To build a 150 m long barrier wall with 2.5m high, and 1 m wide to protect the 216 households in Gongma Village from seasonal flooding in order to improve the safety and living standards of the villagers.

The German Embassy Funded this project.

Tshomo jyid is from Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. She is currently working towards an Associate’s degree in English at Qinghai Normal University’s Nationalities Department English Training Program.

What? To build two barrier walls to total 85.5m in length and that are 2.5m high and 1m wide. The barrier walls protect the 216 households in Gongma village from seasonal flooding.

Who? Gongma Village, Xinghai County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, People’s Republic of China

Photos of project implementation

On June 17^th, 2009, villagers begin digging the barrier wall foundation.

Villagers must transport stones to the project site.

Within a few days, the concrete foundation for the first barrier wall is completed

This tractor truck was hired to soften the ground at the project site.  This was necessary because the road was too compacted for the workers to effectively operate hand tractors.

The villagers met to discuss the chosen location for the second barrier wall because during the project implementation, some villagers commented that the original design may lead to their homes being flooded.

On June 20^th, 2009 the villagers completed the first barrier wall at the original project site.

The first barrier wall is inscribed, marking the project and its completion date.

On June 21^st, 2009, the villagers met again to discuss the location for the second barrier wall. The discussions and negotiations delayed the original project timeframe for two days.

After deciding the location of the second barrier wall, villagers began transporting stones from the old site to the new project site.

On June 23^rd, 2009 the villagers began constructing the second barrier wall at the second project site

The foundation is completed at the second project site.

Villagers are working through sunset to complete the project on time.

On June 27^th, 2009, villagers were cementing the stones with concrete.

On June 28^th, 2009, the second barrier wall was completed. It is approximately 45m long.

Project Summary

Project Title: Barrier Wall Project for Gongma Village

Project Goals: The immediate goal of this project is to build a barrier wall to protect 216 households in Gongma Village from seasonal flooding. The overarching goal is to improve the safety and living standards of Gongma villagers.

Location of the project: Gongma Village (Shang Village in Chinese) is part of Tangne Township in the east of Xinghai County, about 20 kilometers from Xinghai County Town. Xinghai County Town is approximately 157 kilometers from Hainan Prefecture Town which is approximately 120 kilometers from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province. Gongma Village is about 297 kilometers from Xining.

The project beneficiaries: 216 households in Gongma Village, composed of 970 people, 230 Tibetan, 228 Hui, and 512 Han Chinese benefit from the barrier wall project.

Implementation organization/individual
Tsomo Jyid (project manager), Wengchang (the village leader), and Shem Women’s Group

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received
Shem Women’s Group, 44,300rmb, June 2009 and at project completion.

Shem Women’s Group distributed 35,440rmb (80% of total grant) to Tsomo Jyid in June 2009. The remaining 8,860rmb (20%) will be granted to Tsomo Jyid at the project’s completion.

Details of the project activities
1) In early May 2007, Tsomo Jyid designed the proposal and collected information to being the barrier wall project.
2) April 2008 Tsomo Jyid completed the proposal.
3) April 2009 Tsomo Jyid acquired funding from the German Embassy.
4) April 18^th, 2009 Tsomo Jyid returned home to Gongma Village to discuss the start date of the project with the village leader.
5) June 7^th, 2009 Tsomo Jyid received 35,440RMB from Shem Women’s Group.
6) June 16^th, 2009 Tsomo Jyid returned home to implement the project.
7) June 17^th, 2009, the villagers transported stone, sand and cement to the project site, meanwhile, other villagers start digging the foundation for the barrier wall.
8) June 17^th, 2009 to June 20^th, 2009, the villagers completed the first barrier wall project at the original project site.
9) June 21^st, 2009 and June 22^st, 2009, Tsomo Jyid and the Gongma Village leader negotiated with the villagers about the location of the second barrier wall.
10) June 23^rd, 2009, villagers started the second barrier wall project.
11) June 28^th, 2009, villagers completed the second barrier wall project
12) July 7^th, 2009, Tsomo Jyid started to work on the final report.
13) July 28^th, 2009, Tsomo Jyid interviewed the villagers about the project to complete the final report.

Project Finance

Note:
*The total donor contribution is 44,300rmb; in actual project implementation it only cost 42,550rmb. So there is 1,750rmb left from donor contribution. Though, in exchange the receipt they charged 643.75rmb for tax fee, so finally there is 1,106.25rmb left from the project (donor contribution)
*At first, we proposed and designed a barrier wall project of about 150m long.  The design was revised during the project's implementation. In the actual framework of the project, the villagers decided to build two barrier walls that total approximately 85.5m in length.  Therefore, the local contributions on the original budget for construction materials like stone, sand, food, fuel, coal and unskilled worker were calculated for a 150m barrier wall. Costs were lower for the actual project. The actual costs are reflected in the actual budget.  Cost savings are seen on stone, sand, food, fuel, coal and unskilled workers. At the project's completion, 25,603.75rmb remained from local contributions, which was returned to the Gongma villagers.

Delays, Difficulties, and lessons learned
Delays
The starting date of the project was delayed for several days. On project manager's first trip to Gongma Village in April 2009, the village leader and the project manager decided to implement the project at the beginning of June 2009. However, in June 2009, the project manager discovered that most of the Gongma villagers were away foraging for caterpillar fungus.  Only on July 17^th, 2009 was the project manager able to start the project.

Difficulties
The project was planned to be finished in seven days, but was delayed for three days.  Originally, the proposal called for an 85m long barrier wall to be constructed at one site; however, on the third day of the project's implementation, some Gongma villagers came and asked for amendment to the barrier wall, stating the existing wall design left their houses unprotected. After discussions and negotiation, the villagers, the village leader, and project manger decided to build the rest of the wall at another flood site.  As a result, we had to remove the remaining foundation and transport all the materials to another site. The revision doubled construction time and increased labor needs for the project.

Throughout the construction process, the project manager was at the project site and witnessed its every step of completion. In addition to the extra time and effort villagers contributed to the barrier wall's construction, the delays also increased the transportation fee for stone and sand because villagers had to move the materials to the new barrier wall site.  With the project revision, the project manager also had to negotiate and communicate with other villagers to keep the project running on time.  It required a large amount of energy and confidence.

Lessons learned
1. I learned how to transparently and publicly discuss the project with villagers to avoid disagreements during implementation of the project.
2. After designing a proposal and managing the implementation of the project, I am ready for unexpected problems.  I gained experience in handling unexpected problems and working within a budget.
3. From this experience, I realized how hard it is to work with with people.  Communicating with people can be very discouraging and difficult. I learned how to communicate and negotiate with the local villagers.  Cooperation was important to achieve the successful completion of the project.

Interviews

Interview with Wen Chang (on the left), the village leader.  He is a responsible man in the village. Thirty days after the project implementation the project manager, Tsomo Jyid, returned to Gongma Village. She interviewed the Wen Chang and several other villagers.  Zhouben (on the right) said that the barrier wall was built with high quality materials and the construction work was also very good. He felt like his home and field would be protected by one of the barrier walls built right behind his house. However, he did comment that if a huge flood comes it is still very dangerous for them because the amount of water may flow over the barrier wall.

Interview with Ma Xiumei. On the second day after arriving in Gongma Village, Tsomo Jyid visited some of the families who had initially disagreed to building the barrier wall one month prior. Tsomo Jyid interviewed Ma Xiumei, one of the woman who initially disagreed.  Ma Xiumei said, the barrier wall project is beneficial; it can protect their fields and homes.  However, the current problem is that a lot of families around the project site are surrounded by grasslands and if a flood occurs they fear the grass may overgrow.  At the time of the interview, they are very happy because moving the barrier wall to another site in one hand protects their house form flood, in other hand, it also protects their grassland.

Thank you letter

Translation of the Letter of appreciation
Dear German Embassy,
Regarding your fund of 44,000rmb* for the barrier wall project, it directly benefited 216 households in Gongma Village, Tangne Township. Since its construction, villagers are protected from flooding disasters. These barrier walls protect Gongma villagers' homes, their possessions, and in addition the barrier walls also protect the villagers' fields from the flood destructions. On behalf of all the 216 households, comprised of approximately 970 people in Gongma Village, Tangne Township, I gratefully say thank you very much.
We are going to establish a model of responsibility to protect these two flood barrier walls. In the end, we will achieve sustainability of the barrier walls and ensure that they remain beneficial to all the future generations in Gongma Village, Tongne Township.  They are sure to bring good fortune, a happy life, and create a happy community for the future.
At last, we all wish you a happy life, good health, and the realization of all your dreams.

All the best,
Gongma Village Leader
2009.06.30

*The total donor contribution to the project is 44,300rmb, and this money here 44,000 is for the project only, the rest of 300 is for the project manager's transportation fee to the village. So it is not written in the letter of appreciation. 

Receipts

The application form to apply the formal receipts.  When applying for the receipts with the local Tax Bureau, we must first fill out this form and pay a processing tax. This paper includes costs for cement, skilled workers' salary, the transportation fee for the stone, and the transportation fee for the sand and water

Receipt #1.

This is the receipt for 50tons of cement.  Each ton of cement costs 600rmb in total (including the transportation fee and tax fee).  The barrier walls were constructed to be about 85.5m long (revised from the original proposal for a 150m wall), so we did not have to use as much cement as we had planned in the original budget. The actual project implementation costs only 30,000rmb for the cement.

Receipt #2.

This receipt is for 12,250rmb.  It contains the transportation fee for stone (4,750rmb), the transportation fee for sand (3000rmb), the transportation fee for water (4,000rmb) and the costs for the skilled workers' salary (500rmb). The subtotal is 12,250rmb, plus the tax fee of 643.75rmb, which totals 12,893.75rmb.

Receipt #3.

In April 2009, when the project was first funded, the project manager, Tsomo Jyid, returned to Gongma Village, her home, to discuss the project starting date with the Gongma Villager leader. The round trip ticket to Gongma Village costs 109rmb, as documented in Receipt #3.

Receipt #4.

On June 16^th, 2009, Tsomo Jyid went back home to implement the project. The round trip ticket from Xining to Gongma Village cost 109rmb, as documented in Receipt #4.

Receipt #5

On the July 28^th, 2009, Tsomo Jyid went back to Gongma village one month after the project completion to interview some villagers about the success of the project. The round trip ticket cost 109rm

Original Proposal

Project Location
Gongma Village (Shang Village in Chinese) is part of Tangne Township in the east of Xinghai County, about 20 kilometers from Xinghai County Town. Xinghai County Town is about 157 kilometers from Hainan Prefecture Town which is about 120 kilometers from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province. Gongma Village is about 297 kilometers from Xining.

Population
There are 216 households in Gongma Village, comprised of 970 people in total. This includes 230 Tibetans (57 households), 228 Hui Muslims (57 households), and 512 Chinese (102 households). There are 487 women and 483 men in Gongma Village; 35 people are retired elders and 58 are under ten years old.

Education
In Gongma Village about 50 people, 30 female and 20 male (0.05%) are literate (excluding students currently enrolled in school). The limited literate population of Gongma is almost exclusively made up of non-Tibetan immigrants and most are merely middle school graduates, though some have high school diplomas and work in local government.
There are 120 school-aged children in Gongma Village and 110 (52 boys and 58 girls) are enrolled in school. Among these about 30 are primary students and 80 are middle school students. There are 16 high school students from Gongma Village attending school outside their village because there is no high school in Gongma Village. 12 out of 16 students are attending high school in the Xinghai County Town while the other 4 students are university students studying in Qinghai's capital city, Xining. On average, each family in Gongma Village sends most all their children to school because recently schooling is tuition-free through the ninth grade. However, most students stop their education after middle school because their family cannot gather tuition for high school or university even if they want to.

Cash Income
Each year most Gongma Villagers just produce enough farm products for their own annual food supply, without much left over to sell. Nearly all the people in Gongma Village are farmers; they grow wheat, beans, rapeseed and potatoes on their land. On average, each family owns about 4 mu (1mu= 0.0666 hectates) of land, which is only 0.8 mu of land per person. Each year, each mu of land can produce about 800 jin of wheat or 450 jin of rapeseed or 1500 jin potatoes or 500 jin of beans. They earn some money from selling their excess produce, so each household each year averages about 100-200 rmb, which per person is only 30-50 rmb per year.
Gongma Villagers also dig caterpillar fungus (this is a kind of medicine which grows in high mountains, especially in nomadic and pastoral mountain areas) to make money. This fungus is collected by Muslim and Chinese merchants for medical use. However, recently this medicinal fungus has become more and more difficult to find because lots more people are digging it now and the grassland fees have been raised very high. Also the government is trying to stop people going to these places to dig caterpillar fungus since it is bad for the environment. So now they do not actually earn much extra income from this activity, and sometimes it's very hard to make cash after they've paid the grassland fee. On average, every year about 80% of Gongma Villagers go out to dig caterpillar fungus (about 500 people). From each household each year at least one person goes out for this activity. They usually start from the beginning of May and come back home in the middle of June, being gone about 45 days. From digging caterpillar fungus, it is possible to earn 800-900 rmb or more, but they only net 400-500 rmb after paying all associated costs like the grassland fee, food fee and transportation. Some diggers might even manage to earn over 1000 rmb in a lucky year, though they too will bring home far less. However, nothing is certain except the grassland fee, so the income from this is unreliable and it all depends on luck.
Another way Gongma Villagers have to generate cash income is work as migrant laborers. On average, each family sends at least one person out to do labor work each year (about 30% of the villagers). They work in the local construction places where they need unskilled workers, earning around 25-30 per day. Some go to Xinghai County Town to find some employment, usually working about 2-3 months, mostly in June and July, after which they have to come back to home for the harvest. In total, laborers who manage to find work might possibly gross 800-1000 rmb, adding about 500-700 rmb to their annual family income. However, most people have to stay at home to take care of their family, children and elders, so the number of people who can do this is always limited.
In addition to this, there are also some families in Gongma Village who are raising livestock, like goats，sheep and cattle. On average, each of these families has about 142 sheep and can supplement their agricultural income with about 1,000 rmb from selling sheep and wool.
In total, the average family can make 1000-1300 rmb per year. In cash income, they have to spend around 800-900 rmb per year for basic requirements like salt, sugar, tea, cloth and electricity. Predictable necessary expenditures include clothes, electricity, family supplies, fertilizer, interest on outstanding debts, children's school fees, hospital care and other essentials. Basically, they do not have money to save in the bank. They use those monies to pay for their outstanding debt, buy some clothes, family supplies, like salt, sauce, spicy and so on. Also they use that money to buy fertilizer, and pay for electricity or other essentials.

Agriculture
Gongma Village is a small village compared with the other two neighboring villages, Virma Village and Xuma Village. People in that village are mostly farmers growing wheat, rapeseed, beans and potatoes once a year, doing the seeding, planting, cultivating and harvesting according to the seasonal changes. Each year they earn about 100-200 rmb from selling their excess flour, beans, oil and potato and for the most family, they usually only get enough flour to support themselves as well as potato and oil. One mu of agriculture land can produce around 800 jin wheat, 450 jin oil seed, 1500 jin of potatoes and 500 jin of beans. Sometimes they have to feed their livestock by using the beans and spoiled potatoes, so they do not usually have a lot to sell.

Herding
Gongma Village's richest families, which are about 6.5% of the population of among the 216 households, are able to herd goats, sheep or cattle. About 16 families in Gongma herd goats, each has about 102 goats, annually each family earn 500rmb averagely by selling goats and goat wool in addition to their farming products. About 30 families have cows; each family on average has 1 cow that helps them to earn about 300 rmb each year by selling milk, yogurt and butter. These additional incomes are available for few families in Gongma Village.

Weather
Gongma Village has four regular seasons. In summer and autumn there is mostly rain everyday. In the summer and autumn, whenever it rains flash floods occur and it is a disaster for all the villagers. Floodwater rushes through the residents' houses, the fields and animals' pens, causing great damage and destruction.

Project Goals
The overarching goal of this project is to improve the safety and living standards of the villagers. The immediate goal of this project is to build a 150 m long barrier wall.  The wall will be 2.5m high, and 1 m wide to protect the 216 households in Gongma Village from seasonal flooding.

Problems
Flood
Every summer and autumn, Gongma Villagers live a life of danger and fear because of the threat of floods. Gongma Village is located at the foot of Lazi Mountain and because this "mountain" is actually like a cliff, whenever it rains the water pours directly down to the village. This damages a lot of residents' houses and belongings. Things like furniture, clothing, machines, food and fields all are damaged and the damage cannot be avoided without installing a barrier wall. This phenomenon also decreases the villagers' annual cash incomes. Moreover, it almost rains every day in Gongma Village in the summer and autumn months of June, July, August and even until the middle of September sometimes. Gongma Villagers fight daily with the ravaging floodwaters.
The rainfall is unpredictable and it comes one moment and recedes the next, so the villagers are unable to determine how to protect themselves. Mostly it rains during the daytime, but the worst thing is when it rains at night, it put village lives in danger from being killed by the floodwaters, especially children and elders.
High pressure
The floodwater puts the villagers under a great pressure and stress, because they cannot sleep well during the night. They are always scrutinizing the weather with anxiety to see if there are signs in the sky that shows it may rain during the night. When they think it might rain, they are forced to stay awake all night, ready to save their property or just run. More than that, if their houses or other belongings are taken by the water then they have to start to rebuild or restore them. All of this drives them to the edge of despair. With this situation persisting year after year, life has become even harder for them when they have to rebuild all the damaged parts. In the summer time, there is no peace for the villages and they are full of stress and fear. All of this is a big disaster which takes even their confidence to live. They are afraid of the coming rainfall and the floodwater. On the other hand, they need the rainfall because they want to have a good harvest. Thus, they have deeply complicated feelings and anxieties.
Health problems
The floodwater soaks everything -clothing, blankets, bedding- and sometimes just fills their bedrooms so that they have to spend a long time to get the water out. Hence, during the night they have no other choice but to sleep on the wet beds with wet blankets, wearing wet clothing. Consequently, after years and years sleeping on the damp stuff, many suffer from arthritis and rheumatism and the women get gynecological problems and kidney disorders, all of which would be difficult to cure even if the villagers had money for extensive health care, which they do not.
Economic problems
It is normal in Gongma Village that whenever the flood comes it rushes away some of the livestock, like goats, sheep and chickens. Sometimes even the pigsties are full of water, killing or nearly killing the pigs by drowning in the water.
Last year, one Gongma Villager family went out to look for their 60 goats that had disappeared in the flood, in the end find only found thirty alive. Later they found out the other thirty goats were buried and killed in the mud; only their horns appeared outside. Their family financial resources were severely depleted by the loss since they had bought those goats just several days before the flood. In this way, they lost almost 6,000 rmb in cash.
The floodwater damages houses and fields, villagers' primary survival resources. A lot of properties are lost in the flood and yet they have to spend even more money to repair their houses and their fields. Many families spend 200-300 rmb for repairing damaged houses and fields each year. In many cases it is really a problem even to repair their fields because every time the flood waters leave just sand and stones from the cliff in the fields. If people are not able to save their field from the sand and stones, then they do not get any cash income from the fields that year and even their own food supply is seriously depleted. Besides this, the floodwater sometimes stops people from going out to do outside work, because children and elders must be protected from the flood.

