This project is to buy 36 solar panels for 36 households in Zhuwo Village in Zhuwo Township, Luhuo County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in order to allow village children to study at night and watch TV during their spare time. The project also decreased expenditure on candles, flashlight batteries and butter lamps.

The New Zealand Embassy funded this project

Blo bZang dPal sGron is from Luhuo County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. She graduated from Qinghai Normal University in 2009, and currently is looking for an official job in Ganzi Prefecture.

What?  Bought 36 solar panels for 36 households in Zhuwo Village in Zhuwo Township, Luhuo County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in order to allow village children to study at night and watch TV during their spare time. The project also decreased expenditure on candles, flashlight batteries and butter lamps.

Who?  36 households in Zhuwo Village, Zhuwo Township, Luhuo County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

 Photos during the project implementation

 The project manager and the mini-manager purchasing the panels from the factory.

   The manager giving money to the factory boss.

    
The solar panel factory in Seda County where the solar panels were purchased. 

The panels ready to be transported to Luhuo County

The project manager and the driver are transporting the panels to Zhuwo Village.

 Villagers unloading the panels

 The villagers checking the condition of their solar panels

 Project Summary

Project title: Solar Panel Project for 36 Households in Zhuwo Village 

 Project goals: To buy 36 solar panels for 36 households in Zhuwo Village, providing the families with sufficient electricity  , and increasing students’ time spent  studying at night and watching TV during their spare time. To decrease the cost of candles, flashlight batteries and butter lamp fees.                                                                                                                                                                                                    

 Project Location

This project is located in Zhuwo Village, Zhuwo Township, Luhuo County; Ganzi

Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. Zhuwo Village is about 50 km away from Luhuo County (called Zhanggo in Tibetan); Luhuo County is located in the southeast of Ganzi Prefecture, 650 km away from Chengdu City, the capital of Sichuan Province.

Project Finances

Original Budget

 Actutal Budget

 Note:The total cost of the project is 46,204 RMB, and total donor contribution is 39282 RMB.  The actual local contribution is 6422 RMB (in the proposal, the local contribution was 6218 RMB), but during the project the transportation fee was a little higher than before because the factory moved to another county (Seda county). I asked the 36 households to contribute more than what I wrote in my proposal because of this change in transportation costs. In the original budget, each family needed to pay 172.7 RMB, but in the actual cost, each family contributed 178.3 RMB, which is about 5.6 RMB more than the original budget.

 Delays, difficulties, and lessons learned

Delays

The project manager Blo bzang dpal sgron planned to do this project in April, but because of her enrolment in an important exam, the project was delayed until May.

Difficulties

The project manager Blo bzang dpal sgron wrote the proposal in 2010, and her project was funded in 2011, during which time the factory in Luhuo was moved to another county, Seda County. Seda County is 87 km away from Luhuo County, so the transportation fee  increased after writing the proposal; thus, the project manager had to ask for more local contribution from Zhuwo Village.

Lessons learned:

Became braver: Before the implementation of this project, the project manager Blo bzang dpal sgrn was a very timid girl, but after she did this solar panel project and a previous running water project, she became braver. When she encounters difficulties and problems, she can deal with them by herself. For example: when the factory moved to Seda County, she asked the driver for a fare reduction of the transportation fee. Now, she can also hold meetings with the community and make her ideas heard.  

Became more confident: Before this project, the project manager held the belief that women can’t bring any kind of big contribution to their community except doing housework. However, the completion of this project made her become more confident in women’s capability, and now she knows that women can make valuable contributions to her society as well.

 Interviews: the project manager interviewed some of the 36 household members.

#1: Blo Ris is 82 years old

“I’m living alone– one of my children is dead, and one is a monk. This panel is very helpful to me. During the winter, the power is frequently cut off and then I have to light up my small butter lamp, but it always doesn’t work well, and it also makes gives me eye pain. Thanks very much for giving me this great thing,” said Blo Ris.

#2 lBal lDan is 57 years old

“Now I have the solar panel, and I will use it all the time, I don’t like to use the water electricity from factories because it is always cut off, but we still have to pay money to them. I do like those panels.  We just need to put it in the sunshine and then we can use it; we needn’t pay any fees for it. Thanks very much for giving me this panel. Now I don’t need to worry that the light will be cut off,” said lBal lDan. lBal lDan continued, “Before, we had to buy the candles, flashlight batteries, and butter lamps, but after we got those panels, we needn’t spend money on them. We can use that money to buy food and clothes. Also, we heard that candles and butter lamps are harming our lungs and eyes a lot, so thanks very much to save our eyes and lungs.

