, if there is only one parent, or if there are infants or elderly people in the household who need caring for). In order to complete the harvest as quickly as possible, parents make their children take time off from school to help them. Many parents also ask that their children work all weekend during the harvesting season. This means that the students return to school without studying, and with unfinished homework. Over time these problems affect students’ general level of education, and their exam scores. This in turn affects their chances of continuing their higher education.

Time Consuming Labor
Usually, each family needs to harvest for one month with at least two people working eleven or twelve hours each day. The weather in Bailing is very unpredictable, so in some instances, the harvest can take up to six or seven weeks. The autumn harvest season is the most labor intensive and stressful for a household. Simultaneous with harvesting, a family must pay great attention to their livestock. From September 10^th to October 15^th, yaks and sheep are at their fattest and ready to be sold. Selling the livestock is very intensive work which adds strain to the burden of harvesting crops. This is also the time of year when theft is common. Herders must pay close attention to their livestock or they are at risk of having their animals stolen by thieves.

Environment
The grasslands near Bailing are being degraded every year. In the spring, there are many sandstorms and strong gales of wind and sleet. The rainfall is lessening each year. Just two years ago, it would rain at least three or four times in the spring. Each of the last two years it has only rained one time. In the summer this weather trend is also the same. Without the rain, the summer grass is unhealthy, and is not enough to sustain grazing herds. This means that villagers now need to buy more fodder for their livestock.

Due to the changing climate in Bailing, villagers need to take their livestock to summer pasture (a valley) up to a month earlier than in previous years. These weather changes cause a lot of problems. For example, in 2005 the villagers went to the summer pasture in early April. Unfortunately there was a snowstorm, during which 120 yaks died from the extreme cold. In that year the villagers’ cash income was seriously depleted – each family affected lost at least 700 rmb.

The project manager’s mother stated in an interview: “The environment is becoming worse and worse. When I was in my twenties, we didn’t need to go to summer pasture so early. Sometimes if the lambs slept on the grassland, one could only find them by their sound because the long grass hid them. Nowadays it is really easy to find sleeping lambs, because there is only a centimeter of grass. Before we didn’t need to purchase too much fodder for our animals – we could supply our own grain for them and it would be sufficient. Sometimes there would even be some spare grain after the breeding and birthing season that we could eat. Then we didn’t need to purchase as much as we do today.”

Harvest Depletion
As previously mentioned, the weather in Bailing is very unpredictable during the winter and spring time. Because the harvest takes so long, villagers are at the mercy of the weather conditions for the harvesting month. It often happens that during harvesting time sleet will cover the villagers’ crops. If this happens, the melted ice rots the crops, or the moisture makes the grain geminate. In these cases a family’s financial security is severely affected. Neither animals nor humans can consume crops that have germinated or become rotten. As a result, families’ expenses increase and they must apply for bank loans to provide for their own and their animals’ needs. If these awful conditions occur in successive years, a family might be crippled with debt for years afterwards.

Population Decline
Due to the heavy labor demands on females, there are less and less women staying in Bailing village. The young village girls go to the city to earn money as waitresses or store clerks. Many girls don’t want to get married with boys in our village even if they are in love. Some of the girls from other villages say: “That place is not for a life, but a life for labor.” With many young people desiring to avoid the intense work necessary to survive in Bailing village, the population is declining.

Benefits

1. The harvesting machines will improve health standards in the village because people will no longer need to use sickles. This will improve the quality of life for all people harvesting, as they will not have to suffer from the chronic illnesses of arthritis and other body aches. If people don’t have to visit hospitals, and if they have the ability to sew and embroider goods, then their families will also have more cash income to spend on necessities.

2. If villagers use harvesting machines, they won’t need to pull their students out of school during the harvest time. Students will then have more time to concentrate on their studies and will get better grades on their exams. In this way more students will attend school who would otherwise be laborers all their life. More students will have the grades to attend higher education institutions, and will then earn more money for their households. Thus, over time, living conditions in the village will improve.

3. Harvesting machines will save a significant amount of villagers’ time, which can be used for other, more valuable pursuits. Usually people will take 30-45 days to harvest. If they use harvesting machines, the harvest will take only 8-10 days. As a result, 22-35 days will be available for villagers that were previously spent laboring. This time can be used to generate more cash income for each family. Men can choose to do some construction work in the downtown area, such as building houses, digging ditches, or cleaning up rubbish. Doing these jobs, men will be able to earn as much as 330-525 rmb. Women will have time to knit sweaters, make shoes, make use of second hand clothes, and embroider objects. In this way they can save 220 rmb. In total, a family can save an additional 550-745 rmb. If they have harvesting machines(two house hoods share one), It means they will work together during the harvesting so at least one family has one person to take care of their livestock. On the other hand, if they have harvesting machines they can finish it really quick, then they have less risk than before.