Benefits
1. If the barrier wall is built, 970 people will directly benefit from the project. The wall will block the water from the mountain, channeling it into the small river, which runs nearby. This will free people in my village from fears and hardships, which come every year with the rainfall. They will not need to worry about the weather and will even be able to enjoy the rain like most farmers in summer time.
2. Villagers will have a dry place to sleep and no longer need to sleep on wet beds. Their immune systems will be free from the stress and sleeplessness so that the children can grow stronger and the adults will have fewer health problems. And their bodily strength will be improved, and they will be able to spend more energy in productive endeavors.
3. Villagers will save the money they currently spend repairing their houses and fields. This money will be free for use on other family essentials.
4. Villagers' belongings will no longer be taken by the floodwaters and they will not to be afraid that if they buy goats or sheep they will be taken and buried by the water. Their family financial conditions will improve.
5. The lives of village children and elders will no longer be in danger, and adults will be free to go out of the village to find other resources and incomes.
6. People will be able to sleep well in the night, and won't have to be anxious and suspicious of the weather. Changes in the clouds will on longer stress their nerves and make them sleepless. They will be able to get a decent amount of sleep and will have more energy in the day for farming and will find themselves capable of doing more work and increasing their farm production.
7. Villagers' will be happier and less stressed and their quality of life will be greatly improved. Even the weather will be enjoyed by the villagers since rain is good for harvest.

Beneficiaries
216 households (970 people including 230 Tibetan, 228 Hui people and 512 Han Chinese) in Gongma Village will directly benefit from this project.

Gender Equality
First, the simple fact is that this project will be managed by a female and this will send a great message to all the villagers, greatly expanding village girls' horizons. Both men and women in Gongma Village may be forced to enlarge their ideas about the potential of women, spreading a message of gender equality. Moreover, this will encourage young women and girls in Gongma Village to work toward an education and they may start to shed their shyness and show their abilities in class. In addition, when I discussed these issues with our village leader, I involved two respected women.  We discussed the problems with them and asked their opinions about the solutions, directly expressing the idea of gender equality. This project will also involve the village women working side by side with the men, mixing the sand and cement and so on. Additionally this project will especially improve women's health because women tend to get more problems from sleeping on the wet beds and blankets.

Government Approval
On 5^th of May, in 2007, the project manager, Ms. Tsomo Jyi, talked with the County Town leader, Jialuo. He was very appreciative of this idea and has become an advocate of its advantages. As a result, Tsomo Jyid has been given official permission to proceed with the project.

The Steps of Project
1. Meet the village leader and other villagers to ask the most serious problem in my village (done).
2. Hold a meeting with the villagers, arranged by the village leader, to discuss their needs. There were 10 people involved in my meeting, 2 women, 5 venerated elders, the village leader, his son and their assistant (done).
3. Collect information for the project (talk with the village leader and take photos) (done).
4. Get official permission to carry out the project from our county leadership (done).
5. Get information from other managers who have done this kind of project before and talk to them (done).
6. Figure out the price for the materials (done).
7. Hold a meeting with villagers, choosing three women and three men to take the responsibility for the materials (done).
8. Hold a meeting with the workers to discuss the best place for where the barrier wall should be.
9. Write a proposal (done).
10. Receive the funds from donor
11. Hold a meeting with villagers to discuss how the project wil proceed and when it should be done.
12. Call the cement company to make a reservation on the cement.
13. Get all the materials well prepared.
14. Oversee the participation of the villagers until the project is completed.
15. Interview the villagers to gauge the success of the project.
16. Take pictures of the project after its completion.
17. Write and send the final report to donor.

Project duration
This project will take 38 days to complete.
1 day: to have a meeting with Gongma villagers.
7 days: To purchase the project material, for example, to buy cement, stone and sand. 3 days: To discuss with the Gongma Village leader on the project implement planning things, like hire workers, cooks and purchasing coal and fuel for cooking.
20 days: The actual project will take 20 days to be completed.
7 days: After the project is completed I will have to interview people and take picture of the new barrier wall.
In total, the project will take 38 days to be completed. Depending on whether purchasing the materials runs smoothly and whether the weather is good, the project dates might change.

Detailed Budget

* There is no running water in Gongma Village, the villagers usually get water from a small river that flows by their houses and sometimes from the big river called "Dahu Ba" near the village. They transport water by their hand-tractors. So if the water will be used in the project we must hire some trucks to make water available at the construction site.

* This amount of money will be used as transportation fee, phone call, and copy and taxi expenses.  The roundtrip to Gongma Village costs 106 rmb. I think during the implementing of the project I will go to the project location at least for three times. So the rest of money will be spending on taxi fee for visiting the Cement Company and phone calls to the company leader and village leader for information and making arrangement. Plus the copy fee is to print the proposal and attempt working as I originally planed.

Sustainability
This project is a sustainable project because the people in Gongma Village know how difficult it is to be in the fear of flood every year. The benefits of building up a barrier wall are obvious and warmly perceived. Therefore, they will be responsible for this barrier wall and take care of it. Also, the materials which I am going to buy are well known for its good quality and sustainability, also the workers I am going to hire are skillful and responsible. After building it the village leader and I will make a schedule of the Barrier Wall Duty list, and let the villagers take turns to protect the building from damaging. Thus if there won't be any unexpected natural disasters Gongma villagers will take careful of the barrier wall and get at least twenty years of usage out of this building.

Additional information
In January of 2004 I implemented a second hand clothes project which was funded by Canada Embassy with the help of Dr. Kevin Stuart.

In the summer of 2006 I did another second hand clothes project donated by Cindy Tan and her friends, and the final report is available on: www.shemgroup.org.

In 2007 I did a solar cooker project to the same village with personal grant from one of my friends and this project benefited 30 households in Gongma Village (Shang Village in Chinese), Tangne Township, Xinghai County, Hainan Prefecture in Qinghai Province in China.

In May, 2008 I did a solar flashlight project donated by Naljor Prison Dharma Service and the related information is available on www.shemgroup.org. This project directly benefited 44 households.

Photos of the project location

The overview of the Gongma Village from the Lazi Mountain, when rains the flood water is pouring from here directly into the villagers' fields.

The flood goes into the field and flows into residences' houses. This is the wall that's been damaged by the flood.

Map of the project location

To build one irrigation system for 41 households and improve the lives of the villagers in Xunwa village and three households from Deman Village.

The Shambala Connection funded this project

Rinchen Tso is from Xunwa Village, Daowei Township Xunhua County, Haidong Region, Qinghai Province, China. She is currently working towards an Associate’s degree in English at the Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department English Training Program.

What? To build an irrigation system for 41 households in Xunwa Village and to improve the lives of the people in Xunwa Village and 3 households from Deman Village.

Who? Xunwa Village,Rdo Sbis Township, Xunhua County, Haidong Region, Qinghai Province, China.

Photos of project implementation

We bought these pipes from Huan Shui He market, and the sellers are putting the pipes in the truck.      

   
The pipes arrive in Xunwa Village and villagers are taking the pipes to the Mani Hall.

Villagers are having a meeting before they start to dig the ditch and they are discussing how to divide the wors. The man in the middle (standing) is named Renzen and he is managing the meeting.

 
The Villagers are digging a ditch.

A skilled laborer called Renzen is using glue to connect the pipes.

This is a truck of cement that we have transported from Xunhua County.

The Villagers are building three systems of water barrier in order to protect ditch that we have just built.

Zhoujia is carrying a big stone to make the ditch strong.

In order to save time, the villagers took lunch from their home and made tea out side when they were building the ditch system, and all the villagers had lunch outside together.

Rinchen Jia and Gongchao are using timbers to build the ditch system.

 
The village women were carrying sand from the flood plain to the irrigation system.

This is the ditch that we built.

Project summary

Project title: Irrigation Project for Xunwa Village.

Project goal: The overarching aim of this project is to improve the lives of the villagers in Xunwa Village and 3 households from Deman Village. The immediate goal of this project is to build one irrigation system for 41 households in Xunwa and Deman villages. This project also benefits 3 household of 21 people from Deman Village.

Location of project: This project is located in Xunwa Village, Rdo Sbis Township, Xunhua County, Haidong Region, Qinghai Province, China. Xunwa Village is located about 170 km southeast of Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province.

Total beneficiaries
This irrigation project benefited 38 households from Xunwa Village and 3 households from Deman Village. Approximately 241 people directly benefit from this project.

Implementation organization/individual
RinchenTso（Ava, Zhou jia (Rdo Sbis township leader), and Shem Women’s group.

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received
The Shem Women’s Group gave 37,000 RMB on 7^th April 2008 to the project manager (Rinchen Tso).

Details of project activities
originally planned project activities
1) Discuss the problems of accessing irrigation with the villagers, and decide what can be done to alleviate these problems.
2) Talk with village leader about the community’s most essential needs and how the irrigation problem can be solved.
3) Collect information about and for the project.
4) Talk to other project managers and workers who have experience working on this type of project. Discuss with them about what kinds of materials are   needed.
5) Figure out the price of materials in Xunhua County.
6) Hold a meeting with villagers and ask two women and two men to be responsible for the materials, to supervise the construction of the irrigation system.
7) A skilled worker called Renzen, who has done this kind of project in other villages, studies the ground to find out the best place where the new irrigation system should be built.
8) Take pictures of the current local conditions.
9) Write project proposal.
10) Funds are received.
11) Hold a meeting with the villagers to discuss the start date of the project.
12) Meet the contractors, Renzen and Danzen, to arrange when and how the villagers will prepare the sand and stones, and also the ditch where the pipe goes.
13) Purchase materials such as cement from Xunhua County and have the two responsible villagers begin overseeing the project construction.
14) Oversee the participation of the villagers until the project is completed.
16) Interview the villagers to gauge the success of the project.
15) Take pictures of the project after its completion.
16) Send final report to donor.

Activities realized in the framework of the project
1) At the beginning of September 2007, the information related to the irrigation project was collected and the proposal was designed.
2) In December 2007 the proposal was completed.
3) The project was funded by The Shambala Connection in March 2008.
4) On March 15th Rinchen Tso (the project manager) went home and held a meeting with the villagers and decided the start date of the project. At that time, we found out that most of the available workers were at home waiting for the project complementation. So the project manager and the villagers decided to start the project on March 19^th, which is just after they finish planting their fields.
5) On March 15^th Rinchen Tso held a meeting with the project committee, and told them to take responsibilities for the materials and solve any problems that could happen during the project implementation.
6) From March 19^th 2008 the villagers started to dig ditch.
7) Rinchen Tso received 37,000 RMB from Shem Women’s Group on 7^th April 2008.
8) On April first, villagers finished digging.
9) On April 8^th, pipes and cement that are needed for the ditch were transported to Xunwa Village. A skilled man called Dangzen taught them how to use the pipe connections and other materials.
10) On April 16^th 2008, the irrigation project was completed and villagers started to use the ditch which was already dry.
11) On April 16^th 2008 Rinchen Tso interviewed some villagers and photos of irrigation project were taken.
12) On April 28^th 2008 started to work on the final report.

Project finances

Notes
Note #1
Before we planned to buy 155 bags of cement which is about 9.5 tons. During the project implementation we found out that we could not use the pipes in the ditches which are zigzagging, so we decided to use cement instead and we bought totally 50 tons of cement.

Note #2
We needed more cement than we planed, and most of the money was spent on it, so the donor contribution covered the labor of the skilled workers and the villagers paid the rest of 1,655 RMB.

Note #3
We planned to buy 650 meters of pipes before, and then we used cement for about 150 meters and for that length of piping we only need 19,000 RMB.

Note #4
Because of the local contribution was spent on the skilled workers, the project manager used the money left from pipes to purchase connections, and we bought more connections than we planned as needed.

Note #5
We have not included the glue in original budget but later we found out that we needed glue to connect pipes and connections, so we bought 10 bottles of glue which cost 250 RMB.

Note #6
The transportation fee we asked before was not enough, because recently the prices went up and we needed to pay 700 RMB extra.

Notes #7
Because the money the project manager asked from donor was not enough, the villagers bought sand which cost 1000 RMB.

Note#8
This amount of money was paid by the local people.

Delays, Difficulties, and lessons learned
Delays
At the start date of the project, the funds were not in the manager’s hand yet, and the villagers doubted whether she could get the money and were not sure whether they should start digging the ditch. After project manager told all the reasons and also under the help of village leader, the villagers were convinced and they started digging. The reason why the project manager wanted to start the project before she got the grant is that after middle April almost all the villagers would go out to dig caterpillar fungus, then the project implementation would be delayed.

After the villagers finished digging, the project was stopped for about 8 days, because the project manger couldn’t get money from Shem. At that time she communicated with the villagers the difficulties again and they agreed to wait for the funds. According to the rule we had agreed on before, no one could leave the village before the completion of the project to earn money by doing jobs outside.

Difficulties
During the project implementation, the most serious problem the project manger encountered was that she told villagers that she would get the money right after the villagers finished digging, but she didn’t get money on time and villagers waited for about 8 days.

Another problem is villagers and the project manager miscalculated the amount of cement we needed, as a result the villagers contributed about extra 2,800 rmb to this project.

Beside this, the time of project implementation happened at the same time of school time so the project manger could only purchase the materials and transport them home during the weekends, so sometimes the project manger felt very stressed doing both work and study. In addition, since she could only be there for the weekend, she could not take some important pictures of the project.

Lessons learned
During the implementing of the irrigation project, one thing which the project manager learned is that one needs to be ready to convince and negotiate with others. Communication is the key to solving problems, especially when disagreements and conflicts arise among people. She learned that when we are implementing a project any unexpected things could happen and one needs to be ready to solve it and make necessary decisions. For example, after the villagers finished digging ditch the money had not arrived yet and they waited for several days. So the project manager needed to convince the villagers to believe her.

During the project implementation, she also learned about the importance of cooperation. Not only among village people, whose teamwork was so important for the project, but also between the village, Shem group, The Shambala connection and the project manger; their cooperation and involvement determined the success of the project. For example, the project manger didn’t communicate with Shem group and went home to start the project, later she found out that Shem couldn’t give her money right away and caused a delay of several days.

Interviews

1) Niangji

He is fifty one years old and there are five people in his family. He said that before doing this irrigation project they asked government to do this project many times, but the government said they were not able to do the project.  He had never imagined that a college student could do such project. He said that with the new irrigation system they don’t need to fix the ditch again and again during the summer time. It makes their lives much easier.

2) Cairang Drojie

He is sixty-nine years old and there are seven people in his family. He is happy to see this new ditch, because he is the one who needs to irrigate the field every summer.  The young people in his family left the village to earn money. It is especially hard when they need to fix the ditch again, so after the project was funded he gave special attention to this project and always went to check the ditch to make sure that the project was going well.

3) Lumo Drolma

She is a twenty-eight years old woman. There are three people in her family. Her father is sick all the time, and she is divorced from her husband. She is responsible for all of the work in her household. She is especially busy during the summer time, as she takes care of her one year old baby, finish house chores,  and at the same time she needs irrigate her field.
Letter of appreciation

Translation of the Thanks Letter                         

Dear The Shambala Connection,

Xunwa Villagers mostly rely on farming and the irrigation system that we rebuilt is located beyond Xunwa Village; this irrigation system is the one that we used to irrigate about 200 mu of field and it’s very important for Xunwa Village. Before we built this irrigation system, during the summer time the floods destroyed the ditches and the fields. However, this year a student called Rinchen Tso from Xunwa Village and Shambala Connection helped Xunwa Village to build such an irrigation ditch. Villagers worked hard during this time and in order to protect the irrigation system we just built five barriers. This strong ditch will affect our crop production.

So all the villagers from Xunwa Village wish all the Shambala Connection members all the best and thank you very much for everything you have done for us. Thank you!

From: Xunwa Village

16^th April 2008

Receipts
Receipt 1

Receipt 2

Receipt 3

Receipt 4

Receipt 5

Original Proposal

Project Location
Daowei Township is about 30 kilometers from Xunhua County Town and it is in the southwest of Xunhua County. Xunhua County is 105 kilometers from city Xining. Xunhua is situated in Haidong Region, Qinhai Province, China. There are two parts of Xunwa Village that are located in two different geographical regions. All the people in this area are Tibetan.

Population
There are approximately 220 people in Xunwa Village. There are 69 men, 70 women, and there are 81 children in the Xunwa Village.

Education
In this village, 10% of the people are literate 8% of people got primary school education and 2% of people got middle school education, (not including student). Students make up twenty percent of the population. There are 16 University students (7 girls and 9 boys), 14 high school students (8 girls and 6 boys), 10 middle school students (3 girls and 7 boys), and 21 primary school students (9 girls and 12 boys). There are about 7 school-aged children in the village who do not attend school (3 girls and 4 boys). On average, one child in each family currently attends school. Some families do not want to send their children to school, because they believe that education is a waste of money and time.

Cash Income
Xunwa Village is mainly made up of farmers who grow barley, wheat, and potatoes. Rich families, who own fourteen mu (1mu=0.0666 hectares), can sell their excess barley and earn about 2,000 RMB each year. Most families have twelve to thirteen mu of land, which is enough for them and their animals to live off and is enough to sell excess barley.

A second way that villagers earn money is from livestock, as most families usually own cows. From the cow’s milk, villagers produce butter and cheese to generate extra income. Because people do not eat butter or cheese very often, most of them can be sold. A family can earn about 500-600 RMB per year by selling butter and cheese. Most households can make about 15 kilograms of butter and 15 kilograms of cheese each year. One Jin of butter and cheese cost 6 RMB.

The third way of generating cash income is working as a migrant laborer. Adults, who are able to work, usually dig caterpillar fungus, which is very difficult to find. Each caterpillar fungus can sell for around 10 to 15 RMB. People usually go to dig the fungus at the beginning of May and come back in the middle if June. During good seasons each person can earn about 1500-2000 RMB, but good seasons are happening less and less frequently. All of the money earned in this way is spent on school children’s tuition fees and family costs, such as New Year festivities. In one year, a village family spends about 500 RMB on food and 400 RMB on clothing. In one month, a household will spend another 100 RMB on electricity and other essentials. In the summer, villagers need to buy fertilizer, which costs 800-900 RMB.

In total, the average family can make about 4500 RMB in cash income per year, and they have to spend around 4100 RMB per year. This leaves the average family with 400 RMB left over each year. If the family has a student who attends university, then they need to borrow money from others to afford the tuition.

Agriculture
Thirty-eight households make up Xunwa Village, and villagers grow barley, wheat and potatoes. One mu of agricultural land can produce around 350 – 400 kilograms of barley. Each household approximately has thirteen mu of wheat and two mu of potatoes in my village’s lands grow.

Herding
All of the villagers in Xunwa Village are farmers and each family has an average of four animals – one cow, one pig, and two sheep. The sheep and cows are used for milking and the products they produce, while the pigs are for eating. As stated previously, by selling butter and cheese, villagers can earn about 500-600 RMB per year, depending on how much butter and cheese a family can save. This money is used to buy everyday essentials, such as medicine and salt.