Yama is 30 years old

Yama:  “My family loves to watch TV, but the electricity is always cut off, and we have no way to watch TV.  Now we have this panel, so we can watch TV and listen to Tibetan music. We are very lucky to get this panel. My wife used to milk in the dark, and we know it was very dangerous for her, but she had to do it. My children usually study at night with candles and flashlights. We know that can harm their eyes and lungs, but we don’t have enough money to buy solar panels. Thanks very much for providing panels for us.

Thank you letter from the beneficiaries:

 Receipts

Receipt # 1

This receipt is the fee for the 36 solar panels.

Receipt #2

 Receipt #3

The first 100 RMB is for the hotel fees. When the project manager went to buy the solar panels, traveling from Luhuo County to Seda County, she had to stay in Luhuo County for two days. The second 100 RMB is for the project manager’s travel to the county town to send her final report and scan the receipts and pictures, so the total cost is 200 RMB

Receipts #4

150 RMB is food costs for the project manager, the mini-manager, and the driver when they went to buy and transport the panels from Seda County.

Receipt #5

This is the project management’s telephone fee. (100 RMB)

Receipt #6

The fee for scan pictures

Receipt #7

This receipt is the report’s postage fee, which cost 22 RMB.

Original Proposal

Contact information
Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group
Contact person: Blo bZang dPal sGron
Mailing Address: Qinghai, Xining, Xining Shi You Zheng Ju, Xin Ning Lu You Ju, 20-5 Xin Xiang, 810008, P.R.C
Telephone: 0971- 6302115(Shem office),
Email:tashihlamo@shemgroup.org  
Web: www.shemgroup.org  
Project Location:
This project is located in Zhuwo Village, Zhuwo Township, Luhuo County; Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. Zhuwo Village is about 48km away from Luhuo County (called Zhanggo in Tibetan). Luhuo County is located in the southeast of Ganzi Prefecture and 650km away from Chengdu City, the capital of Sichuan Province.
Population:
There are 300 people of 36 households in Zhuwo Village which  consists of 110 men, 120 women and 70 children (under the age of 18).
 Education
There are 50 students in Zhuwo Village, including 5 college students,10 high school students,15middle school students 20 primary school students 10 people have official jobs and 45% of men and 4% of women are literate The rest of the people are illiterate because the older generations didn’t believe Tibetan people could get jobs by attending school, since there were very few Tibetan people with official jobs in their area.
Cash Income
Except for the 10 official workers, all of other Zhuwo villagers are farmers, so their lives depend on agriculture. They plant barley, wheat, potatoes and peas. The richest families own 25-30 mu (1mu=0.07 hectares) and they can earn 2,000-2,500 RMB per year from selling their barley and wheat. The poorest families have only own 2- 4 mu of land, so it’s impossible to sell their barley and wheat.  Sometimes those poorest families need to buy barley from others to survive.
Villagers depend on agriculture, but they also own at least 5-7 livestock including cows, female yaks, and horses.  Three families also own 10 -15 sheep. They can earn around 900 to 1,000 RMB by selling livestock and 400 to 500 RMB by selling butter and cheese each year. The sheep owners can earn 150-200 RMB from selling wool. The young villagers who did not attend school earn money by doing outside work, such as construction work (30-40 RMB per day) or waiting tablesin restaurants and hotels (15-20 RMB per day). The official workers earn about 1,200-1,500 RMB from the government per month.
Another way to earn money is to dig caterpillar fungus. From May to June the adults go to dig fungus.  Each fungus can sell for 14 to 16RMB, and the best fungus can sell for 20 to 25RMB.  Each person usually can earn 3,000 to 4,000RMB every season.
In total each family can earn 4,000 RMB per year on average, and all of this money is used on food, clothes, festivities, children’s school fees, electricity, medicine and transportation. There is usually 600-700RMB left after all those costs. 
Herding
Each family owns at least 5–7 livestock (cows, female yaks, horses, and sometimes sheep).  They use them for working (ploughing fields) and milking. They sell livestock such as female yaks, horses, and sometimes they sell male yaks and cows.. Each animal can earn between 900 to1000 RMB. They also sell butter and cheese, which earns about 400 to 500 RMB per year; wool can earn between 150-200RMB per year.
Agriculture
The villagers depend on agriculture; they plant barley, wheat, potatoes and peas. The richest families own 5-7 mu of agricultural land and each mu can produce 700-900 jin of barley, wheat and peas per year. The poorest families have only 2-4 mu of land, which makes their life very difficult because they must buy or borrow barley from the rich families. Since the weather in the village is very important for the success of their crops, not enough rain can bring serious events such as starvation.
Weather
The elevation of Zhuwo Village is about 4834 meters.  Since this region is at very high altitude, electric power sources are very rich. However, in 2009, the county secretary sold the best hydroelectric plant.  Ganzi County (near Luhuo county) and now the water electricity in Luhuo is so weak, it is difficult to produce electricity for every household.  The power goes out often and now the biggest problem for the rural area is electricity. During the summer and spring there is a lot of rain and thunderstorms, so the hydroelectric plant always cuts off the electricity because they say it is very dangerous to operate during thunderstorms. During wintertime, the river is covered with thick ice, so it is very difficult to produce electricity  due to freezing.
Project goals
The immediate goal of this project is to buy 36 solar panels for 36 households in Zhuwo Village. The overarching goal of this project is to provide enough electricity to the families of Zhuwo Village and increase the time students have to study at night and watch TV to relax.  It will also decrease family expenses by reducing the amount of candles, flashlight batteries, and butter lamps being used.  