4. With harvesting machines, the harvest will be completed in a very short time. There will be a much lower chance that a family’s fields are destroyed by rain or sleet. With this more efficient and better quality harvest, households will not have to spend as much money on buying fodder for their animals. They will spend less time sorting through partially damaged crops, and will have more money to spend on essentials such as medicine and clothes.

5. The harvesting machines will decrease each household’s labor by a significant amount. As a result, young people and families will be more content to stay in the village. It will become more common for young women to marry into the village, as they will not have to bear the responsibility of a heavy labor burden and adverse health effects.

6. The benefits described above will together have a substantial and long term positive effect on living standards and income level in Bailing village. This will in turn benefit the local environment, as families become less dependent on their livestock. With more income generated through better quality crops and self-generated income (through labor or sewing), villagers will have the ability to reduce their reliance on livestock as the only income generator. This will give them greater choices regarding their environmental impact on the land.
Gender Equality
This project will make a big difference to gender equality in Bailing Village. The current local perception is that boys are better than girls. People believe that it is much more worthwhile to send boys rather than girls to school. Education for girls is seen as a waste of time and money. Educated girls, it is believed, will only marry out of the village, or will simply not be smart enough to continue further tertiary education. Boys, on the other hand, are seen as smarter and more worthy of educational support. As has been previously discussed, more girls than boys are kept home from school to work. This is certainly due to local perceptions of gender that are damaging to girls’ learning prospects. The success of this project will certainly change people’s idea of women. They will understand that girls are also capable and can do things for their community in a development focused capacity. As an educated woman, my example will help convince families of the benefits of educating their girls. Then villagers will send more girls to school, and the female enrollment rate will rise. As the first woman to significantly help Bailing community, this project will raise women’s social status. I hope that my example will be motivational to young village girls, and that they will have more confidence in school and life in general.
Another benefit to gender conceptions will come from the change in labor practices in the village. If women can spend more time doing more useful work instead of harvesting, their status as income generators will become higher.
Governmental support
In May 2007, I discussed this project with the Bailing village leader, Mr. Liu. Together, we went into town to meet the township leader. When we told the township leader about the harvesting project for Bailing village, he was very happy and expressed his willingness to help us talk with the county leader. After he talked with the county leader Mr. Liu gave his full permission for this project, as it will increase the villagers’ living conditions and decrease their labor.

Beneficiaries
The harvesting machines will directly benefit 93 people who reside in Bailing village. The project will also benefit the 67 people who are currently working outside the village because if they come back they also can use these harvesting machines as their own.

Detailed activities
May 2, 2007: A meeting was held between Renchin Tso (the project manager) and the villagers of Bailing. The village leader and sixteen village people attended the meeting.

May 4 – May 5, 2007: Discussed the details of the project, the local contribution, how to distribute the machines equally, and maintenance. Photographs were taken to illustrate the problems that villagers face.

- Submit proposal. And also choose six project committees include the project manager by the villagers and the village leaders. The project committees are three men and three women.

To be completed:

- Proposal receives funding

- Buy the machines from Agricultural Machine Company in WuWei City

- Transport and distribute the machines

-Teach villagers how to use the harvesting machines

- Evaluate the project

-Interview the villagers (men, women ,young and old) and take pictures

- Write the final report

-Submit the final report with the receipts and photos.

Detailed Budget
I got the price for the harvest machine from Gansu Province, Wuwei City, Agricultural Machine Company—甘肃省武威市农业机械总公司. The leader of Bailing Village gave me address and phone number of the company and I contacted with them for asking the price.

Total cost of this project: 20,700 rmb
Donor contribution: 17,100 rmb
Local contribution: 3,100 rmb
Shem women’s group: 500 rmb

Sustainability
A committee of villagers will be involved in the planning, purchasing, implementation and maintenance of this project. This will ensure that the villagers will be responsible in the management and upkeep of the harvesting machines. The committee will also ensure that the harvesters are distributed fairly and used equally between households. They are prepared to solve any disputes that may occur. If the machines have broken then the villagers first should contact with the village leader and the village leader will contact with the company. If the village leader is not there then they will contact with project manager (Renchen Yso) then I will contact with the company.
There are four men in this village who are skilled mechanics, and they will form the care-taking committee after the project is implemented.

Past work experience
Renchen Tso (Jenna) started her English studies in September 2004. In the winters of 2004 and 2005, she completed two second-hand clothing projects in Bailing Village that were supported by Sue Bishsop at the British Consulate in Shanghai.

Map of the project location

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:

** 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:

Detailed local contribution:

Total Project Cost:

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