Project Goal
The overarching aim of this project is to improve the lives of the villagers in Xunwa village and three households from Deman Village. The immediate goal of this project is to build one irrigation system for 41 households in Xunwa village. This project also benefits 3-house household around 21people from Deman Village. And more convenience for everyone especially child who are go to school they have more time to study.

Problems

Limited access to water
The ditches that the villagers used to irrigate the fields are in a very poor condition because there are no any ditches that are made by cement or stone, the ditches are just made by natural trench, in that case if it’s rain day then the flood will destroy the ditches and sometimes villagers need to fix three or four times per day. Then villagers could not field irrigate for ten or eleven days which cause the villagers can not have good yield from the field.

Conflict with children’s education
During the summer time all the men go out and earn money for their families. Women are left at home to irrigate the fields. This makes it necessary for the village children to spend their entire weekends doing housework and taking care of younger siblings. Doing these chores leaves no time for students to do their homework and study.

Unhealthy and unsafe
The people whose turn it is to irrigate their fields must look after the water day and night to prevent thieves. Because the ditch is shared between two villages, some people want to use the water when it is not their turn. Villagers must look after the pool every night, and when they are on guard they cannot sleep. The combination of not sleeping and spending time in the cold weather causes many illnesses. Also, during the summer nights women usually have to look after the ditch, because usually men are not at home during the summer. Women, who look after the ditch, face many potential dangers, such as assault and rape. For example, five years ago a woman named Latso was raped by a stranger while she was guarding the ditch. When she got pregnant she could not endure the villager’s insults so she committed suicide.

Conflict between villagers
When they can not finish irrigating their filed in the day time then people are upset and curses each other, this cause happen many problems. For example Limao Tso and Nianmao Jia are fight and their not going talk to each other.

Time consuming
When people go to guard the water at night, they must stay awake. But sometimes they can take turns to guard the water for cretin hours. However, in the morning they still have to go home to cook for their family and complete household chores such as milking and cooking.

Benefits

Have access to water
If Xunwa Village had a better ditch with a good condition to irrigate the fields then the ditches could hold more water and probably will have good yield. If the flood comes the ditches wouldn’t be destroyed, because ditches will be made of cement and stone and People don’t need to fix the ditches again and again.

Children will have more study time
With more convenient field irrigation, children will not need to spend their weekends doing housework, and instead spending their time completing homework or doing other activities.

Health and safety
An irrigation system will allow the villagers to stay at home in the evenings. They will not have to go outside at night or in the cold. This will allow them to stay healthier and safer, getting rid of the health problem like backache and cold, and there won’t be conflicts between villagers cause of water.

Save time
If Xunwa village have a good ditch to irrigate the field, this would make irrigation faster because there would be more water to use. More than one person could irrigate at a time, and the task of irrigating a field would be shorter. With the convenience of a ditch to irrigate the fields, villagers will not need to get up so early in the morning. Villagers will have more time for leisure activities; such as sing a son and knitting.

Beneficiaries
This irrigation project will benefit 38 households from Xunwa village and 3 households from Deman Village. Approximately 241 people will get benefit from this project directly including the people in Xunwa Village and Deman village

Gender equality
The project will be implemented and managed in Xunwa Village. It will benefit mostly women because in Xunwa Village field irrigation is women’s work. Meanwhile in the summer time all the men went out and earn money for their family. In this case only women stay at home and irrigate fields and do house work. Also most of the men think that women are useless in their family. They cannot earn money for their family. In addition to reducing the burdens for women, after women complete this project they will be allowed greater involvement in village affairs and will experience a raised position in the village.

Effect on children
Field irrigation has many effects on children. During weekends or holidays, while parents are out irrigating their fields, older children help their parents to look after their little brothers and sisters or help to do housework. Hence, they have no time to study while they are at home. In this case they cannot focus on education and because of their family obligations their studies get worse and worse. So, they begin to feel less interested in studying and eventually they want to give up their studying. If we continue doing this in our community, then there is less and less people will get education. They will not have the opportunity to expand their minds. It is really important to have a good ditch for field irrigation and let children get education, and in that way they will not suffer like their parents and grand parents.

Government Approval
The village leader Rendzen asked the local Township government to do an irrigation project for Xunhua Village many years ago, but neither the village nor the government has money to carry out the project. With secured project funding, the Township leader Drojie supports this project fully. On 9^th August 2007 I talked to Township leader and they are happy to hear that if I can do Irrigation Project for Xunwa Village.

Project activities

1. Discuss the ditch problems with villagers and decide what can be done for the problems. (DONE)

2. Talk with village leader about the community’s most essential needs and how the ditch problem can be solved. (DONE)

3. Collect information for the project. (DONE)

4. Talk to other project managers and workers who have experience working on this type of project. Discuss with them about what kinds of materials are  needed. (Done)

5. Talk to other project managers and workers who have experience working on irrigation projects. Determine with them the needed materials. (DONE)

6. Figure out the price of materials in Xunhua County. (Done)

7. Determine the price of materials in Xunhua County. (DONE)

8. Hold a meeting with villagers and ask two women and two men (Zhoudai and Wanma, Reko and Limaojia) to be responsible for the materials, and to supervise the condition of the ditch system. One woman will take care of the materials. One woman is responsible for the ditch. (DONE)

9. Have the skilled worker, Rinzen, who had done this kind of project in the other villages, study the ground to find out the best place to build the new ditch system. (DONE)

10. Take picture of the current local conditions. (DONE)

11. Write project proposal. (DONE)

12. Funds are received

13. Hold a meeting with the villagers to discuss the start date of project.

14. Meet the contractors, Rinzen, Rinchen, Jiaona jia, to arrange when and how the villagers will prepare the sand and stone, and the ditch where the pipe goes.

15. Start to work on the construction.

16. Oversee the participation of the village until the project is completed.

17. Interview the villagers to evaluate the success of the project.

18. Take pictures of the project after its completion.

19. Send final report to donor.

Financial Budget

Donor contribution: 36,855 RMB
Local contribution: 13,828 RMB
Shem Women’s Group donation: 500RMB
Total cost: 51,183 RMB>

Sustainability
The deep desire and need for an irrigation system gives the Xunwa Villagers a sincere interest in its’ long-term success. The villagers are also invested in the system as they will be responsible for building and maintaining it, helping to ensure its’ sustainability. Xunwa Village had plan on repair the irrigation system two years ago, but has not had the funds necessary. Villagers are confident in their village leader who will continue to advocate for the success of this project for years to come. By using local suppliers with a guaranteed return policy, the villagers are assured of the high quality of their project materials. The suppliers also have guaranteed a return policy. And my village leader is a responsible man and he promised me that he will remain villagers, if is there any problems, because he was happy about the project.

Past experience
I successfully completed two second-hand clothing projects in Xunwa Village, one is completed 9th January 2006 and other is 8th August 2006 both of them supported by the British Consulate in Shanghai and Kleisath’s family.

The map of the project location

Photos

This is Xunwa Village’s pool where water is saved each day.

.
This is the ditch currently used by Xunwa Village. This ditch is easily damaged by floods or weather.

This is gradually destroyed by nature and our ditch is on top of this, and beside this there is a flood plain, and if floods come in the summer the ditch is easily destroyed

This is ditch, which is made from Xunwa Village last year, because last summer almost all the ditch was destroyed by flood and, Xunwa Villagers repair it again.

In this house, there are the controls for the water in the pool

To build a barrier wall 350m long, 1.5m high, 0.8wide and 0.5 on top for the 200 people of Yatong Village, blocking the floodwaters from the river, and protecting the village’ houses and monastery. As a result, living conditions and children’s school attendance will be improved.

The German Embassy funded this project

Thaxi Hlamo(Charlene) is from Waluo village, Jialaxi Township, Narong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. She is recently working towards an Associated degree in English at the Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department English Training Program.

What? To build a barrier wall (307m long, 1.5m high, 1m wide and 0.8m on top) for Yatong village and Aga monastery.

Who? Yatong village and Aga monastery, located in Jialaxi Township, Narong County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province (China)

Photos of project implementation

Here the truck driver transports stones from Gelu, located two kilometers from the village. The cost of transportation to the village is 15RMB.

As seen above, before building the wall there was nothing to protect the villagers’ houses and firewood from floods.

The first thing workers and local people started doing was to dig the foundation of the barrier wall. They dig about 0.8 meters above the water level.

There were about 35 people, both workers and local people, who collaborated on building the barrier wall each day.

The monk seen above on the picture, Qingli jiangcuo, is the second leader of Aga monastery and the manager of this project He is responsible for the supervision and completion of the project.

Above is shown the place were the cement is stored. 700 bags of cement were bought from Zhiyang，which took two days to get to the village.

Tsering is the first leader of Aga monastery and one of the project managers. He always begs food from the villages in Jialaxi Township to help the oracle-healers on the village. On the picture he can be seen helping to load the 700 bags of cement on the truck.

Here is a part of the barrier wall already built.

As the foundation was built, we discovered that the terrain where we dig on was rotten stone and sand, so it was not stable enough to build a barrier wall on it. Thus, mixed cement, sand and gravel was put in place.

Two trucks of gravel were brought from Honglong xi to help stable the foundation.

Here the mixed cement, sand and gravel are already set up to make the foundation stable.

Here working on building the foundation of the barrier wall. Sometimes it is necessary to use dynamite to dig in.

Sometimes the conditions of the terrain made it difficult for workers to excavate.

The barrier wall starts here, leaving the river into the left side.

This is a part of the barrier wall, one third of the construction already built.

This is another view of a part of the barrier wall already constructed.

Here the barrier wall is already more than ten meters long.

Workers setting the base of cement and sand.

Once the barrier wall was finished, monks of the Aga monastery spend a whole day helping to remove the stones from the river with the purpose of expanding the riverside.

Here the monks had already finished removing the stones from the riverside.

Project Summary

Project title: Barrier wall for Yatong village

Project goals: to build a barrier wall 350m long, 1.5m high, 0.8wide and 0.5 on top for the 200 people of Yatong Village, blocking the floodwaters from the river, and protecting the village’ houses and monastery. As a result, living conditions and children’s school attendance will be improved.

Location of the project:
This project is located in Aga monastery in Yatong village. Yatong village is in Jialaxi Township, Narong County, and Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Yatong village is 13 km from Narong County town.

Total beneficiaries: 17 households and a monastery of about 200 people will benefit from this project.

Implementation organization/individual: Tashi Hlamo (Charlene), Kenqing Tsering, Qingli Jiangcuo, ERji Hlamo and Shem Women’s Group

Contact group: Shem Women’s group

Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received

The German Embassy gave 43,100RMB on March 12th 2007.

Details of project activities

Originally planned project activities

1. Have a meeting with the three leaders of the project: Tsering, Chos las Rgyl` tso and Erji Hlamo. Together, we will arrange the time and hire some other villagers’ trucks in order to carry the stones, sand and cement.
2. Hire 2 experienced truck drivers from another village to carry stones, cement and sand. The cement and sand will be purchased from Narong county town, which is 13km from the village. The stone will be purchased near the village.
3. Hire skilled workers in our Narong county town to start construction work.
4. Supervise the process of the project.
5. Complete the project.
6. Interview local children, men and women and monks for a final report.
7. Take pictures for a final report.
8. Write the final report.
9. Send the final report with all pictures and receipts.

Activities realized in the framework of the project

1.April 21^st 2007: Held a meeting with the village leaders, the villagers and the monks of the monastery in order to discuss when the work would start. Trucks were hired in order to transport the stone, sand and cement.

2. April 25^th: The monastery leader, Kenqian Tsering and the villager Duoqu bought 700 bags of concrete from Zhiyang and they transported it to Xinlong.

3. April 27^th: A truck driver, Alu from Jiari village, was hired to transport the 700 bags of concrete to Yatong village with 17 local people.

4. May 13^th: hired 3 truck drivers from our Jialaxi Township to transport stone to the village.

5. June 2^nd: The 3 truck drivers transported 270 small tractors of stone to the village within 14days.

6. June 3rd and 4^th: 7 trucks of sand were transported from Mofang gou to the village，finishing the sand transportation.

7. June 12^th: The local leaders went to Narong county town to buy the materials of the project.

8. June 17^th: 2 trucks of gravel from Honglongxi, located 15 km from the village, were transported.

9. June 27^th: The contract between the engineer and the leaders of the village and monastery was signed to guarantee the quality of the barrier wall.

10. June 28^th: The local people and the skilled workers diverted the river into one side because it was more convenient for them to dig the foundation of the barrier wall.

11. June 29^th: The local people and the skilled workers started to dig the first part of the foundation of the barrier wall, covering an area of around 140 meters long.

12. June 30^th: The local people and the workers finished digging the first part foundation of the barrier wall which would be around 145 meters.

13. July 1^st: The workers and local people started to build the second part of the foundation of the barrier wall.

14. July 11^th: The local people and the skilled workers finished building the first part of the barrier wall with 145 meters.

15. July 12^th: The local people and the skilled workers started to work on the second part of the barrier wall.

16. July 19^th: The local people and the skilled workers finished building the second part of the barrier wall, which would cover around 97 meters.

17. July 20^th: The local people and the workers started to work on the third part of the barrier wall, which would cover around 65 meters long.

18. July 24^th: At this point the barrier wall was finished.

19. July 25^th: The manager Kanqian Tsering and the committees paid the wages to skilled workers and the engineer (a total amount of 7280RMB)

20. July 26^th: A meeting was held with local people (monks, men, women and children) to discuss the final report of the project.

21. July 27^th: Interviews were held with local people and leaders about the project.

22. August 5^th: The local committees wrote a thank you letter to the German Embassy.

23. July 7^th: All monks replaced stones and removed things from the river for a whole day.

24. September17th: Began writing final report.

Project Finances

Notes:

[1] Shem women’s group paid this money

[2] Shem women’s group paid this money

[3] 7835 rmb was from local people

Changes made in the original project proposal and budget

•A. Gravel

In the original proposal, we did not plan to buy gravel but when we were digging the foundation of the barrier wall we noticed that the place were the foundation was going to be built, at about 20 meters deep, rotten stones with sand was found, making the place very unstable to build a barrier wall. Therefore, we had to buy two trucks of gravel from Mongfang gou, located at 13 kilometers from the village. We placed mixed gravel with sand and cement under the foundation of the barrier wall before we started building it so it became stronger and stable to lift the barrier wall on it.

•B. Transportation of sand and cement

In the original proposal, we planned that the transportation of each truck of sand would be 130RMB but the cost of transportation went up. The cost of moving each truck of sand was 300RMB. The cost of cement transportation was the same as the sand, because both were transported from the same place in Mofang gou (our Narong county town), which is 13 meters from the village.

C. Workers’ wage and the price of stone

We originally planned the worker’s wage to be 15RMB per day and each skilled worker’s wage to 27RMB per day, but the workers’ wage went up and we paid each skilled worker an average of 35RMB per day. Each worker was paid 30RMB per day. Also we estimated a 20RMB for each truck but the price of stone went up and each truck of stones ended up costing 40RMB.

D. Length of Barrier wall

Our original plan for the barrier wall was calculated to be 350m long, 1.5m high, 0.8m wide and 0.5m on top, in order to prevent flooding, but we ended up building a barrier wall with 307meters long, 1.5m high, 1 m wide and 0.8m on top.

The length of the barrier wall is 43meters shorter than planed because we calculated that one meter of a barrier wall would need two bags of cement and about a truck of stones and one truck of sand for a barrier wall with 50meters. Actually, the first part of the foundation of the barrier wall was made of small rotten stones with sand and it was not stable enough to build a barrier wall on it. To make the foundation solid each meter of the barrier wall needed about 6 bags of cement and two and half trucks of sand. Also, it was already mention that the price of the stones went up. Due to all these factors, the materials were enough for us to build a barrier wall with 307 meters long. We also collected about 7700RMB, which was more than we original planed (this is shown in the detailed budget). The width of the barrier wall is 0.3 wider than originally planned.

Delays, difficulties, and lesson learned

Delay
On March 2007, the project was funded by the German Embassy but it was delayed for about two and half months because at that time all the villagers were very busy plowing their fields. After the villagers finished plowing, the season for picking caterpillar fungus started and the villagers went on digging for caterpillar fungus as quickly as they could. Caterpillar fungus is one of the main sources of income for the village. In addition, at that time the project manager was in the school and having classes. It would take a long time to do the project and the project manager would miss a lot of classes if she left for the implement the project. Therefore the project was delayed.

Problem encountered in the course of the project implementation
Actually we successfully completed the project, but the most difficult thing we encountered during implementation of the project was about those factors mentioned earlier, which affected the planned budget, getting short of money in some areas. After buying the materials for the barrier wall, no money was left for the workers. It was really difficult to ask the villagers to collect money. However, the villagers were willing to pay money for the project because they know how important the project is for them and the community.

Lessons learned
Once the project is over, I learned that some people in the village had changed their negative stereotypes towards women and most people had already started to change it. Because before doing the project nobody had asked me to write proposals for them even though they needed help. They thought that I was a girl and I was not able to do something important like men could do. However, after I did this project many other villagers came to me and ask me to help them organize projects such as running water and solar panel. So I realized that this project had helped to change some people’s negative stereotypes towards women and had learnt to respect them.
Another thing I learned when writing the budget was the importance of forecasting into the budget any price variation on the materials that were planed to be bought. I learnt that budget is very important for people who write project proposals and we should very be careful when we are making budgets.

Interviews

1) Qingli jiangcuo On July 27th, Tashi Lhamo went to Yatong village and interviewed the second leader of the monastery, Qingli Jiangcuo who is 36 years old. There are three people in his family, his old father, mother and himself. He told me that one night last summer it rained so heavily that the river rose very high, causing damages due to the flood. Unfortunately, at that time there were only old people in the village as the young people were digging caterpillar fungus. Qingli put all the old people into one safe house and he stayed up for the whole night, looking over the people and their belongings. However, from now “I do not need to worry about the floodwater anymore and our villagers have happy and safe lives under the companionate German Embassy’s help”. From the bottom of his heart he says thanks to the German Embassy.

2) Erji hlamo
On July 27^th, Tashi lhamo went to Erji Hlamo’s house and interviewed her. Erji Hlamo is 31 years old and lives with four members of her family: her father, husband and two children. She told me her house is located very near the river so the floods damaged her house twice and they had to repair it. Every year it is really difficult for them to rebuild the house. Now that a barrier wall was built thanks to the German Embassy she will not need to rebuild her house anymore. She says she can save the money to send her kids to school. She is very thankful to the German Embassy.

3) Tsomo

On July 27^th, Tashi Lhamo also interviewed Tsomo, a 23 year-old woman. She said that with the barrier wall, she does not need to worry about the flood and rebuild her house anymore. She also said that she will never forget the German Embassy’s kindness and she said thanks many times during the interview

4) Drodrung

On July 27^th, Tashi Lhamo interviewed a man named Drodrung who is 24 years old. There are three people in his family, his wife and one-year-old baby. He said that when he married his wife they had no parental support, so they had no place to go and that is why they came to Yatong, where they live in poor conditions in a small, ramshackle house. The monastery leader told them they couldn’t live there during the summer because the flood would damage all their belongings. However, now that the barrier wall is built under the help of the German Embassy his family can live in the village for many years and he is really happy about it. He wished the best to the German Embassy.