Problems
1. Electricity is frequently cut.
Until 2009, the water electricity factory in Luhuoproduced adequate electricity for the villages, but by the end of 2009, the county town leader sold the Niqi hydroelectric plant to Ganzi County. So the factory always cuts power in Luhuo County and sometimes there will be no electricity for three or four days, especially in rural areas.  Electricity also cuts out during inclement weather, especially during the rainy season (April to October). There are frequent lightning storms during which the hydroelectric plant cuts electricity.. During the winter time, there is not enough water to produce electricity for the entire county because the water freezes. The sudden power cuts create a lot of inconvenience for the family both night and day. During the daytime, villagers are not able to watch TV and play CDs. Also, 12 families said they have to use light during the daytime at home because their houses have no big windows.
2. Lack of money: In both villages, only 13 households said they have no problems  buying candles and flashlight batteries, but the other 44 households worry a lot about the cost of these items. Each candle costs 2 RMB, and in one month at least they have to buy 10 candles, costing around 20RMB per month. Each flashlight costs 20RMB and each of the batteries costs 4 RMB.  Each month they have to buy at least 6 to 8 batteries andin total it costs around 30 RMB permonth.  The total of these expenses is usually 70 RMB per month and about 840 RMB in a year.  Even if there is electricity, the fee is higher than the county town; in the county town, each degree of electricity costs 0.33RMB, but in the rural areas, each degree costs 0.7RMB, and each family pays around 700-900RMB per year.  Most of the families only use electricity at night when they have dinner and go to sleep
3.Health problems: There are some health problems in the villages such as lung cancer and loss of eyesight. Pneumonia is caused by the dust from oil lamp and candles. Children’s quality of eye sight decreases because they study at night with only their flashlights and candles. For example, a student named Yongzao always studies at night with her flashlight and candles, so when she was in middle school, grade two, she began to lose her eye sight.  At the beginning she thought it was not a big problem, but later she realized that her eyes are getting worse and worse, and the biggest problem is she even can’t see the words that teachers write on the blackboard.   Because of this, her grades suffered and her parents took her to the county town hospital for treatment, but the hospital only gave her a pair of eyeglasses.  Now,without eyeglasses, she can’t see any words on the board and sometimes she cannot recognize people she knows.
4. Inconvenient for people to work at night: Only 13 households can regularly use the candles and flashlight batteries. At night, the remaining families have to stay in the dark.  It is very difficult for the older people to go to the bathroom at night.Women must milk the yaks and cows both morning and night, and without light, it is very dangerous for them to milk because they can be, injured from the animal’s kicking. The women also have to very carefully when they leave the cattle shed after finishing milking because they have no light, so they can’t see the way back and risk spilling their milk buckets.   It is also difficult for children to study at night.  They suffer from the health problems mentioned above.
5. Lack of news sources: Most of the time there are electricity, so they have no chances to watch TV, in the rural areas, the main source of the country news and world news is TV. If there is no light, then it means their TVs are needlessness. Because people can not watch TV, they have no chance to learn new languages and new style to wear clothes.
Benefits

1. The 36 households’ members would not have to worry about power outages if solar panels became the main source of electricity. The hydroelectric plant always cuts the electricity during bad weather because the company says it would electrocute their employees if they open the electricity box.  In the winter time, there is always no electricity because the water freezes and there is not enough water to produce electricity.   If the project is funded, the villagers can  have electricity at night because of  the solar panels.
2. Villagers will not have to spend money on candles and flashlight batteries and they can spend their money on more important things, such as food, clothes, medicine, and buildings.
3. If this project  is funded, the health problems would decrease. Children can use the light from solar panels to study, so it would decrease the number of children who are losing their vision.  The risk of developing lung cancer from smoke inhalation from the candles and oil lamps will also decrease.
4. This project will help reduce the challenges for people who are elderly and disabled when they go to the lavatories at night. It benefits women who must milk their animals at night. It can allow more time for children to study at night. The leader of the solar panel company, Li Yang Jie, said that with the best solar panel, the villagers can charge their cell phones and flashlights. If the project is funded, the villagers don’t need to pay bills for electricity; instead, they can use their money on household items.
5. If the project is funded, the leader Li Yang Jie (李阳杰)the company(红太阳电器公司) said that with the best solar panel can watch TV, CDs and radios), from those they can get more news from about country and world. It also can help people to learn new languages and new styles of wearing clothes, and different cultures from TV.

 Gender Equality

In both villages, most hard work is done by women and girls such as washing clothes, fetching water, milking and doing most of the farming work (except to plowing the fields). During the daytime women have to do lots of housework, so they have no time to watch TV, and at night they have a little time to relax and watch TV, but because the electricity in rural areas are very limited, so they have no chance to watch it. Through those reasons the women in rural areas are seldom get country news and world news. Most of the children can’t study at night and many of the children’s families have no money to buy candles and flashlights. If this project is funded it would be very helpful for both women and children. Also, in these villages women never have the opportunity to attend activities such as meetings since it is a village custom that women should stay at home to do the work.  Only men attend village meetings and because of this, I made a decision to let both the village men and women attend this project’s meetings and activities, giving women the opportunity to speak in the meetings. This project will help women to prove that not only men can do heroic things—so can women if they are given opportunities.
Government Approval
The government knew that the project manager had done one project (a running water project) before.  When the project manager asked the township leader, Chos ‘dzam and the clerk (Yama), both of them immediately gave her permission to do  the project.
The steps of the project

1. Ask the two village leaders how many households there are in both the villages and hold a meeting to ask what kind of problems the villagers have. (Completed)
2. Ask the prices for each solar panel in the Dian neng Factory in Luhuo county(Completed)
3. Get government permission to do the project. (Completed)
4. Collect information from Xiang ba la cuo (Phoebe), who did the solar panel project in her village in 2009-2010.
5. Take pictures of the solar panels
6. Write the project proposal
7. Receive funds
8. Purchase materials from Luhuo county
9. Transport the solar panels from Luhuo to the two villages.
10.  Interview the 36 households members (including men, women and children)
11.  Write final report for the project.
    Time Frame
    This project will take in total of 5 days to complete.

1st day: receive funds and talk about the price of the solar panels with the mini manager.

2nd -3rd day: purchase solar panels from Luhuo County and transport them to Zhuwo villages.

4th day: distribute the solar panels to the villagers and take pictures.

5th day: interview the beneficiaries.