5) Qenqing Hlasto

On July 27th, I interviewed Renqing Hlasto, she is 72 years old and she was a healer-oracle. She has no any children and she lives alone in her house. She told me the floodwater can cause many disasters, bringing down our houses and belongings. A few years ago one of her friends was drowned. Sometimes she could not keep her tears rolling down from her eyes when she was telling me the problems. Whenever the summer rainfall comes they worry a lot about the floodwater. Now that the stable barrier wall is built, it can protect the villagers and their belongings from the floodwater. They do not need to worry about the flood. She thanks a lot the German Embassy.

Letter of appreciation

Translation of thank you letter

Immeasurable appreciation toward your kindness

Dear German Embassy staff members:

Our Yatong village (Aga monastery) is in Jialaxi, Narong County, Ganzi prefecture, Sichuan province. We used to worry about the disaster which was brought by the river floods during summer. We really felt unsafe to live in our homeland for many years. Fortunately, by your foundation’s generosity, kindness and helpfulness, we got saved since this barrier wall project started. From Tashi Lhamo we received 43,136 RMB to save our and many other people’s lives and to make us feel safer and more comfortable to live in our villages.

We feel that the money was spent reasonably and usefully. We made and bought every single material with its receipt. Because of your help our villagers don’t need to repair their houses any more with their limited income, instead they can use the money to buy daily needs and to send children to school. In this way, our children will get more chances and possibilities to attend school to bring up their own and local community’s future. Also, the monks will not need to fix their houses any more since this project stopped the floods that used to damage them.

Both our villagers and monks appreciate your infinite help. We can say nothing else but “Thank you very much.” Your support for this project has helped to improve the life of 17 households and a monastery of about 200 people.

From all of us, we send the best wishes for your following days and future work. Hopefully, this collaborative work can be a precedent for future cooperation with Tibetan communities.

Receipts

Receipt #1

Receipt #2

Receipt #3

Receipt #4

Receipt #5

Receipt #6

Receipt #7

Receipt #8

Receipt #9

Receipt #10

Receipt #11

Original Proposal

Project Location
The project is located in Aga monastery in Yatong village. Yatong village is in Jialaxi Township, Narong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Yatong village is 13 km from Narong County town.

Project Background
Aga monastery is in Yatong village in the south of Jialaxi Township, near Jialaxi River. Aga monastery, though small in size with 107 monks, has a deep and long history. Built more than three hundred years ago, it houses many ancient artifacts. There are seventeen households surrounding the monastery. These 17 households together make up Yatong village. Aga monastery is the most ancient monastery in Narong County.

Yatong is actually classified as neither an agricultural village nor a nomadic village. Therefore, most households own no land and have no livestock. The village has 4 single men and 2 healer-oracles. In addition, there are 8 households, which were moved near the monastery from nomadic areas. In 1998, there was a heavy snow lasting seven days. Thus, most of these households’ livestock died from starvation. There are also three young couples who, since they married without parental support, had no place to go and so came to Yatong to eek out a living in poor conditions in small, ramshackle houses.

Population
There are approximately 70 people in the village. There are 31 men, 25 women and 14 children. In addition, in the monastery, there are 107 full monks and 21 young monk-acolytes. The monks are from different villages in Jialaxi Township. The youngest monk is 12 years old and the oldest monk is 76 years old. The majority of the monks are 30-45 years old.

Education
In terms of monastery residents, there are 107 monks in the monastery. Almost all of these monks have no formal schooling. Only 18 of the 107 monks attended school before they entered the monastery. 89 of the monks have never received any non-monastic education. .

As for the non-monastic Yatong village residents, there are 9 school-aged children, but none of them are going to school because their parents cannot afford their tuition fees and the nearest school is 5 kilometers away. It would be very hard for them to go to school and return home on foot every day.

Cash Income
Most of the monks in the monastery make barely enough money to support themselves. The cost of clothes, medicine, and electricity per person per year is about 650 RMB. Fortunately, they do not need to pay for fuel or water. They fetch water from Jialaxi River, near the monastery. The average monk is able to make about 650 RMB per year.

The monks of Aga earn their living in three ways. First, they earn up to 60 RMB by begging every month in the surrounding villages. Second, when there is an opportunity, they can earn about 10 RMB and 1 kilogram of noodles per day for chanting in people’s houses. Third, monks who are over 50 years of age must depend on their families.

The government provides tea leaves and salt to 6 unmarried villagers who are without children. The government gives each healer-oracle or single person 350 RMB per year for their tealeaves and salt. However, this is not enough for their annual needs. Fortunately, the leader of the monastery helps them beg for tsamba, butter and flour from surrounding villages in Jialaxi Township. The leader of the monastery gives each healer -oracle or single person about 30kg of tsamba, 10kg of flour and 2kg of cheese every month. The Villagers go out and work to earn money. Men and women both go to construction sites to carry baskets of earth on their backs. Through this work, each woman can earn 20 RMB per day and each man can earn 25 RMB per day. Some women rent other people’s fields so as to be able to plant crops, giving back half the barley they grow to the property owners as rent. The average cash income is approximately 1,400 RMB per person per year, which the villagers use to maintain their houses and to buy clothes, food and other supplies. This amount is not enough since each family actually needs about 3,500 RMB for adequate necessities every year . Since they have no land and no livestock, their lives depend only on this meager cash income.

Agriculture
The monks themselves don’t have any fields. Their families are in one of the several villages of Jialaxi Township. These families support the monks by giving food, clothes and building houses for them. A rich family has about 8 mu of land with which they can earn 3,000 RMB per year. And a poor family has about 3 to 4 mu with which they can earn about 1,000 RMB per year.

Herding
Some of the villagers raise livestock. The families located nearby the monastery each own, on average, 4 cows, 1 bull and 2 female yaks. From the cows and female yaks they have enough butter and cheese for themselves, but they have no extra butter or cheese to sell. Monk’s families similarly have about seven animals per family on average, while the monks themselves have no livestock at all.

Weather
Four seasons a year is normal, but summer and autumn come with almost daily rainfall in Yatong village. Thus, in summer and autumn, Jialaxi River floods over every year. The flooding is a disaster for the monastery and village. Floodwaters rush through the residents’ houses, causing damage and destruction. In fact, a healer-oracle named Dengzi Dorlma drowned in the flooding of 2002. In the winter, the weather is very cold but the villagers are able to obtain wood to make fire.

Project Goals and Benefits

The overall goal of the project is to improve the safety and living standards of the villagers and monks. The immediate goal of this project is to build a barrier wall, 350m long, 1.5m high, 0.8m wide and 0.5m on top, in order to prevent flooding.

Problems
Flooding
Every summer, Jialaxi River rises and it turns a brownish color. The flood damages all the monks’ belongings, including some scriptures, books, clothing, statues, and even their houses. Flood waters damages villagers’ clothing, food and other belongings. The floodwaters can also take lives. For example, as mentioned above, on the night of July 4 th 2002 the flood took the life of Dengzi Dorlma and destroyed her house. The floodwaters rise one second and recede the next. Therefore, the villagers are unable to determine how to protect themselves from flooding before the floodwaters arrive. Sometimes the water level swells at daytime, and sometimes it swells at nighttime when people are sleeping.

High Stress
Because of the frequency of flooding all the villagers and the monks tend to worry a lot and are unable to sleep at night in summer. Especially on rainy days they know that the flood might come. So some people don’t sleep all night long to watch the flood and to prepare to run away. Also as the flood has destroyed the villagers’ families and destroyed or damaged all their property, their lives are extremely difficult. So the residents of this area are under a lot of stress.

Economic problems
P arents in Yatong village have no money to send their children to school, as the flood periodically destroys all their things. Thus, both parents and children have to go out and look for jobs to earn the money to survive. Though the parents get some money from work they have to use it to reconstruct flood-damaged houses and basic necessities. Therefore at this time the village’s parents have put the education of their children out of their minds as an impossible goal. In addition, it is difficult for them to get enough food as they have nothing left after the floods. Each family has been spending more than 2000 RMB per year rebuilding their houses.

Health
Because of every year the flood comes and the villagers are not able to completely rebuild their houses, in winter they live in extremely poor conditions. So often the villagers are very cold and the children are likely to get serious illnesses. However, when this happens, of course, they have no money to buy medicine and see doctors.

Benefits

If a barrier wall is built, 200 people will benefit from the project. Because the dam can block floodwaters from the river, it can protect the village and the monastery from the floods. Therefore the people will be safe and the floods will not destroy their houses and belongings. Their conditions will improve and they needn’t spend their money rebuilding their houses each year. In addition, with a barrier wall, people will no longer die from the flood.

As p arents will not need to spend their money rebuilding their houses, they will be able to use that money to send their children to school. Therefore the village’s children will be able to attend school and will have the chance to improve their future opportunities.

The money the villagers will save from not needing to rebuild their houses, about 2000 RMB per year, can also be used to buy daily necessities such as food and clothes.

With houses that are not continuously damaged and in need of repairs or rebuilding, the village children will be less likely to get cold and sick. In addition, money saved due to the building of a barrier wall can be spent on medicine.

Beneficiaries
200 people will directly benefit from this project

Gender equality
I am the first woman from my hometown taking charge of an endeavor of import to the village. People have been surprised that I am taking on this endeavor, especially the men in my hometown. Since women have a low position in the culture of my home area, most people believe women are unable to do such things. So, if this project is successful, there will be the added advantage that the villagers will get rid of their idea that women are only good for housework. Also, the female members of my hometown will be encouraged by my example.

Governmental support
On March 9th 2006, Tsering (the leader of the monastery) and Chos las Rgyl `tsho (the second leader of the monastery) met with Songga Lima, our county leader, to discuss this project. Songga Lima decided to give us the permission to do the project.

Sustainability
This project is very sustainable, because all the villagers and monks will benefit from this project for the long-term. T he monks and the villagers will be responsible for the sustainability of this project. They will pay for maintenance of the barrier wall after the project is completed. In addition, the leader of the monastery Kanqian Tsering already contacted Boss Li who is from Narong county town. Boss Li is a good constructor and he has a lot of experience with architecture. He was responsible for the completion of Dengguang Square in our county town in August 2006. Boss Li promised Tsering to bring his skilled workers to Aga monastery (Yatong village) to establish a firm dam. We will sign a contract with them so that after the dam is completed, we managers will oversee it and if we think it is not well built, we can ask them rebuild it at no extra cost. They live in our county town and will be required to do as we ask.

The steps of the project

Hold a meeting to discuss urgent needs and gather information for project proposal (already completed)

Meet with Kan Qian Tsering who is the leader of the monastery to discuss detailed plans for a dam. (Already completed)

Meet with the villagers and the monks and let them choose three work committee leaders (already completed):

One is the leader of the monastery, Qian Tsering.

One is the second leader of the monastery Chos las Rgyl `tsho

One is a woman who has more education and experience than other women in the village, Erji Hlamo.

Write project proposal. (Already completed)

Have a meeting with the three leaders of the project Tsering, Chos las Rgyl` tso and Erji Hlamo. Together, we will arrange the time and hire some other villagers’ tractors in order to carry the stones, sand and cement.

Hire 2 experienced tractor drivers who are from another village to carry stones, cement and sand. The cement and sand will be purchased from Narong county town. It is 13km from the village. The stone will be purchased near the village.

Hire skilled workers in our Narong county town to start construction work.

Supervise the process of the project.

Complete the project.

Interview local children, men and women and monks for a final report.

Take pictures for a final report.

Write the final report.

Send the final report with all pictures and receipts.

Timeframe
Time line: From the time that the proposal is approved, this project will take approximately 36 days.
1 day: Hold a village meeting.
8 days: Transport stones from nearby village.

5 days: Purchase sand and cement to transport from county town.
1 day: Purchase small materials and transport from our county town.
20 days: Build the barrier wall.
1 day: Hold a second village meeting to clarify responsibilities of dam committee and announce completion of project.

Detailed Budget

Local Contribution

Photos

Villagers to rebuild their houses and prevent floodwaters from reaching their homes use the logs in the picture.

Jialaxi River and the households located beside the river.

A neighboring village

This is a healer-oracle’s home, close to the river. She is named Tsechen Zhouma

This is a diagram of the barrier wall that we plan to build

To provide clean, stable water supply for local villagers, reduce women’s burden and protect water source with sustainable water—plant trees.

The Shambala Connection funded this project

Gadouzhuoma (Lillian) -is from Hezuo City, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, and Gansu Province, China. Currently, studying in English Training Program, Qinghai Normal University for her associate degree, majoring in Tibetan and English.

What?

•1. Build 450m metal fence around the water source.

•2. Plant trees around the water source.

•3. Build 250m concrete water ditch along the flowing water for the villagers.

Who? Lurixi Village, Mari Township, Zhuoni County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province，China.

Photos of project implementation

This is a scene of Lurixi Village.

Those pictures have shown that the ditch built to hold water together and it is well built as villagers commented from the manager’s visit to Lurixi village.

The above pictures show the trees planted as part of this project, and now the water source is surrounded by trees and no longer damaged from destruction from human behaviors and animals. As well as building a metal fence around the water source. Villagers here in Lurixi Village also built religious flags to pray for good luck.

Zhaxicuo (b.1973) is the woman in the picture fetching clean water. She is one of the project beneficiaries, she is happy about the project.

Zhoumaoji (b.1994) is the girl on the picture, she is in grade six this year, and she has a lot of homework to do after finishing fetching water, but this project has saved a lot of time for doing her home work.

Dingcao (b. 1976) she is a mother to two children and there are four people in total in her family. Her husband is not at home all year round, and two children are still very young and attending primary school. She is the core labor worker at home, and tied with endless tasks. She said even not fetching water from long distance area is a reduction of labor to her. She is fetching water from the ditch in this picture.

This woman’s name is Renqintso (b. 1938),who benefited from this project is very happy, and she told the manager that since now, her daughter and granddaughter do not have to suffer from fetching water from far away places, and she said she is happy that the salamanders are saved now, and their sacred spring/ stream is saved now.

Project summary

Project title: Potable water & environment project for Lurixi Village

Project goals: To provide clean, stable water supply for local villagers, reduce women’s burden and protect water source with sustainable water-plant trees.

Location of project: This project is located in Lurixi Village, Zhuoni County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous prefecture, Gansu Province, PR China. Lurixi village is about 90km away from Hezuo, the capital of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

Total beneficiaries: In total about 309 people directly benefits from this project and around 1,400 people from 5 adjacent villages and at least 300 pilgrims a year also get benefit indirectly.

Implementation organization/individual: Gatubdrolma (Lillian), Lurixi Village water committee with 6 people and Shem Women’s group.

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received

The project manager Gatubdrolma (Lillian) received 61,350rmb donation from The Shambala Connection on March 7^th, 2007.

Details of project activities

Originally planned project activities:

Project Activities:

Step 1. Got ideas from local people and gathered information on their conditions and needs through community meetings. Choose 6 people, including two local women, to form a local project committee responsible for sustainability.

Step 2. Collected information from experts and experienced workers about the workers salaries, project design and potential risks.

Step 3. Went to the local market to visit several businesses and asked about the prices of different items and materials.

Step 4. Took pictures of site and the places where the project is planned to take place, interviewed some of people who will benefit from the project.

Step 5. Wrote budget and project proposal.

The above 5 steps are completed already.

If the project is funded

Step 6. Implementation of the project.

1) Choose a reliable company from which to purchase construction materials and sign a contract which guarantees quality.

2) Buy materials with the local project committee, villagers and deliver them to the project site. Prepare villagers for upcoming work and responsibilities.

3) Make a detailed and organized working schedule for the whole project to make sure it is finished on time.

4) Begin Construction:

There are three main activities in this project:

• Put wire nettings around the newly bought steel pillars to encircle the water source. This needs 450m of wire and 150 steel pillars.
• Inside the newly built fence, plant small trees to form a second barrier to avoid destruction from both human and animals.
• Build a concrete water ditch at each side of the stream, as the original ditch is made out of soil but it was easily destroyed so we want to build a strong ditch along the sacred stream for about 250m.

Step 7. Take pictures and make a plaque acknowledging the donor’s contribution.

Step 8. Interview some of the beneficiaries and gather some information to measure the effectiveness of the project on people’s lives. How it changed people’s living conditions and their attitudes and understandings.

Step 9. Write a detailed project final report including thank you letters, photos, interviews, project activities and report of the benefits of the project.

Step 10. Submit the final report with photos and receipts.

Activities realized in the framework of the project:

•1. The project manager had a meeting with local villager representatives and discussed about problems and solutions.

•2. In May 2006, the project manager designed the project.

•3. The project manager did research on the project and materials needed for the project in local market.

•4. In May 2006, the project manager took pictures and interviewed local villagers.

•5. From May to December of 2006, the project manager was writing project proposal and did the budget with help from Shem Tibetan Women’s Group

•6. On March 7, 2007, the project manager received 61,350RMB from the Shambala Connection.

•7. Because of the weather, the project actually started implementing from March 23 until June 2, 2007.

a) Ditch, the preparation of transporting sands, cement and stones took place from March 23-30. The ditch construction took place from April 22 to May 23, 2007.

b) Planted trees from April 11-21, 2007.

c) Built metal fence took place from May 20 to June 2, 2007.

•8. The project manager took pictures and did interviews from June 16-19 in Lurixi Village and started working on the final report.

•9. The project manager finished the final report on June 22.

Project Finance

In total, the local people paid 25RMB more than the original budget. The explanation see following.

Here are the explanations of any major changes in the budgets

•1. The ditch did not cost as much as money as it is in the budget since the local labor is cheap, as a comparison of expense on receipt number 2, 3 and 4 in the table. The budgeted expense is 40,000RMB in total, but later in receipts and expense, they are all separate.

•2. The metal fence which is 450m long, the price has been increased, and we got to pay for its transportation as well which is not included in the original budget.

•3. The pillars saved some money, since we found out one of the villager is connected to one of the businessman, and this project in Tibetan culture is considered as a merit, so they charged us very cheaply.

•4. The government has a large area of small trees; they sell them to others to make some money. However, water should be part of government work, and environment protection is also one of the government works. They agreed to sell the plants cheaply to us, but they did not do it at the end. In the original budget, there are 4,050RMB as local contributions from government, but they were unable to cover this, and they charged us higher than they promised due to the change of leadership and we were not able to get an official letter from them saying they would contribute something to the project.

•5. Administrative cost, this is item of expense is for Village Water Committees’ transportation and accommodation cost for purchasing the materials and communication expense, such as phone bill.

List of recipients:

A scanned photo of recipient list

A translation of the names in English

Lurixi Village Household Namelist:

1.Zhoujiekar 2. Sangguo 3. A lou 4. Sambo 5. Daogao 6. Yem Tashi 7. Peba Xiu 8. Dangtso 9. Zhoujia Xiu 10. Mina 11. Daitso 12. Tuotso 13. Daojee Dongzhib 14. Loushi 15. Tserang 16. Nimaotso 17. Lamao Xiu 18. Tashi Tsedan 19. Lamao Tashi

Changguo Village Household Namelist:

1. Renqin 2. Zhouxiu 3. Niangyang 4. Angjel 5. A bu 6. Keshun 7. Fengyin 8. Qinshun 9. Ma Tserang 10. Zengyin 11. Tserang 12. Fuseng 13. Luosang 14. Baoshen 15. Baoxiang 16. Wenzong 17. Yim Tserang 18. Senglin 19. Renqin 20. Wenchen 21. Bedma 22. Guodi 23. Heyin 24. Lamao 25. Wendi 26. Zixiang 27. Liujiadi 28. Gayin 29. Paba 30. Linxiang

Delays, Difficulties, and lessons learned
Delays
We delayed the date of final report for about a month. The reason is because the project took longer than we expected. We expect it will be done in two months the most, but it took three months instead. There are three reasons for that: a) local villagers are busy with farming. b) Men are not at home, only women, and women are tied with work load at home, are unable to help with the implementation much. c) The workers we hired to construct the ditch did not do good job, and we required them to do the work again.
Difficulties
•1. Lack of labor to help with the construction

March, April are the seasons for farming, and people are busy working on the field, and we can’t get enough labors to help with the implementation.

Later when the farming work is mostly finished, men are out to earn money and women have to take care of children, elders and house work. So still we don’t have many people to help with the implementation

•2. Conflict between modern needs and our project

After the farming period is finished, men all out doing paid work. This income is actually very important for them; this is about 60% percent of cash income the family could make in a year. However, the project is also very important to them for a long term development.

•3. Manager can’t be on the field and monitor the project all the time.

The project manager Gatubdrolma (Lillian) is working in Xining, which is about 450km away from the project site, and she can’t go back and be on the field all the time. So, the bigger responsibilities of supervising the project quality and process are shouldered by the Village Water Committee.

•4. Transportation condition is bad.

The road to Lurixi village is very bad at the time the project is implementing, the government was paving road, and cause destruction, and the only bridge to the village is damaged badly, the tractors which transport sands and stones can’t go through.

•5. Government policy and project implementation.

One part of the project is to build metal fence around the water source to protect the source from getting pollution from human behaviors. However, it is a new policy that government decided to make this village and the valley located as a tourist spot, so the government tried to build road, which had damaged the fence a bit because the fence is just on the way they planned to build road. Although some work was wasted there, we managed to repair the fence again.

•6. Change from local government level.

The government has a large area of small trees; they sell them to others to make some money. However, water should be part of government work, and environment protection is also one of the government works. They agreed to sell the plants cheaply to us, but they did not do it at the end.

•7. The hired experts not doing good work when the project manager or the village committees were not there. The hired experts did not do a good job with the ditch, and the ditch is not deep enough, which means it would have problems and have cracks during winter time, so asked them do it again.
Lessons learned
•1. If the project is taking longer than you expected because lack of labor, you’d better use any human resource as you can do, even with people who are elders and children, they can also make small contribution to the implementation of the project.

•2. When people are convinced to take chance of making money outside, we can only try our best to finish the project and let them see the impact themselves, so it will make some changes later.

•3. This time, the project manager was unable to be in the project site all the time. To solve this problem, the project manager formed a committee with 6 people to help with implementation process. Two people are in charge of finance and looking for experts, and all expenses. Two in charge of implementation and monitor the project the hired and local people do. Two in charge of coordinating with local people, and update the project manager about the problems and solutions, as well as decision making.

•4. Resourcefulness is very important. When the road does not allow tractor and vans to go through and transportation problem became a major difficulty for the project, then we depended on local resource such as mules, donkeys and yaks to transport the cement, etc. And we asked local villagers to help us load and unload sacks of sands, etc.

•5. The project manager had negotiated with those government people, and only a small damage did to the fence and government people helped and hired people to help us to repair the fence. So, it is better to know the policy and government plan for the place in advance, so we do not lose money and our effort. If the government is planning to do a running water project in the project site, then it is a waste of money and time to apply for fund for water project from another organization.

•6. The project manager learnt that when the government people agreed to do something for you, it is better to get a paper or certification from them with stamp, so you can show them later when they did not carry out promises.

•7. The water committee discovered the hired experts are not doing well, and reported to the project manager, and project manager insisted on doing all the work again. We did not pay all the money at first, so they had to give in and do all the work again. It is better to hold some money back for a year, and make sure there is no quality problem; then pay all the money to them.

Interviews

Zhoumaoji (b.1994) is the girl on the picture, she is in grade six this year, and she is graduating in a week, still she is doing house work. She said she fetched water when she was about eight years old because in her family, her brothers and father, all men don’t do this. Mother is very busy, and she got to help her mother, so her mother will have easier life. She said when she was small, she followed her mother to fetch water from very far away places, and she was very cold during winter when the river in the village dried. She said now life is much easier, she doesn’t have to wait for a long time to fetch a whole bucket of water and come back very late everyday and had no time to do homework.

Zhaxicuo (b.1973) is the woman in the picture fetching water. She said she has never attended school but all her brothers did. She said in her village, men don’t fetch water, don’t collect fuels, do not do farming work, and those are all women’s tasks. She said after a day’s work in the field or up on the mountains, she really wants to take some break, but at home waiting for her is cooking and fetching water. She had to go to 5 km away water source area to fetch water before during winter. It was so cold and she took her daughter to help her to go fetch water. If this method of planting trees can keep water stable and flow year round, it will be great, and she is very happy about this project. She said before she even did not know she can also participate in such project, and help with the implementation and basic work. When her family has money, men got the right and power to make decision to what to buy, where the money should be spent, and never something that can benefit women. This time this project is very good and can help women in many ways.

Dingcao (b. 1976) she is a mother to two children and there are four people in total in her family. Her husband is not at home all year round, and two children are still very young and attending primary school. She is the core labor worker at home, and tied with endless tasks. She said even not fetching water from long distance area is a reduction of labor to her. Her daughter is only 10 and Dingcao was thinking to let her quit school to help her with house work. I was thinking to send my son alone to school, and I always think girls are useless. But I can see from this project, and heard from the project manager many girls are doing great things, and I am convinced to let my daughter continue her education in school. I hope my daughter will be a capable person and like the manager to help the local people. Thanks very much for the Shambala Connection.

Zhijieka (b. 1954) he is in the Water Committee and he told me, although there were some problems and obstacles in this process of doing the project. Some men thought it is not that important comparing to making money for a family income. It only means they are near-sighted, and this village has been suffered from no water to fetch during the winter. Of course, men also have the responsibility and commitment to make things better in our village. Everyone needs water, and this project has been great. We also got some men working for us during the implementation. After the project has been done, every body is happy. This also shows that women can do good job as men do.

Letter of appreciation

Scanned letter in Tibetan

Translation

Dear The Shambala Connection:

Thanks very much for your help with this water project. It has helped us a lot and made our life more convenient, especially to women and girls, girls and women are the one who fetch water in our village. This project is truly helpful. For this village, we never get any attention or benefits from neither government nor charitable organization. As well as projects that benefit women, who always have to undertake heavy workload. This project is very meaningful and sustainable, and we want to say thank you to you all and wish you all the best luck. We wish your work move forward smoothly and successfully.

Tashi Delek

From all villagers

May 29^th, 2007.

Receipts

We were unable to get official receipts, because if we demand for official receipts, those businessmen will charge higher price for us, which is beyond our budget. Also those skilled workers are not from government or any company, they are from local area and they can’t provide an official receipts as well.

Receipt 1:

Receipt 2:

Receipt 3:

Receipt 4:

Receipt 5:

Original Proposal

Project Location
Lurixi Tibetan Community, Mari Township, Zhuoni County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, PR. China. This village is about 90km away from the Hezuo City, the major city of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu Province.

Population
1. This project will benefit two villages, Lurixi and Changguo.The population in Lurixi Village is 129 people. 47 men, 56 women and 26 children (under 17)The population in Changguo Village is 180 people. 64 men, 78 women and 38 children (under 17)The total population that would benefit from this project is 309 people . Among them, 30% of the people are over 50, 26% are under 17 and the remaining 34% are between 17 to 50 years old. 55% of the total population is women.2. This project may also benefit 5 adjacent villages with more than 1,400 people and at least 300 pilgrims a year.Education
Throughout the history of the village only one person has ever received an official job. 90% of the adults can’t read or write. There are about 34 school-aged children in this village, but only 80% of them attend school from primary to high school. The remaining 20% of the children stay at home. Although the government announced a policy of free tuition, schools in rural areas still collect money from the children, which make it difficult for some families to send them to school. Also, some families need children to help with herding or to do some housework. Finally, the primary school is far away from the village, about 15km, while the middle school is in the county town, about 45km away.Cash income
The average person in this village makes 150 RMB per year by selling extra farming products (beans) and a limited number of livestock (sheep, yaks, butter and wool) .

Taxes
There have been no taxes since last year. In the past, people used grain and some money to pay for their livestock and farmland. An average family needed to pay 200-300 jin of grain and around 100 RMB.

Agriculture
The total number of farmland one family owns depends on the number of family members recorded when the village divided the land many decades ago. In the two villages, the biggest family might have 12 mu of farmland while the smallest might have about 4 mu. They grow wheat, rapeseeds and beans, with the highest yield of wheat being about 500 jin.

Herding
Not all the families in this village own livestock. Those that do own livestock have anywhere between 5 and 45 sheep. Only 9 families own more than 12 sheep and there is one family that owns 21 yaks. The average family has about 7 sheep and 1 yak.

Weather
There is no clear change between spring and winter. Cold weather lingers for about 5 months, requiring people to wear heavy clothing. Since the farmland is all in the mountains, they depend heavily on rain. In 2006 the land suffered from a severe drought, which greatly affected farming output. One year the rapeseed crop dried out and in 2006 some of the land only generated 200 jin of grain per mu. This forces people to spend money on food that would otherwise be provided by farming.

Project Goals
The overarching goal of the project is to establish a well protected potable water resource for villagers and a religious center.

The immediate goal of the project is to create a protective barrier of trees and fencing around the water source, and reinforce the existing irrigation ditches on each side of the river with 250m of concrete.

Problems
An unstable water source used by 309 people, in two villages, and 500 livestock. The stream that is traditionally used for drinking is seasonally unstable. During the winters of 2002, 2003, 2004 this sacred stream dried up and women and children had to fetch drinking water from sources at least 5km away. During the freezing winters this trip takes 2 hours each way. There are five major causes for this problem:

Deforestation makes the water supply unstable. It has been prohibited to cut down trees in this area since 1998, though before that people used to cut trees for sale in order to generate cash. However, after the prohibition people have continued to cut down trees in secret, in order to make money. There are no other natural resources villagers can depend on to generate income, so they resort to cutting trees. To improve their living conditions villagers have ignored the daily deterioration of the environment, even though they know they are on a path that leads to destruction. It will no longer be possible for the younger generations to continue a life their parents had. The surrounding 6 villages have also followed these changes.

The irrigation ditches that are dug in soil lose water quickly and are often stagnant. Since there are no stable ditches along the stream people use dirt and stones to build ditches. However, livestock often destroy these ditches and water flows everywhere. The decreased power of the stream has caused the water-powered prayer wheels to stop turning and the water supply is no longer stable, even in the summer time when there is plenty of rainfall. The stream regularly dries up in the winter.

The worn-out fence used to protect the water source is in a bad condition and unable to prevent pollution and destruction. There used to be a fence that protected the water source, built a long time ago by villagers. It was constructed with wood pillars and thin wire, but outside visitors and livestock oft en ran into the fence – not only damaging the original ecosystem but also seriously polluting the water source. Since the villagers have a very constrained income, people have no money to repair and improve the damaged fence.

Lack of awareness of the importance of the environment. Three years of the water source drying up in the winter has made people in the area afraid and has caused big problems for women and children who need to fetch water. However, the awareness doesn’t last long since poor living conditions make them reluctant to face reality. They have no ability, at present, to guarantee access to a water resource free from pollution and destruction.

Lack of money makes the drinking water supply unsustainable. Most of villagers’ annual income depends entirely on selling extra grain, some livestock and unskilled labor which at most earns them about 150 rmb per person per year. The main method of making a living relies on non-irrigated farmland, which depends heavily on the weather. Most families work hard in the field only to get enough food to eat; and some don’t even grow enough to eat and end up spending money on food. The main crops are wheat, barley, potato, rape, and beans – using about 2 mu of field per person. There is no extra money for them to put towards changes in their current living condition, although they think it is important. People realize that one day they’ll be in danger losing their drinking water, but they can do nothing without the income required to make a change.

For the period of time when the water is dried out during winter, women and children, especially female children, are heavily loaded with the task of fetching water from distant areas, 2 hours for a single trip. This greatly affects female children in their studies since they spend a lot of time fetching water in the freezing winter. Female students do poorly in school not because they lack the ability, but because they have no time to study.

Among the 309 people, in Changguo Village there are about 142 that drink from the same stream. When the stream dries out, they fetch water from Luqu River. People in upper areas along the Luqu River have a practice where they throw dead bodies and dead animals into the river and also wash their clothes there. This has caused many people in Changguo Village to become ill. Some people get swollen necks and some get stomachaches. Also, locals believe that this water is causing brain problems in some local children, affecting approximately 8 children so far.

The Sacred Stream is a habitat for small giant salamanders. In this area, people collect them when they are in the minnow stage and believe swallowing them will solve people and livestock’s physical problems, such as broken bones and stomach illnesses. The pharmaceutical aspect of the stream benefits both people and livestock. It is believed strongly that this Sacred Stream can cure illnesses related to eyes, stomach and skin diseases. Both now and in the past, numerous people from surrounding areas and faraway places like Qinghai and Sichuan have come to wash their bodies and drink the water in order to solve their physical problems. If the water dries out, then the special species of salamander that live sin this river will be endangered.

Solutions
To protect and reinforce the villages water resources

• Water origin: create a protective barrier around the water source. We plan to build a 450m long wire netting fence that will circle the water source and plant 1350 small trees as a secondary barrier to avoid destruction from both humans and animals. This will keep the water source in a healthy condition. (The water origin is a place covered with some trees and there are many small springs, they all flow together and flow down to make this local stream, and this is not the place where people fetch water, but this place is important if it is protected to avoid pollution for the main local stream, where people fetch water).

• Reinforce the existing dirt irrigation ditches. Build two 250m wide irrigation ditches lined with concrete on the each side of the stream. This will protect the salamander habitat and at the same time increase the strength of the river by preventing water from escaping. This way, more water the water-powered prayer wheels will turn and the stream won’t dry up in the cold season. More water will also protect rare animals like the giant salamanders and give them a space to survive. This will preserve local cultural traditions and help those villagers using the salamanders as medicine for livestock when they get sick.

Through the two activities above, villagers can expect to recover the environmental health of this area and have the stream flow year-round. Also, people will continue to benefit from the existence of the stream.

Benefits
Provide potable and sustainable drinking water for 309 people and livestock, the water will be reliable and clean so that people won’t get diseases from drinking.

1. Release women and children from their unnecessary burden of fetching water from faraway places if the river is dried up.
2. Provide children, especially female students, more time for their study since they are released from work. We can imagine that if they had to fetch water during the winter and walk for long distances it could be a heavy burden.
3. Pollution and destruction will no longer threaten the water source and make it unreliable or unstable.
4. People from everywhere can come to cure illnesses by washing in the sacred stream.
5. People will think protect ing the environment is for their own benefit. It will also raise the local people’s awareness of protecting their own land, as well as nearby villages.
6. With this sacred stream sustainable, salamanders could inhabit and the respect and beliefs for the stream continues, so it will bring continuously pilgrimages constantly and solve local people and livestock’s health-related problems.

Interviews of the beneficiaries

Interview 1
Lhamotso (b.1954) is a 52 year-old woman from Lurixi Village, who married into this village when she was 17 years old. She said, “This village used to be the central place of this area and people would gather together to chant scriptures and discuss some big events taking place in the area, helping each village to provide suggestions. There was no problem with the drinking water and we had lived on this water for many generations, but since we started to cut trees to sell it has declined. Although we made some money to buy TVs and tractors, the stream we were drinking from became smaller and smaller. Some century-old trees fell down without any reason and died out. The Lhama said it is because we hurt the stream and put pollution into it. Three years ago, we had to go to faraway places with our children to fetch water during the freezing winter. You could never imagine how cold those winters were and the children were so miserable and some got chilblains on their hands. Tibetan women always have more disadvantages than the men in many ways.”

Interview 2
Kaka (b.1946) an old man from Changguo Village said that he used to drink from Luqu River when he was young. “Many people got sick and got big tumors on their necks. Later they tried to fetch water from a sacred stream from a nearby village, and the number of people with diseases decreased. However, it was not very reliable in the summer or winter. It was often the case that there was no water in the stream during winter; so we had to go to very faraway places or just continue to fetch water from Luqu River. If we had time we would go faraway, but when we are busy we would have to drink water from Luqu River. In the winter, fetching water is very difficult and the road is slippery. My wife and daughter always had to go and it took them more than 2 hour each trip. We men seldom go, if you have no female members in your family, then you may go. Otherwise, we would rather stay at home.”

Gender equality
It’s a common knowledge around Tibetan communities that women and children are the people with no power and many disadvantages. This is the case here in these two target villages. Women have to do most of the farm work, family chores, and raise children as well as fetch water and collect fuel. According to the villagers, during the winters of 2002, 2003 and 2004, this sacred stream dried up and the women and children had to fetch drinking water from places at least 5km away. It took 2 hours for a single journey during the freezing winter. Whenever this stream dries up the women had to take on extra work. Families with good conditions would use livestock to carry water but the families without livestock would have to carry two buckets full of water on their shoulders. This project can release women from unexpected and unnecessary burdens. Of course women will be the main beneficiaries of this project and it will be very welcome. Women will participate in all level of project implementation, collecting local contributions, and providing unskilled labor alongside local men during construction. This project will give the project manager practical and real training on doing research in local area, observing living conditions and organizing local villagers such that project implementation is successful. It is such a large project that its implementation will hopefully cause local people to think about females in a different way, maybe reducing some of their old prejudices against females.

Governmental support
The project manager met with the township leader, Libum, and he agreed that the project would be wonderful for the community and offered his support

The steps of the project

Step 1. Got ideas from local people and gathered information on their conditions and needs through community meetings. Chose 6 people, including two local women, to form a local project committee responsible for sustainability.
Step 2. Collected information from experts and experienced workers about the workers salaries, project design and potential risks .
Step 3. Went to the local market to visit several businesses and ask about the prices of different items and materials.
Step 4. Took pictures of site and the places where the project is planned to take place, interviewed some of people who will benefit from the project.
Step 5. Wrote budget and project proposal.
The above 5 steps are completed already.

If the project is funded
Step 6. Implementation of the project.
1) Choose a reliable company from which to purchase construction materials and sign a contract which guarantees quality.
2) Buy materials with the local project committee and villagers and deliver them to the project site. Prepare villagers for upcoming work and responsibilities.
3) Make a detailed and organized working schedule for the whole project to make sure it is finished on time.
4) Begin Construction:

There are three main activities in this project:
a) Put wire nettings around the newly bought steel pillars to encircle the water source. This needs 450m of wire and 150 steel pillars.

b) Inside the newly built fence, plant small trees to form a second barrier to avoid destruction from both human and animals.
c) Reinforce the irrigation ditches at each side of the stream with concrete. As the original ditch is made out of soil but it was easily destroyed so we want to build a strong ditch along the sacred stream for about 250m.
Step 7. Take pictures and make a plaque acknowledging the donor’s contribution.
Step 8. Interview some of the beneficiaries and gather some information to measure the effectiveness of the project on people’s lives. How it changed people’s living conditions and their attitudes and understandings.