 Project Budget 

The total donor contribution is39,282 RMB

The background of the 36 households
Among those 36 households, 25 families’ children are all attending schools. The other families’ children and young people stay at home helping their parents earn money and do housework. When it’s time to dig caterpillar fungus, those children who do not attend schools go with their families to dig fungus.  When there is no fungus, they do construction work in the county town and townships. Children under the age of 15 also herd livestock. The incomes for the villagers are from livestock, digging caterpillar fungus, doing construction work, working as waiters in restaurants, and doing farm work. They have no money to pay the hydroelectric plant, so there is no way they have money to buy solar panels. Each family will contribute 184 RMB for this solar panel project.           
Sustainability
The 36 households are very eager to have solar panels, so the project manager Blo bzang dbal sgron is sure that the 36 families will take good care of the panels. Also, the project manager asked the leader of the solar panel company, Li Yang Jie (李阳杰) if they would exchange the solar panels if there are any problems in 1-2 years.  Li Yang Jie(李阳杰) said they will guarantee to repair them if they break for 3 years. If they have problems after 4 or5 years, the village leader will be responsible to find a technician from the county town to repair them.  The 36 families will be responsible for paying for the repair of their own solar panels.
Past Experiences of the Project Manager
In 2008, the project manager did a second clothes project in Rilangda Village.
In 2009-2010, the project manager, Blo bzang dbal sgron, completed a running water project in Rilangda village, Zhuwo Township, Luhuo County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous prefecture, Sichuan Province. The total fund for this running water project is 23,394RMB.
Project Photos (The pictures were taken at night when there was no light)

An old woman with her grandson after the light is powered off in the evening (around 8:30pm).

Children playing games during the evening.

Children studying by candlelight at night.

People chatting in the evening the when the light is powered off. 

Additional Information
In 2008, the project manager did a second clothes project for Rilangda Village.  In 2009-2010 she completed a running water project in Rilangda village, Zhuwo Township, Luhuo County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous prefecture, Sichuan Province.

Map of the Project location

The map of Ganzi prefecture.

This project is to provide 24 solar flashlights to 24 households in Gonchen Village.

Naljor Prison Dharma Service funded this project

Shawo Dolma is from 5th brigade，Gon chen Village, Duofudun Township, Zeku County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. She is working toward her BA degree at Qinghai Normal University.

Location
Gon chen Village is located in Dodan Township, Zeku County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, PR. China. It is 30 kilometers to Dodan Township and 70 kilometers to Zeku County, 160 kilometers to the prefecture town, which is 210 kilometers from Xining City, the capital city of Qinghai Province.

Project Description: Shem Women’s Group provided 24 solar flashlights and the project manager Shawo Dolma distributed them to Gon chen Tibetan village on May 1st, 2011.

The project manager and Mr. Zha lai, the village leader of Gon chen Village, held a meeting with the project manager, and together they selected 24 families that are the poorest among the households. The 24 households are selected based on the following 6 reasons:

First, the poor families who hold the official certificate of family with poverty given by the local government are considered to have top priority for receiving a solar flashlight. There are 9 households in Gon chen Village who hold this certificate. Second, 7 families chosen have the most elderly people and most of them have health problems. The only resource for electricity is solar panels, which do not provide much electricity at night. Thus, solar flashlights are convenient for these elders to use during the night, and it is also useful when they need to take medicine in the dark. Third, 3 families lead a miserable life without a spouse or children or any relatives in the village. They lack adequate labor force; they don’t have many family members to do the work but have a heavy burden due to raising family. These 3 households include 2 females whose husbands passed away and become widows. Another man is 67 years old and doesn’t have a wife and children. Fourth, the only two female students’ families in Gon chen are far from their village school. It takes about 1 hour from home to get to school. In winter, they go to school at 6 a.m., and return home at 7 p.m., when it is usually very dark. Their parents don’t have time to take them home after school due to the family chores. Therefore, with the 2 solar flashlights given to them, they will feel more safe and comfortable on their way to and from school. Fifth, 3 local women were chosen because during the summer they must get up very early in the morning to milk female yaks, and again in the evening after the herdsman of their family bring the livestock home. Thus, with the help of solar flashlights, their work will become easier and safer.

Project Results:
Once the Solar Flashlight Project was completed, many locals said that such project could not only protect the environment, but also save money for them. Before, there were many old batteries of flashlights in the village since nomadic people use the flashlights more often. So, there was more trash from old batteries in the community, and this was dangerous for the village children to play with them. Moreover, poor families said that they could save the money that they usually spend on buying batteries for flashlight, which requires about 2-hour trip on motorcycle to get to the stores in the local township. All the villagers, after the implementation of Solar Flashlight Project, think that this is an environmentally friendly project that brings more benefits to the locals. And they no longer need to worry about their children with the harmful batteries since they will gradually not see any batteries in the future. The plenty of sunshine on the grassland is a great resource for the solar flashlights, and another great quality about these solar flashlights is that they are waterproof so they can be used in the rain.