Step 9. Write a detailed project final report including thank you letters, photos, interviews, project activities and report of the benefits of the project.
Step 10. Submit the final report with photos and receipts.

Timeframe
This project will be completed within two months as the most.

Detailed Budget
Donor Contribution

Local Contribution

Sustainability
The earlier ideas of this project came from local people about two years ago, when village elders mentioned that they really need such a project to be supported. From February of 2006, I started gathering information and photographs that might help inform the donors. In May of 2006, I visited local markets to find out reliable prices for the materials that must be purchased. I asked different skilled workers about the money that would have to be paid, asked the villagers what has to be done to complete this project, what are the local contributions and local involvement that could be promised. I asked what are the potential risks and the predictable project influences and effects and how important this project will be to the people who will benefit from it. Combining all the suggestions and information, this proposal was developed based upon actual local people’s needs and requests. I speak on behalf of my local villagers.

This is project is sustainable, since it is related to water and the local beneficiary villagers have formed a committee that will manage the project and be responsible for the further maintenance.

The donors are expected to reserve the right to visit and inspect projects at any time. The village project committee, as well as the local villagers and I will be responsible for maintaining the project after it has been implemented. If there are any unexpected costs or expenses for repairs, the villagers and villager leader agreed to pay for it.

Additional Information
This project must be implemented in summer when it is easy to do construction and the weather is good but also before the busy harvesting period. It is impossible to do this project in the winter since the weather is cold. The project must be completed at one time, not in several installments, so we need a block of two months time when the weather is good and the villagers are available to donate their labor.

Additional information for the manager, Gadouzhuoma (Lillian) 2003-applied 25 solar cookers from Canada Fund 2003 Solar Energy Project managed by Fred.
2004-applied 120 solar cookers from Canada Fund 2004-2005 Solar Energy Project
Worked as a co-manger on Canada Fund 2004-2005 Solar Energy Project with two other students, the project is valued at 420,000RMB
2005- applied 156 solar cookers from the Canada Fund 2005-2006 Solar Energy Project.
Worked as the manager of Canada Fund 2005-2006 Solar Energy Project. The project is valued at 420,000RMB.
2002-2006- I have completed six second-hand clothes projects to six different rural Tibetan communities in Gannan Prefecture of Gansu Province.
Photos

This is an ineffectual fence that was built long ago by villagers, but it now does not prevent the incursion of animals and people from entering. This contributes to the pollution of the water source. Moreover, since 1998 it has been impossible for people to find enough wood to construct it again, because the policy to protect the forests prevents people from getting wood from the forest.

This temple is located beside the Sacred Stream, and it is about 600 hundred years old. This temple was rebuilt during 1996 before the forest prohibition, and the villagers provided most of wood needed for this construction and now it is impossible for them to do the same thing. This village is well known for both the temple and sacred stream.

The dried up source of the sacred stream during a summer when the rainfall is plentiful but it still remained dry. There are several water sources for this sacred stream and, although people built fences around them, this still has not stopped livestock and people entering to pollute the river

The original ditch is mainly constructed with stones and soil, that it cannot gather all water together to turn the water-powered prayer wheels.

Diagrams

General Picture of Lurixi Village and Two Parts of the Project:
1. Rebuild the fence and plant small trees around the river’s source to avoid pollution and destruction by livestock and people.
2. Build ditches along the sacred stream to make the water supply sustainable.

Ditch Construction:

Lurixi Village Map and Location

Map of Zhuoni County, Gannan Tibetan Prefecture, Gansu Province.

This map shows the general location of where this project will take place. The yellow is Gansu province, and on the west side of the portion shown here is Luqu.

This project is to build 40 greenhouses. Create a sustaianable and reliable income. Increase school attendance. Lighten women’s burden.

The Australian Embassy funded this project

Lhamotso is from Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. She graduated in 2005 with an Associated degree in English from Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department’s English Training Program. She is now working as a program director and core staff member of Shem Women’s Group.

What? 30 greenhouses for 30 Tibetan, Han and Hui households
Who? Heluoshi village, Tiegai Township, Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.

Photos of project implementation

The villagers are distributing the cement.

The stones are used for the foundation of the greenhouses

The steel doors were transported to Heluoshi village and the local villagers are distributing them.

The local villagers distribute the cinder blocks

They are building the wall of the greenhouse with cinder blocks

She is a college student and is helping her family build their greenhouse.

The villagers are taking the roller bamboo from the tractor.

They are making the foundation of the greenhouse sturdier using the hammers to compact the stone, cement and water

Both women and men are involved in the distribution of materials, both them are loading the roller bamboo onto the hand tractor.

It is a very cold day, but the villagers are happy to see the other villagers transporting the steel doors from the big tractor to the hand tractor.

They are working on the roof of the greenhouse to make sure the rain cannot leak through.

One of the project beneficiaries, a Hui woman, standing in front of her family’s new greenhouse.

The engineer, who is from Heluoshi village, is making the wall of the greenhouse smoother. The little boy is his son who is standing next to his father and providing water.

All the villagers drove their hand tractors to collect red bricks.

Although they are more than 50 years old, this elderly Hui couple came to get their own red bricks because there are no other people in their family to help them.

The female villagers are carrying the cinder blocks from the tractor.

This woman and this man are couple and they just moved here from a nomadic area. They have had a difficult time since they are not used to working in the fields.

They are mixing cement, stone and water together for the foundation of the greenhouse.

The project manager, Lhamotso, (wearing a white hat) is helping pour the foundation

The villagers are distributing the thin plastic sheeting.

List of Recipients

Project Summary

Project title: Greenhouses for Heluoshi Village

Location of project: This project is located in Heluoshi village, Tiegai Township, Gonghe County, Hainan Prefecture, Qinghai province. Heluoshi village is in the southeastern part of Gonghe County, and it is approximately 170 miles from the provincial capital, Xining.

Implementation organization/individual: Lhamotso (Lily), Wandetai (villager) and the leaders of Heluoshi village

Contact Person: Michelle Kleisath

Funds received: Source, Amount, andDate Received

The Australian Embassy 59,357.32rmb 9th of April 2006

Details of project activities

The originally planned project activities

• Held a meeting with the village leaders and local people to choose the 40 poorest families. The poorest families were chosen based on how much money the family makes each year; the quality of the fields (How much of the fields are covered by sand and stone); how many children go to school; How much money they have borrowed from the bank each year, and how many people are able to work per family. Every single villager agreed that the chosen families are really poor that they should be helped by building the greenhouses.

1. Held a meeting with the village leaders and the engineer. The main content was about where the materials will be purchased: Cement in the County Cement Company in Gonghe county; Red bricks and cinder blocks in the County Tile Factory in Gonghe county; Steel doors in The Prefecture Steel Company in Gonghe county; roller bamboo and thin plastic in the Prefecture Trade Company; and Finally logs in the Prefecture Log Market in Gonghe county.
2. Secure funding from donor organization.
3. Collect local contribution from the villagers
4. Local people begin to collect the rocks and sand from 13km away near the Yellow River.
5. Buy building materials from Gonghe County. Go together with the village leader and the engineer in order to ensure the quality of the materials.
6. Build the greenhouses
7. Evaluate the greenhouses
8. Take pictures
9. Interview the local people (men, women, children)
10. Interview the village leaders.
11. Write final report
12. Send final report with pictures

Activities realized in the framework of the project

1. On 13th of January 2006, Michelle Kleisath emailed me (Lhamotso, the project manger) and told me that the greenhouse project for Heluoshi village was funded by the Australian Embassy.
2. On 19th of January 2006, Michelle Kleisath emailed me again and said that the Australian Embassy gives grants of no more than 10,000 Australian dollars (60,731rmb); and that I had to make the project smaller.
3. On 23rd of January 2006, there was a meeting about making the project smaller with the villagers and the village leaders. We all agreed to choose 30 poorest families in Heluoshi village.
4. On 28th of February 2006, Lhamotso sent the bank information to theAustralian Embassy.
5. On 5th of April 2006, San Chuan Development Group received 59,357.32 rmb from the Donor.
6. On 9th of April 2006, Lhamotso received 59,357.32 rmb
7. On11th of April 2006, Lhamotso and some villagers purchased cement in the County town.
8. On 10th of April 2006, it snowed so the cement could not be transported to Heluoshi village.
9. On 11th –13th of April 2006, 30 tons of cement were transported to Heluoshi village
10. On14th and 15th of April 2006, each household collected sand and rocks for building the greenhouses.
11. On 16th -18th of April 2006, it snowed and rained, and the project was delayed
12. On 19th of April 2006,only two tractors of cinder blocks were transported to Heluoshi village, the factory could not make more because of several days of rain. And also the cinder blocks were not dry enough to build the greenhouses. According the factory, once the cinder blocks were made, they should dry for at least one week. So for the following week the villagers just waited for the cinder blocks to dry.
13. On 27th of April 2006, another two tractors of cinder blocks were transported to Heluoshi village.
14. On 28th of April 2006, red bricks were transported to Heluoshi village and the village leaders helped to distribute red bricks to 30 households.
15. On 1st–2nd of May 2006, the villagers dug the foundations and mixed the sand, cement and stone together to create the foundations.
16. On 3rd–6th of May 2006, Lhamosto interviewed the villagers and took some photos; and the villagers poured the foundations.
17. On 7th of May 2006, we waited for the foundation of the greenhouses to dry.
18. On 8th of May 2006, it rained heavily
19. On 9th of May 2006, the villagers again waited for the foundations to dry.
20. On 10th of May 2006, three tractors of cinder blocks were transported to Heluoshi village.
21. On 11th –20th of May, the villagers just waited for the remaining cinder blocks to arrive
22. On 21st, the steel doors were transported to Heluoshi village
23. On 22nd –27th of May 2006, the logs were transported to each household.
24. On 28th of May –1st of June 2006, the rest of the cinder blocks were transported to Heluoshi village.
25. On 2nd–7th of June, the villagers built the walls of the greenhouses with the cinder blocks.
26. On 8th of June 2006, we installed the steel doors on the greenhouses.
27. On 9th of June 2006, roller bamboos were transported to Heluoshi village
28. On 10th–13th of June 2006, roofs were built using the logs
29. On 14th–15th of June 2006, the roller bamboos were added on to the roofs in order to keep the greenhouse warm.
30. On 16th—20th of June 2006, villagers used cement to make the walls strong and flat.
31. On 23rd of June2006, thin plastic sheeting was transported to Heluoshi village, The vegetables cannot grow at this time of year, so the villagers stored the plastic sheeting for later.
32. On 6th —9th 0f July 2006, Lhamotso (the project manager) interviewed villagers, and village leaders and took photos.
33. On 10th—13th of July, I finished the final report

Delays, difficulties, and lesson learned

Delay of activities

There were many delays during the implementation of the project due to terrible weather conditions. Usually in the April; it does not rain or snow, but unfortunately, this year it snowed and the road was too muddy and slippery to transport the cement. So the villagers had to wait for the weather became nice and sunny before we could begin construction.

In addition, there were not enough cinder blocks in the factory because of the continual rain and snow. The weather caused the factory to stop production for several days. Also, once the cinder blocks were made, people had to leave them out to dry for one week. This caused another delay in construction.

Difficulties encountered when implementing the project

It was very difficult to decrease the size of the project. Originally the 40 poorest families were selected to receive a greenhouse, but once the project was funded, I found out that I would need to reduce the size of the project considerable, from 40 greenhouses to 30. When I told the villagers about this change, they were upset and complained.

We all met together to choose 30 of the poorest families from among the original 40 families, but many people were not happy about the change in plans, and of course those who no longer received greenhouses were unhappy about the decision.

Luckily, after several days, the local government decided to also build a greenhouse project in Heluoshi village. With the two projects combined together, everyone got a greenhouse. The villagers were satisfied because they could all get a greenhouse from one of the two projects.

As described above, the unexpected weather also caused many difficulties and delays. But the factory and the local villagers could not do anything about the weather except wait for it to improve.

Lessons learned

The meetings that we held to make decisions about the project were very important. Although the villagers were unhappy about the changes in our plans, they all attended the meetings and were aware of what was happening, and this helped them feel better about the problems that we encountered.

I also learned that self-confidence is a key factor for project managers, especially female mangers, because most people have negative stereotypes towards women and think that we are unable to do something important like men. But actually women can also do something important, but we need confidence in order to keep pursuing our goal even when others doubt us.

Interviews

Here are interviews with some of the villagers who are the beneficiaries of this project:

1) Zhaojiangong

Zhaojiangong is a Chinese man and he is the father of two children although he is very young. He went to school when he was small, but later, because of the poor living condition, he stopped going to school and stayed at home to help his parents in the fields and do construction work outside. When he was about twenty, his family helped him find a wife from Heluoshi village. He lives with his wife in a very simple mud house, which was bought from one of the villagers. He had very difficult time in the beginning because he is the person who should financially support his family.

He worked very hard in the fields and during the summer time he went out to do construction work to earn a very small amount of money to maintain his family. He did not get any help from his original family or his wife’s original family because they were both too poor. His family is one of the poorest families in Heluoshi village. On 3 rd of May 2006, I went to his house, at that time he was busy building the greenhouse with his wife, and two little kids were sitting on the cold ground. He said it was a very difficult task to build the greenhouse since there were only his wife and he there, but he was happy because he could make money without going out to do construction. He said that now he can raise livestock such as some sheep, goats and cows in the wintertime and plant vegetables in the summer time. And he also mentioned that definitely there was now a hope to send his two children to school and buy school materials for them. He said without the help from the Australian Embassy, he doubts whether he could send his children to school because he could not afford it. He gave many thanks to The Australian Embassy.

2) Gnm-skyid-mtso

Gnm-skyid-mtso is a Tibetan housewife. On 7 th of July 2006, I interviewed Gnm-skyid-mtso. Her first expression was that the greenhouse is beautiful because the greenhouse is really better quality than the houses that most villagers live in in Heluoshi village. She told me that before, there was way to plant varied vegetables such as peppers, eggplants, tomatoes and cucumbers because the weather is cold and the earth is salty. People usually eat potatoes as the main vegetable for the entire year. Now, she can plant eggplant, cucumber, tomato and pepper in the greenhouse in order to save money and her family can eat different vegetables. And also she told me later that she can also make money by selling milk, which will be produced by the cows raised in the greenhouse in the wintertime. She and her family are happy and appreciated what the Australian Embassy has done for them which can bring good fortune into their lives. Gnm-skyid-mtso and her family members wish the Embassy will do more good things for poor people in the future.

3) Mamaosu

Mamaosu is a fifty-year-old Hui man. On the 6 th of July 2006, After the project was complete, I interviewed him. During the interview, he told me the original condition of his family. There were five people in his family; his three daughters, his wife and him. All of his three daughters attended the village school until grade three and four, and then dropped because their school tuition increased. As a result, their family was unable to let them continue studying because the low income. So his three daughters stayed at home and help their family in the field: weeding, irrigating, harvesting, doing housework, and making shoes with their mother. When the eldest daughter was about 18 years old, she got married and left home to live with her husband. Later, the other two daughters also got married and moved in with their husbands. Now there is only Mamaosu and his wife left in the house. Now both of them are over fifty years old but they still have to work in the fields in order to make some money and buy daily needs such as salt, tea, clothes and other necessities. Even though they work in the fields, it is not enough. So Mamaosuo has to take out a loan (3,000rmb) from the local bank every year in order to buy 1,000kg wheat and make flour. He said that he leads a very difficult life in Heluoshi village. When he talked about building the greenhouses, he said he was very thankful the Australian Embassy who helped him and people who were just poor like him. He mentioned that before in the winter time, it was extremely difficult to raise livestock such as sheep because of the cold weather, snow and strong winds. But now it would be much better and convenient to feed the livestock and sell for a high price.

4) Zhaoguihua

On 8th of July 2006, the project manger Lhamotso interviewed Zhaoguihua. She is a female village leader and she works in The women’s federation in Heluoshi village. She mentioned this project was good for women because usually planting vegetables was women’s responsibility so women work hard compared to men. Using the greenhouse, women can plant vegetables very easily.

5) Rezen

Rezen is a thirty nine year old Tibetan man. He and his family are brand new to Heluoshi village because they moved from a nomadic area one and half years ago. He bought a house and planted a few fields which had originally belonged to his elder brother (Now his elder brother went to Lhasa to make some money in order to get rid of thier poverty). Because his family moved from a nomadic area, farm life is difficult for them, especially his wife. Nomadic people are not used to working in the field. So Renzen believes that he is the only person in his family who can do work skillfully in the field. He was kind of complaining that his wife could not help him in the field so that he could go out to earn money. He said to build greenhouses for them was wonderful. They normally depend on the government and the government only gives a small amount money and very limited food at the very end of each year. The greenhouse could use for many years. He said that it was a sustainable idea.

6) Hatema

Hatema is a Muslim woman in Heluoshi village. On 8 th of July the project manager Lhamosto interviewed Hatema. She started by introducing her family conditions. There are four people in her family, two daughters, her husband and her. But they only have four-mu of fields, which is not enough for four of them. So they need to buy about 2,000kg wheat and take loan of 3,000rmb from the bank each year. With a 3,000rmb loan they can buy fertilizers, school materials and daily necessities. Her husband does construction work outside for two months each year but he can only make about 1,000rmb. One of the daughters is fourteen years old and another one is sixteen years old. Her two daughters currently are going to school. Her family is not rich enough to send two children to school but her and her husband try their best and work hard to afford for them to school. When I asked why she still sent her two children to school even though her family had a very difficult time, she said because both her and her husband never went to school, they were poor and had a bad life. So they wanted to let their children get educated and lead a good life in the future. Finally she said greenhouse could really help her family with thier poor living conditions and she also had same idea as many people said she would plant vegetables in order to save money, which could be used on buying school materials for her two daughters. And she was really happy and thankful for getting help from The Australian Embassy.

7) Guguihua

On the 6th of July 2006 I interviewed Guguihua. She is a Chinese woman. She described the general situation of her family. There were six people in her family but they only have little mu of field (six mu). Her third son attended to school until he was grade one in the County Middle school. After that he stopped going to school because of the heavy school tuition. He went outside to learn about making clothes as a tailor. Now he works in a small clothing shop and earns a little money, which he uses to survive. Now Guguihua lives with her second son who has not finished primary school. When he was about nineteen years old, he married a girl who was only eighteen. He goes out to do construction work one month every year and he can only earn about 600rmb-700rmb. That amount of money is used to buy some daily needs such as clothes, salt, fertilizer for the fields, and tea. She was very happy and said the greenhouse could really bring something to them in order to improve their life conditions. The Australian Embassy said they would do something, and then it happened immediately, not like the local government, which said they would give something, but it didn’t happen for a very long time, or never happened. Guguihua appreciated what the Australian Embassy did for them and said that she and her family will remember forever.

8)Qihaiqing

Qihaiqing is one of the Heluoshi village leaders who has been the local leader for more than five years and knows the whole situation of Heluoshi village very well. When I interviewed him on 8th of July 2006, he said it was a very helpful project because the greenhouses could help the villagers to earn money in a very easy way. And he was kind of sorry for the villagers that as a village leader he could not do something for the villagers. Finally, he said many thanks to The Australian Embassy.

Detail budget

*Originally the total requested money from The Australian Embassy was 82,760rmb for building 40 greenhouses in Heluoshi village. However,The Australian Embassy only supports projects of no more than 10,000 Australian dollars (about 60, 730rmb) so the project manager, Lhamotso, made the project smaller. We built 30 greenhouses in Heluoshi village instead of 40. Therefore, the actual budget is far less than the original budget.

Letter of Appreciation

Translation

Dear Australian Embassy

First of all, thank you to the Australian Embassy, which greatly supported Heluoshi village, and helped build greenhouses for the villagers. In the summer time, people can now plant different vegetables in the greenhouses. And in the wintertime, people can raise livestock such as sheep and cows in order to increase their income and lighten their heavy burden.

Again we really thank you for your selfless donation to the people of Heluoshi village.

Sincerely,

Heluoshi village committee

7th of July, 2006

Receipts

Receipt #1

Receipt #2

Receipt #3

Receipt #4

Receipt #5

Receipt #6

Receipt #7

Receipt #8

This is the receipt that shows the amount of money that I received from Sanchuan Development organization. The total amount is 59, 357.32rmb

Original Proposal

Location

This project will be located in Heluoshi village, Tiegai Township, Gonghe County, Hainan Prefecture, Qinghai province. Heluoshi village is in the southeastern part of Gonghe County, and it is approximately 1 70 miles from t he provincial capital, Xining

Background

Heluoshi village was historically an agriculture village. The village used to be locat ed opposite of Longyangxia town, but during 1987 and 1988, the village transferred to Mahaitai area because the government planned to build a hydroelectric station there. Therefore the village had to move.

Population

Heluoshi village consists of four different ethnic groups: Tibetan, Chinese, Hui and Mongour. There are 83 households of 489 residents in the target village. There are 173 grown women, 150 men, and 166 children.

Education

In total, there are approximately120 school-aged children. Of these, 55 are currently attending school: 34 in primary school (21 male students and 13 female students), 10 in middle school ( 7 male students and 3 female students), 7 in high school (5 male students and 2 female students), and 4 in college, (all female).

A number of children have attended primary school and after dropped out because their families can’t afford to pay the expensive middle school tuition fees. The primary school’s tuition is about 60rmb and the Middle school’s tuition is more than 500rmb per year. Therefore, less and less students go to Middle school. The college students are very few. A few years ago, one boy and one girl got high marks in the college entrance examination and they got the actual papers which said that both of them were chosen by other provinces’ universities. Unfortunately, they did not go to college because their families are too poor to pay the university fees. So now both of them stay at home and help their families to work. Generally, most villagers who are older than 30 years old haven’t attended primary school.

Cash Income

Many of the families have negative cash income. The average income per family per year is 1, 200 rmb, and they must spend around 1,000 rmb per year on food, fertilizer and clothes . People spend about 900rmb per year to buy fertilizer in the form of urea and amino acids. Each 100kg bag of urea is 95rmb and each 100kg bag of amino acid is 150rmb. Villagers also spend money buying meat, vegetables, clothes, salt, tea and other necessities. In addition, s chool fees cost an average of 1,000 rmb per semester.

Almost all the families have to take out loans because they need to buy fertilizer and support their children’s education. When the time to pay back the loan arrives, villagers are busy borrowing money from relatives and friends because they have no money to pay back the loans. And also some of families h ave to buy flour at the end of year because their fields can’t produce enough food for them.

Agriculture

Local people usually grow wheat, potatoes, beans and rapeseed. Generally, the climate in Heluoshi is not bad. Barring natural disasters, it may be possible to have a very fruitful harvest each year. However, there is a serious problem with the farmlands, which makes it nearly impossible to have a good harvest. Forty percent of the fields are covered with stones and sand and therefore cannot be used. In addition, the irrigation water is hard to access and use because water is pumped by electricity from a place that is located about 7 or 8km from the village. The water pump is of inferior quality, and almost never works, so the fields can be irrigated only two or three times in every year . Finally, the amount of land that each person owns is not sufficient to produce any substantial harvest. Each person only has 1.7 mu of farmland. All of the above problems result in very poor harvests. Usually, 1 mu of field can only produce between 300 jin to 400 jin of wheat. As a result, some families do not produce enough food even for self-consumption, and the must buy wheat, barley, and vegetables from outside.

Herding

Mostly the households don’t have livestock such as yaks, cows, sheep, goats, donkeys or horses. Only a few of the households have small amount of sheep, goats and cows. The total number of sheep in the village is 27, cows are 13 and goats are 43. Five families own these.

Project Goals and Benefits

The overarching goal of the project is to increase local people’s income, thereby increasing school attendance and quality of life. The immediate goal of the project is to build 40 greenhouses

Low income

The biggest problem faced by Heluoshi village is the lack means to make sufficient cash income for survival.

In the majority of cases, local people earn cash by doing construction work, and digging caterpillar fungus. Only one or two families have a big enough harvest that they are able to sell the extra grain. On average, each family can make 700rmb per year digging caterpillar fungus and each person can make 150rmb per month doing construction work.

Except for these two options, there are no other known ways to earn money to survive. The problem with both of these sources of income is that they are unstable and unreliable. For instance, people who do construction work are very often cheated out of their pay. In one very common example, the construction manager promises to pay the workers one month after they finish construction. One month later, when they go back to collect their payments, the construction manager is gone, and they end up getting paid absolutely nothing for their work. As a result, they have wasted time doing work for nothing. This is a very serious and common problem for people who work outside. In addition, the government has recently forbid people from digging caterpillar fungus because they claim that it will destroy the ecological balance. So, digging caterpillar fungus to earn cash is no longer a viable option.

Because villagers can no longer earn money in these ways, it is becoming very common that, in addition to not having enough money to support their children’s education, many families do not have enough money to buy food and clothing.

Low school enrollment

In Heluoshi village, most children do not attend school because they are poor. Most children go to primary school for only one or two years before dropping out due to high tuition fees and the need to help their families work the fields. The few children who do manage to finish primary school usually do not go on to attend middle school because of the high fees. That is because middle school’s tuition is more expensive than the primary school’s tuition.

Because taking out bank loans puts families in a financially compromising situation, very few families are willing to take out loans to support their children’s further education. Therefore, the chance that a child from Heluoshi village will be educated through high school or college is very slim. Due to the extremely low school enrollment in this area, most of the villagers are illiterate, and lack the abilities needed to find new ways to make money. In addition, people don’t know what is going on the outside world and the village’s economic situation is falling behind.

Heavy Burden on Women

In Heluoshi, women need to get up around 5:30 am every season except winter and do all the housework (cleaning, collecting fuel, feeding pigs, fetching water and making breakfast). After they finish the housework, they need to weed the fields for at least 5 hours every day during the summer, and harvest all day during the fall. After a full day’s work, they often make shoes for their family members late into the night. Thus, women do not have time to do any leisure activities and sometimes they don’t even have time to eat with the rest of the family. Women spend much more time than any of their family members weeding and fertilizing the vegetable fields. If they don’t do this job well, they will have no vegetables to eat and they will have to buy them.

Solutions
Create a sustainable and reliable income

If there are greenhouses, the villagers won’t need to spend their money buying vegetables from the county, which is about 18km away. In addition, they can use the greenhouses to breed healthy, fat sheep and cows during the wintertime. Without a greenhouse, it is too cold during the winter to breed livestock. The few offspring that manage to survive every year are too thin and sick to sell. Because sheep and cattle that are raised in a green house are so much fatter than those raised outside in the freezing temperatures, the greenhouses can make a dramatic difference in number of livestock and in the selling price of livestock.

Specifically, every greenhouse can hold 30 sheep and 4 cows per year. One fattened cow usually sells for 1,500 rmb, and a fattened sheep for about 400 rmb. Each family will need to invest some money in purchasing breeding livestock. They will purchase sheep from outside for about 200 rmb each, and cows for about 1,000 rmb each. The sheep need to be bred for three months and the cattle need to be bred for two months. Each sheep needs to eat two jin of feed everyday and each cow needs to eat four jin of feed everyday. And one jin feed costs 0.7rmb.Therefore in total, the feed for 30 sheep and 4 cows will cost 4,452rmb each year. The total investment during the first year will include the cost of buying livestock (10,000 rmb) plus the cost of feed (4,452 rmb) and the total amount made from selling fattened livestock will be 18,000. Finally each greenhouse can make approximate average of 3,548rmb cash profit (including people’s labor).

Moreover, people can save money that is used to buy vegetables from the county. The roundtrip bus ticket is 8rmb and every time they go, people spend about 20rmb to buy vegetables. So if there are greenhouses then they can save money. People usually go to buy vegetables about 10 times per year. If they have greenhouses, they will be able to save approximately 360 rmb per year on vegetables.

In sum, the families of Heluoshi village will be able to make approximately 3,908 more cash income per year with the help of their greenhouses. This is a sustainable and reliable cash income that will help alleviate many of the additional problems that the villagers currently face:

Increase school attendance

If there are greenhouses, the villagers can use the cash income that they earn to support their children’s education. Once the villagers have a sustainable and reliable cash income, the primary and middle school enrollment will increase dramatically. Fewer children will drop out of the school because their families can’t support their school tuition. Gradually, more people will be educated and a large number of children will be able to go to high school and even college. As a result, the well-educated people will be able use modern technology to find better ways to make money in order to increase the whole village’s economy.

Lighten Women’s Burden

Normally, women try to grow small vegetable patches for self-consumption. These crops are usually not very productive, and are extremely time consuming. In addition, women are the people who go to town to buy vegetables when they are needed. If women have greenhouses then they can save the time that they normally spend buying and cultivating vegetables to do other work such as making shoes and making baskets for their family’s use. Also the women don’t need to get up so early because they don’t need to spend so much time on the fields. In the greenhouses eggplants, tomatoes and peppers can be grown. And the women will have more time to hold activities during some special day such as women’s day.

Finally, the greenhouses will make it possible for many more girls to attend school, which will open up new opportunities for them and make their quality of life better.

Beneficiaries

In total 489 people will benefit from t his project. 40 families’ incomes will be increased by approximately 3,908 rmb pe r year.

Governmental support

The local government agrees with the project. In July, Lamomthso (Lily), the project manager met with Faxiuyi, the villager leader. He said that he was happy to support any projects, which can help local people to have a better life. In addition, about three years ago, one college student did a pigsty project in the neighbor village and the local and county government totally agreed and supported his project.

The steps of the project

1. Hold a meeting with the village leaders and local people to choose the 40 poorest families. This step has already been completed. The poorest families were chosen based on how much money the family makes each year; the quality of the fields (How much of the fields are covered by sand and stone); how many children go to school; How much money they have borrowed from the bank each year, and how many people are able to work per family. Every single villager agreed that the chosen families are really poor that they should be helped by building the greenhouses.
2. Hold a meeting with the village leaders and the engineer. This step has already been completed The main content was about where the materials will be purchased: Cement in the County Cement Company in Gonghe county; Red bricks and cinder blocks in the County Tile Factory in Gonghe county; Steel doors in The Prefecture Steel Company in Gonghe county; roller bamboo and thin plastic in the Prefecture Trade Company; and Finally logs in the Prefecture Log Market in Gonghe county.
3. Secure funding from donor organization.
4. Collect local contribution from the villagers
5. Local people begin to collect the rocks and sand from 13km away near the Yellow River.
6. Buy building materials from Gonghe County. Go together with the village leader and the engineer in order to ensure the quality of the materials.
7. Build the greenhouses
8. Evaluate the greenhouses
9. Take pictures
10. Interview the local people (men, women, children)
11. Interview the village leaders.
12. Write final report
13. Send final report with pictures
    

Time frame

This project will take 3 0 days to implement.

1 day has meeting with the entire villager together

3 days go to Gonghe to buy materials and transport them into the village

5 days to collect stone and sand

1 day to transport the logs

20 days to build the greenhouses

Detailed Budget:

Requested contribution from the donor

Local contribution

Sustainability

This project is sustainable because greenhouses can be used in two seasons: summer for growing vegetables and winter for raising sheep and cows. The greenhouse can be repaired anytime if the thin plastic tears into pieces; or if the roller bamboo breaks; the villagers can easily buy these materials from Gonghe County. And also the rocks used to build the houses are very strong–thus the greenhouses will last a long time.

According to several families from Tiegai village who have built greenhouses before, the project will produce benefits for the villagers for more than 15 years .

Each household will maintain the project after it has been implemented. And each household will take care of their greenhouse. For instance, when the wind blows strongly people need to take the thin plastic sown from the roof of the greenhouse in order to avoid the thin plastic from tearing into pieces. If there is a little problem with the greenhouse people need to repair it properly very soon. And also each household should buy thin plastic in every three years and roller bamboo in every five years as well. The villagers will pay for all of the repairs and maintenance.

Additional information
Past experience

Lamomthso (Lily), t he project manager, has already successfully completed four small-scale development projects.

The first was a solar cooker project funded by The Canada Fund in the summer of 2004, which provided 20 solar cookers for the village where the project is located. During the same year, in the winter Lamomthso managed another solar cooker project funded by the Canada fund, which provided 30 solar cookers to Heluoshi.

Lamomthso also successfully completed two second-hand clothes projects in 2004 and 2005. These clothes were provided by British consulate in Shanghai. There were two boxes of the second clothes that included shirts, trousers, bags, shoes, hats, toys, sweaters and other stuffs.

Interviews

Here are interviews with some of the villagers who will benefit from this project:

(1) G.yang ‘bum

His wife died three years ago and he does almost all the work for his family. His parents–in-law have lost their capacity to work for a long time except do some easy and light housework. His father-in-law has suffered by illness, which are arthritis, and illness that is related to kidney. Ana his mother-in-law can’t work because her legs have suffered. In this case it is very hard for him to deal all the work inside and outside of the house.

(2) Thub-bstan

His three children go to school. When I got his home, he was very happy that I came to visit him. By interviewing, I knew that he was an unlucky person because in the past time a person died in each year. So his family always has problem with money. Even so he still supports his children go to school. At that very moment I can’t do any thing for him except comfort him to do work honestly.

(3) Xiuying

Her mother in-law died of cerebral hemorrhage and hypertension four years ago. Her father in-law has gotten diabetes since his wife died. However, unfortunately her husband’s elder brother has gotten mental problem since he was born. Therefore she needs to help her husband on the fields and she alone does all the housework. Beside this work, she needs to take care of her father in-law and her little child.

(4) Tshe-ring-sgrol-ma

Originally her two elder sisters and elder brother attended the school when they were very young. After they had grown old enough to work the fields, they were forced to drop out of the school because the school fees were too expensive, and they needed to help their parents work. Tshe-ring-sgrol-ma was the only child who went to school in her family. Later she almost finished middle school, but her parents couldn’t support her anymore. As a result, she dropped out of the school and stayed at home to help her mother make shoes. Now she works in the restaurant as a waitress in Jingxigou Township, which is near Qinghai Lake.

Engineer’s plan fo rthe greenhous

Diagram of project location

Map of the project location

Build a concrete bridge over RaChu River that will provide a safe and convenient way for Me Re Ma Villagers to cross Ra Chu River.

The Royal Netherlands Embassy funded this project

Chugpilhamo is from Aba autonomous Tibetan prefecture (Nawa), Sichuan Province, China. She graduated in 2005 with an Associated degree in English from the Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department’s English Training Program. She is now working as a program director and core staff member of Shem Women’s Group.
View photos of project location
Read Chugpilhamo’s life story

What? Bridge

Who? Villagers of Me Re Ma Township, Aba County, Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province

Photos of project implementation

The nuns of Me Re Ma temple stand on the finished bridge

SamGrub~45 the engineer, and Wang Bo~33, one of skilled workers, transfer electricity to the construction site. SamGrub is married to a Tibetan woman who comes from the second village in Me Re Ma Township and most local people know him. He usually works in Aba County as a manager of house construction and road reparation. Wang Bo has worked with Sam Grub for almost three years. He is very good at fixing electricity and is also an experienced carpenter.

This is the yard that was used for keeping materials. A local man named Zhaxi loaned it to the project committee free of charge. This yard was very near the construction site and very convenient for keeping materials.

The cement was kept inside this yak hair tent in Zhaxi’s yard. The yak hair tent was loaned for free by the project manager, Gong Lha. The hailstorm tore the tent, but GongLha spent his own money (200 ) to repair it himself.

Several local women and two skilled workers dig the 10-meter deep hole for making a bridge pillar.

Seven skilled workers and some local women mixed earth and sand together to make mortar. The skilled workers are from Aba County and they all have worked with the engineer before.

The local people from the fourth and third village work with their village leaders. Ajin~ 35, the fourth village leader, organizes local people to gather earth together to make a dam. Droma Jia~49, the third village leader, organizes the local people to build stone dam.

Dornang~55, the second village leader organizes the local people to build a dam on the right side of the river.

Mimi~38, the fifth village leader, organizes the local people to collect stones and gather sand.

The two stone dams are around 1.5 meters high and 30 meters long.

Gong Lha, a project manager, Sam Grub, and two skilled workers worry about the heavy rain, which has destroyed the dams. They also try to figure out whether the rains have effected the construction that has been completed thus far.

Heavy rain caused the river to swell and destroy the dam on the left side of the river.

Swollen river waters, heavy rain, and hail destroyed the dams on both sides of the river.

The villagers rebuild the dam.

Dong Mo and MiMi discuss how to rebuild the dam on the right side of the river. All of the village leaders rotated responsibility for sleeping with the construction materials at night to be sure that none would be stolen.

TseCheng Tso~38, the leader of the nunnery, and the nuns help the local people and skilled workers build the bridge. During the course of the project, the nuns prayed every day that the project would be completed successfully.

The engineer and some local people work on construction.

Seven skilled workers and some local women finish digging the last hole for the third bridge pillar.

After finishing the third pillar, the skilled workers and the engineer started to make the top of the bridge and connected all three pillars together.

SamGrub connects the steel cables together in order to build a very stable bridge.

After successfully completing the bridge, the local people invited a lama and some nuns to bless the bridge in order to prevent natural disasters

The first small vehicle crosses the bridge after its completion.

Project Summary

Project name: Bridge for Me Re Ma Township
Responsible person(s): ChugpiLhamo (Aba-Lily), Bdul’Dul, and Mgonlha

Supervisor: C. Michelle Kleisath
Netherlands Embassy’s contribution : 85, 428 Renminbi
Project Period : 28, 8, 2005—25 th , 11,20005

General aims and target group of the project

The general aim of the project was to build a concrete Bridge over Ra Chu River that will provide a safe and convenient way for Me Re Ma residents to cross Ra Chu River. The target group are the 5,530 Tibetan residents of five villages in Me Re Ma Township.