The Name-list of People Who are Benefited

Project Photos

One of the project beneficiaries, who was very happy when he received a solar flashlight and thanked the project manager

The project manager explaining the instructions for using the solar flashlight to a villager named Sang jie ka. He is patiently listening to the manager’s explanation.

Genzang Dorma has many people in her family, including a grandfather who is 85 years old.. She not only takes care of her grandfather, but also needs to do much of the housework. She was very excited when she received this solar flashlight and she said that it is very useful when she milks in the morning.

Jiaduoji is seventy years old and must do lots of housechores even though she is weak because last year she lost her daughter-in-law.

Sdagmo ji is 60 years old. Her husband is disabled hence she has to handle everything by herself. After she received her flashlight, she was so happy that she could not say anything.

Cuolai is a very hardworking woman– even though she doesn’t have a husband, she is still brave and supports her family by herself.

Suonan jia is 67 years old and who doesn’t have a wife or children. He was left alone after his wife died. He is a very kind man and likes to help others, so all of the villagers in Gon Chen respect him.

She is a primary school student and she likes to study very much, but her home is far away from the school. When she received this solar flashlight she was very happy and said to the manager that she will study hard and be a knowledgeable person in the future.

Nalai receiving a solar flashlight.

This is a hard working woman who has to milk female yaks during the summer, so the solar flashlight is very useful for her. She said that this kind of free help was unexpected and surprising for her.

Thank You Letter

English Translation of Thank You Letter
Dear donors and Shem Women’s Group,
I would like to be on behalf of all the villagers of Gon chen Village to extend my sincere appreciation of the successful implementation of the twenty-four Solar Flashlight Project for the twenty-four poorest families in Gon chen Tibetan Village.
With the good quality of modern solar flashlights, it is not only convenient for people to use, but also environmentally friendly in nomadic areas. Furthermore, this solar flashlight does not need to be charged and does not require batteries which saves money. Therefore, local people, especially the direct beneficiaries, highly appreciate your kind help. Hereby I wish your charity work goes well in the future and thank you again.
                                                                                Gon chen Village Committee

This project is to provide 30 solar flashlights to 30 households in Gser lung and Rga Mkhar Village.

Naljor Prison Dharma Service funded this project

Bkra shis Sgrol mais from Gser lung Township, Rma lho Mongolian Autonomous County, Rma lho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho sngon Province, China. She is studying for a Bachelor’s Degree in the ETP program at Qinghai Nationality Teacher’s College, Qinghai Normal University.

Contact Information

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group
Contact person: Bkra shis Sgrol ma
Address: Qinghai Xining, Xining Shi You Zheng Ju, Xin Ning Lu You Ju 20-5 Xin Xiang, 810008, P.R.C 
Telephone: 0971- 6302115(Shem Office)

Email: info@shemgroup.org

Web:  www.shemgroup.org

What: To provide 30 flashlights to 30 families, including 3 monks, 1 nun, 10 elders (7 women and 3 men) in Rga mkhar Village, and 16 villagers (11 women and 5 men) in Gser lung Village from Gser lung Township, to solve some problems in their daily life.

Project Location: Gser lung Village and Rga mkhar Village of Gser lung Township, Henan County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China.

Brief Description of Implementation

I brought 30 solar flashlights from the Shem office on January 12^th of 2011 and gave them to the villagers on January 22^nd of 2011. I, the manager, selected mostly the elders to be recipients. Most of the elders live in the houses near Gser lung Monastery after their children get married because villagers think young couples can manage their family without parents’ help after 1 or 2 years.  The elders move near the monastery to start to prepare for their next life. Because of the villagers believe in Tibetan Buddhism, they think they will be born again somewhere after death. In order to have a better life after rebirth they always circumambulate the monastery or stupas, worship at the temples, and turn prayer wheels.  They usually go to the monastery around 4:00 a.m since it is the most auspicious time to visit. It is dark on the way, so they need flashlights.

There are many old people there but it is difficult to satisfy all of them. Firstly, I chose the elders’ families who had small amounts of land, few animals and less income.   I especially focused on helping disabled elders. They are very happy to get solar flashlights that do not require a battery or electricity; the flashlights only depend on nature’s costless sunshine to charge the battery and provide light.