Activities planned in the framework of the project

1. Hold a meeting with village leaders and villagers to discuss the project plans.
2. Choose five work committees, one from each village.
3.Hire an experienced engineer.
4. The villagers begin to collect stone and break stones into gravel.

5. Hold a meeting with village leaders, committees, and the engineer.
6.Hire seven skilled workers from Aba County.
7. Purchase construction materials for bridge from Aba County.
8.Start construction.
9.Assemble evaluation materials: Interview local people and leaders, take pictures, and organize receipts.
10.Write final report.

11. Receive final cash installment from the Netherlands Embassy

Changes made in the original project proposal and budget (if any):

A. Dam

In the original proposal, we did not plan to build a dam on both sides of river, but the rains in recent years have split the river into several different currents, which made it difficult to build a bridge. So we decided to ask for a local contribution of a dam on both sides of the bridge. Members of the village building committee gathered earth and sand on either side of the future bridge site in order to direct the river into one single stream. The locals then built stone dams on both sides of the river as a part of their local contribution.

B. Transportation of stones

Originally, we planned to have the local people transport the stones for the bridge using their own personal tractors, but during project implementation, we realized that transporting the stones in this manner would take too long. W e had planned to transport the big stones using around 260 small personal tractors, but the road was in a bad condition because it had rained a lot and was very muddy. We realized that if we continued as planned, we would not be able to complete the bridge before the onset of winter (when heavy snowfall makes construction impossible ). Therefore, local people hired three large tractors to transport the both big stones and gravel.

Activities realized in the framework of the project:

1. August 2nd, 2005: San Chuan Development Group received 68, 342.40 RMB from Donor.
2. August 25 th : paid bank transfer fees of 95 RMB, and implementing agency received 68,247 RMB.
3. August 26 th : held a meeting with village leaders and villagers in order to discuss when the local people would start work. At this meeting, we also and divided the labor between different villages.
4. August 27 th : local people invited a lama to bless the place where the bridge would be built.
5. August 28 th : local people started to work, gathering stones and making the stones into gravel.
6. August 29th: hired the experienced engineer from Aba County who we had planned to hire in the proposal.
7. August 30 th : hired seven skilled workers from Aba County whom we had also planned to hire in the original proposal.
8. August 31st: signed a contract between the engineer and village committee which guarantees that the bridge will be of superior quality, and will last at least ten years.
9. September 1st, 2nd,and 3 rd : the local committees went to Aba County to inspect the quality of available materials and bargained down the price.
10. September 5th: set up electricity for the project from Me Re Ma Township.
11. September 6th: the local people and the workers dug ditches in order to drive the river into one stream.
12. September 10 th : the local people and the skilled workers started to dig the first hole, which would be around 10 meters high
13. September15 th : the workers and local people finished digging the first hole.
14. September 16 th 2005: the skilled workers and the engineer started to build the first bridge pillar.
15. September 19 th : local people started to build two 30 meter dams on either side of Ra Chu River in order to prevent the river from splitting into several different streams.
16. September 21 st through September 26th: work was postponed due to heavy rains.
17. September 27 th : the skilled workers began to dig the second hole.
18. October 2 nd : the skilled workers finished the second hole.
19. October 3 rd : the skilled workers started to build the second bridge pillar.
20. October 8 th : the local people finished building the dams on either side of Ra Chu River.
21. October10 th : the skilled workers finished the second pillar.
22. October11 th : There was a heavy hailstorm in Me Re Ma Township
23. October 12 th -October 28 th : work was postponed a second time due to heavy rains.
24. October 29 th : the local people started to rebuild the dams because the heavy rain had destroyed them.
25. October 30 th: The skilled workers began to dig the third hole.
26. November 2 nd : the manager (Mgon Lha) paid the first half of wages to the engineer (2, 050RMB) and the skilled workers(7,175 RMB).
27. November7 th : the skilled workers finished digging the third hole.
28. November 8 th : the skilled workers started to build the third bridge pillar.
29. November 11 th —November 13 th : Heavy rains postponed work for the third time.
30. November 17 th : the workers finished the third hole.
31. November 22nd: the skilled workers finished building the bridge.
32. November 23 rd : the local people finished rebuilding the dams on both sides of the river and returned the tools that they had borrowed from local people, such as shovels and wood.
33. November 24 th : the lama and the nuns blessed the bridge.
34. November 25 th : the manager paid the second half of the wages to the skilled workers (7,175 RMB) and the engineer (2,050 RMB).
35. November 26 th : held a meeting with local people (men, women, children) to discuss the final report and the final installation of cash from the Netherlands embassy.
36. November 27 th and 28 th : interviewed some local people and leaders about the project.
37. November 29 th : the local committees wrote a thank you letter to the Netherlands embassy on behalf of the local people.
38. December 2 nd : began writing final report.

Problems encountered in the course of the project implementation:

A. Heavy rains during construction

During construction it rained a lot in Me Re Ma Township and made it difficult to construct the bridge. When the local people and skilled workers dug a deep hole and began to build the bridge pillar, it rained and the hole filled with water, which they needed remove before beginning construction of the pillar. The local people and skilled workers spent a lot of time removing water from the holes after heavy rains

B. Hail storm

The local people also built stone dams that were about 30meters long and 1 meter high both sides of Ra Chu River. Unfortunately, during project implementation, there was also a hailstorm that damaged the unfinished dams. During this hailstorm, the water level of the river rose and some stone and wood that was part of the bridge-in-progress was washed away. The rain lasted for two weeks. So, the local people rebuilt the dams and we replaced the materials that had washed away with the local contribution. You can see in the pictures that the heavy rain damaged the two dams.

B. Fluctuating cost of materials

One problem was that the price of materials went up and down. Before the price of cement (#52) was 395RMB/ton, but during construction the price went up and each ton of cement was 490RMB. Also, before we planned to pay 15 RMB per tractor of stone or sand, but during the construction it rained a lot and the road was muddy, thus the price of tractors also went up to 20RMB per tractor.

Project aims realized, compared with original aims of the project:

Overall, the project was a success and we were able to realize all of the goals outlined in the original proposal. The new bridge over Ra Chu River:

1. Provides a safe way to cross Ra Chu River. With the new bridge, the local people no longer need to face the difficulty of crossing a wooden plank to get across the river. Parents no longer need to worry about their children crossing Ra Chu River.
2. Has increased enrollment in Abu Village Primary School. After building the bridge, parents do not need spend their time to safely walk their children across the river to school and they also do not need to worry about their children crossing Ra Chu River. Before the bridge was built, there were 15 students out of 390 School aged children in Abu Village, immediately after the project’s completion, the school’s enrollment jumped to 30. There is no doubt that this number will increase in the future. The school is also very happy about the bridge and the teachers thanked all the members of Dutch Embassy.
3. Provides safe and easy accesses to worshippers who want to circumambulate the local temple and Nunnery.
4. Has increased communication and contacted between with villagers from different villages. Before the local people could not go to other villages to attend different ceremonies, but now that there is a bridge, the local people can attend other village’s activities. For example, Abu village invited a lama and held a religious ritual after few days of the completion of the bridge, and local people from all five different villages attended the ritual. The local people are very happy because they can now visit their relatives who live in different villages, no matter whether it is raining or snowing.
5. Has improved local people’s living conditions by making it easier for them to buy supplies from stores on the other side of the river.
6. Provides a safe and easy way for women and girls to collect fuel.
7. Provides a safe and easy way for small cars, tractors and motorcycles to cross Ra Chu River.

Effects of project on target group:

In addition to the effects described above, this project brought local people together to help each other and implement the project. We did not originally plan to build dams, but the local people were willing to build dams on both sides of the river in order to make the project as successful and sustainable as possible. The nuns also spent their time helping local people and chanted every day for the workers’ success and continued happiness.

Interviews:

On December 27 th , ChugpiLhamo interviewed Tse Cheng Tso, the leader of the local Nunnery. She said that because they now have a safe and stable bridge to cross Ra Chu River, the nuns will not have difficulty getting food and fuel from their families or local stores even when it is raining or snowing. She also said that taking care of the bridge is all the nuns’ responsibility, and that they promise they will take care of the bridge. She was overjoyed during the interview and repeatedly said “thank you” from the bottom of her heart to all the members of Dutch Embassy.

On December 27 th , ChugpiLhamo interviewed Yang Tso, a student from Abu Village. She said now that she has safe access to the school, her parents don’t need to spend their time sending her to school every day. In addition, during rainy or snowy days, her parents do not need to worry about her to getting school or returning home safely. She also said that because of the new bridge, she can get school on time because she does not need to wait for her parents to send her. She is very happy about bridge and she said thank you so much to Dutch Embassy

On December 28 th , ChugpiLhamo interviewed Dong Bo, a seventy-year-old man. He said that with safe access to the Nunnery and local temple, he has a chance every day to circumambulate, even if it is raining or snowing. He said that he never imagined that during his lifetime he would have such safe way to cross Ra Chu River and visit the Nunnery and local temple. He also said that he does not have ability to return the Dutch Embassy’s kindness, but he won’t forget you forever and he will pray for all of the members of Dutch Embassy every day.

On December 28 th , ChugpiLhamo interviewed Droma Sgyb, one of the village leaders. He said that with a bridge, local people do not need cross Ra Chu River with fear and they can cross anytime. He said that this project provides a safe way for all the local people to go to the local temple, the Nunnery , the school , the local stores and the other villages. During the interview, he said thanks to all the members of The Dutch Embassy over and over again.

On December 28 th , ChugpiLhamo also interviewed LhaMoTso, a 26 year-old woman. She said that with the bridge, she does not need to take off her shoes to cross the river whenever she needs to collect fuel from other villagse. She also said that she will never forget the Dutch Embassy’s kindness and she said thanks many times during the interview.

General conclusion on realization of project aims:

During this project, some problems occurred, such as natural disasters (hail and heavy rainfall), but the project was completed very successfully because all the local people, the village committees, the managers and the engineer worked together to finish the Bridge. This project not only provides a safe and easy way to cross Ra Chu River, but also increases the communication and cooperation between villages. In conclusion, this project was completed successfully and the bridge will last for at least ten years. We trust the quality of the engineer’s work not only because he is experienced, but also because he signed a contract guaranteeing the bridge’s quality, and becuase most local people know him and his family. Therefore if there are any problems with the bridge over the next ten years, the engineer will fix them.

Other remarks and suggestions:

Before starting the project, it is very important to sign a contract between the engineer and the local committee. If we do not sign a contract, then the engineer may not care about the bridge’s quality.

Detailed Budget

Thank You Letter

Translation

November 29th, 2005 Dear Dutch Embassy,

Tashi Delek! Thank you very much to all of the members of the Dutch Embassy. You provided us with a safe and easy way to cross the local Ra Chu River and because of that, we Me Re Ma local people no longer need to face the difficulties of crossing Ra Chu River. All of the local people are very grateful for the bridge and we do not know how to return your kindness. We will remember your help for generations to come and we will pray for you every day. We hope that we can work together again in the future. Once again, we want to say thank you very much to all of the members of Dutch Embassy. We won’t ever forget your kindness.

Best Wishes,

The Me Re Ma Township Village Committee and local people,

Signed by executor:

Singed by Supervisor:

Date: 12/16/2005

Receipts

Receipt #1

Receipt #2

Receipt #3

Receipt #4

Receipt #5

Receipt #6

Receipt #7

Receipt #8

Receipt #9

Receipt #10

Receipt #11

Receipt #12

Receipt #13

Receipt #14

Receipt #15

Receipt #16

Signed by executer:

Signed by supervisor:

Original Project Proposal

Project Location:

This project will be located in Me Re Ma Township, Aba County, Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, PR China. Me Re Ma Township is located in the south east of Aba County in Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Aba County is on the border of Qinghai Province and Sichuan Province and it is 75 kilometers far away from Jiu Zhe County in Golok Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Me Re Ma Township is 33 kilometers far away from Aba County and it is on the way to Aba County from Hong yuan County, Ro Er Gai County, Ma Er Kang County and Cheng Du city. Me Re Ma Township consists of five small Villages: Ru sde dang bo, Ru sde gnyis ba, Re sde gsum ba , Ru sde bzu ba (Nan tso ma), and Ru sde lnga ba (Abu).

Population: There are 928 households and 7,355 Tibetan residents in Me Re Ma Township. There are 2985 women, 2789 men and 1581school aged children.

Education: The education level of Me Re Ma Township is very low. There are 4 University students, 7 High school students, 5 middle school students and 152 primary school students in the entire area. This means that out of 1581 school aged children, only 168 are currently attending school.

Agriculture:

The average altitude of Me Re Ma is 3,879. The high altitude makes it impossible to plant anything other than cabbage; hence there is no agricultural income.

Income: The average cash income per person per year is 200 rmb. This income is earned by herding yaks. The villagers make money by selling yak hair, butter, cheese, and caterpillar fungus (a medical herb dug from May to early July, sold for between 1–2.5rmb for per fungus). Most of the residents of Me Re Ma are nomadic. Herding and daily work is often done by hand and much of the hard daily work falls on the shoulders of women. The main transportation for nomads are yaks and horses.

Taxes: The people of Me Re Ma Township do not have to pay taxes.

The following is a description of Ra chu River, where the bridge will be built:
Ra Chu River is 5 kilometers away from Me Re Ma Township and it divides the whole Township into two districts. On the left side of the river there is a small Nunnery and a small Temple where usually people go to pray and circumambulate. There are 23 nuns in the Nunnery and a Lama in the small Temple. Abu village, the biggest village in Me Re Ma Township, is also on the left side. There are 2023 Tibetan residents in Abu Village. On the right of the river there are four other villages and the local government offices. There are 5530 Tibetan residents in these villages.

The width of the Ra Chu River is approximately 3.5 meters in autumn and winter and 5.3 meters in Summer and Spring. The average depth of the river is 0.7 meters, but after a rain it reaches 1 meter in depth.

In 1998,there was a small wooden bridge made by local villager called BoJi, but because the quality was not good and the river is very strong in the summer, it washed away within 2 years. In 2000, the local people put a single plank of wood across it, but it was very dangerous and 30 people were severely injured while attempting to cross the river both in Winter and Summer. In the summer the wooden plank is completely submerged in water and it is dangerous to use because it is very slippery . Every day, at least 30 people cross the river and on the 15th of every month, more than 500 people cross the river (because that day is a religious holiday and people need to circumambulate the temple and to attend the ceremony).

Project Goals:

The main goal of this project is to build a concrete bridge over RaChu River that will provide a safe and convenient way for Me Re Ma Villagers to cross Ra Chu River

Problems:

• It is dangerous to cross Ra Chu River, especially after it has rained or snowed. After it has rained, the flimsy wooden bridge that the villager’s currently use becomes submerged in water, which causes it to rot and fall apart. In the past, the makeshift wooden bridges that the villagers have constructed have washed away completely, making it extremely difficult to cross the river. During the cold season, from November to March, the narrow wooden bridge often freezes over, making for a slippery and dangerous crossing. Many people have slipped on the icy bridge and fallen into the river’s freezing water.

• Because Ra Chu River does not have a reliable bridge, the school enrollment in Abu village primary school is very low. The students who come from Abu Village must cross Ra chu river twice everyday in order to get to Ma er ma primary school. Students have difficulty getting to school after heavy rain or snow, and many parents worry about their children’s safety on their way to school. Because it is not safe to cross the river for 5 months of the year, many parents do not let their children to go to school. Therefore, out of 390 school aged children in Abu Village, there are only 15 students.

• Transportation between and within villages is very difficult. People from Abu village have difficulty getting to Nan Cou ma village, on the other side of the river. Similarly, those from the Third village have difficulty getting to Abu village, and those from the Second village have difficulty getting to the first village. The villagers of the Third and First Village, which are both located on opposing sides of Ra Chu River, are most desperate for a reliable, durable, and safe bridge.

• Villagers, especially those who are older, have difficulties visiting the local temple and Nunnery.

• Because they sometimes cannot cross Ra Chu River, villagers often do not have access to local stores in which they can buy vegetables and other supplies.

• Women and girls usually need to cross the river to collect fuel. During the winter, when the water is freezing and the bridge cannot be used, they cross the water with their shoes on, which is bad for their health.

Benefits–This project will:

• Provide safe a way to cross Ra chu river.

• Increase enrollment Abu village primary school.

• Increase communication and contact between and within villages.

• Provide safe and easy access to worshippers who wish to circumambulate the local temple and visit the Nunnery.

• Improve local people’s living condition by making it easier for them to buy supplies.

• Provide safe and easy way for women and girls to collect fuel.

The steps of the project:

• Hold a meeting with village leaders and a villager to discuss the project plans (This step was completed in January, 2005).

• Choose five work committees; one from each village (This step was completed in January, 2005).

• Hire an experienced engineer. We have already interviewed and met with an experienced engineer from Aba county, and will hire him one once funding is received.

• The villagers begin to collect stone and break stone it into gravel,

• Hold a meeting with village leaders committees, and engineer.

• Hire 7 skilled construction workers from Aba County.

• Purchase construction materials for bridge from Aba County.

• Start construction.

• Assemble evaluation materials: Interview local people and leaders, take pictures, organize receipts.

• Write final report.

Detailed Budget:

Local Contribution:

Local villager’s contribution of materials and labor valued in rmb

Timeframe:

The expected time for this project is 3 months, from May to August. This is the best time to complete the project because during these months the temperature is over 6 degrees and it is not cold. Hence, construction workers can begin to work and their salary will be inexpensive compared to what they charge during colder months. If we build the bridge in other months the price is at least 40rmb/day/person, but if we do it in May, June, July and August the price is 25rmb/day/person.

Sustainability:

Bdu dul , Gong la and Chugpilhamo (Aba-Lily). Bdu du is a 56year old lama and he is respected by all of the villagers. He is also the monastery-appointed leader of Township and he is very responsible. Bdu dul will responsible for local people’s contribution if local people will not give labor then they need to contribute money if they have no money then they need to contribute food.

Gong la is a 51year-old herdsman and he is very experienced. He was chosen by the local people to be a project manager because he is very honest and reliable. He has already managed the construction of a new public building for local people. Gong la will be responsible for construction workers’ accountability.The construction workers must give a deposit before they build the bridge, hence if they do not build it well, then they will not get the deposit back. The deposit is 1000 per person.

Chugpilhamo (Aba-Lily) is a 21-year-old University student. She has completed two small scale development projects in her home town: a Solar cooker project supported by the Canada fund and a Second hand clothing project organized by Sue Bishop at the British Consulate in Shanghai. In July of 2005, she will complete a second Solar Cooker project supported by the Canada Fund. Mchod bay lha mo (Aba-Lily) will be accountable for managing the entire project’s budget.

Additional information:

Does the (local) government agree with the project?

Yes, Chugpilhamo met with one of the township leaders, Sonan, on August 13 th , 2004. He said that the project would be very helpful and that if it is funded, he will help find very experienced construction workers from the county town. Chugpilhamo also met with Dendul, a Lama who is one of the Aba county leaders, and he said that this project could really help local people and that if it is funded, he will direct the collection of the local contribution, and supervise and direct project implementation and construction.