Secondly, I chose some young women according to their condition. Village women have to milk female yaks in summer before the sunrise, and in the evening.  It is difficult for them to find where the milk bucket was placed, and difficult to match the calves with their mother after the milking is done. Sometimes, they step on yak dung and fall down, so the darkness often disturbs their daily work.  I went to the women whose households are located on the mountains or on rough ground, and households where there is only one woman in a family. They light candles to get light at night, and earn less money than other families. They are surprised that they have received solar flashlight which will not be damaged by rain or water, they are very grateful to hear that it will not be dangerous to use them during the rain. Thirdly, I  choose 3 monks and 1 nun from the local monastery who are very old and have nobody to take care of them. The solar flashlight could solve their daily problems and they don’t need to spend any money on the batteries.

Some photos of recipients

This woman is turning her prayer wheel and chanting in her neighbor’s home because she feels warmer there. She is 82-years-old now, and a 10-year-old girl lives with her.

This woman is 68-years-old and she has to milk female yaks during the summer, so the solar flashlight is very useful for her. This kind of free help was unexpected and surprising for her, so she felt very happy and cried when I gave her the solar flashlight.

This woman is sick and has to lie in bed day and night. Her family is very poor, and it is difficult for her to take her medicine on time because of a lack of money. Only the little girl’s mother can earn money for them.

This woman is disabled and has to walk using a crutch. She said that in the night she has to go to the toilet two times and it is difficult to find her crutch in the darkness sometimes. Now, she can use the flashlight to guide her.

This man is 83 years old and is the best circumambulator among the elders, always getting up at 3:00 A.M. to chant and pray to Buddha for peace and a good life for other villagers and every living being in the world.

This woman is a 55-year-old yak milker. She doesn’t have any children, but she works for an old couple and a nun,who is one of her sisters.

The Recipients Name List

Thank You Letter

 Translation of the Thanks Letter

Dear donor,

We have received 30 solar flashlights which were donated by your organization; those were brought by a female student, Bkra shis sgrol ma, to the village. Now 30 elders from 30 poor families in both Sger lung Village and Rga mkhar Village have received solar flashlights. This solar flashlight not only saves them money, but also could solve some of their daily difficulties, and it is very convenient to use, too. So, our leaders represent all the villagers in saying, “Thank you very much for your help.”

From all village leaders of Gser lung Township

January 22^nd of 2011

This project is to provide 30 solar flashlights to 30 households in Dorze village.

Naljor Prison Dharma Service funded this project

Suonanzhouma is from Dorze Village, Dowei Township, Xunhua County, Haidong Region, China. She is pursuing BA degree in Qinghai Normal University.

What: To provide 30 solar flashlights to 30 households in Dorze village.
Contact Information
Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group
Contact person: Tashi Hlamo
Address: Qinghai Xining, Xining Shi You Zheng Ju, Xin Ning Lu You Ju 20-5 Xin Xiang, 810008, P.R.C
Telephone: 0971- 6302115(Shem Office)
Email: info@shemgroup.org
Web: www.shemgroup.org

 Project Location:
The project is located in Droze Village, Rto sbis Township, Xunhua County, Haidong Region, Qinghai Province, China. It is about 180 kilometers from Xining City. All the villagers are Tibetans in Droze Village. This village is surrounded by high mountains.

Project Description:
I (Suonanzhouma) got 30 solar flashlights from Shem Women’s Group before the winter vacation. During this winter holiday, I distributed 30 solar flashlights to 24 families and the 6 oldest people in Dorze Village.

There are 45 families in Dorze Village, but they are split into two groups; one group has 24 households and the other has 21 households. I chose the group of 24 families because all the villagers were chanting Mani together in the village Mani hall at that time.
This made it convenient for me to distribute the solar flashlights and explain the instructions to the villagers. After I finished distributing the flashlights, I explained to the villagers the directions for how to use the lights, where the lights came from, and also let each of the recipients make fingerprints on their names for the name list paper.

The villagers are very happy to receive the solar flights and some of the villagers said things as follow:

1) It is useful when they go to find caterpillar fungus.
2) It is very useful when they irrigate the fields.
3) It is helpful when they herd livestock in the mountains because the solar flashlights never needed batteries.
4) It is very useful for the older people when they go to the toilet at night time.

All the recipients of the solar flashlights showed their thanks to the donor and Shem Women’s Group. They also wish the best to all the people who are always helping others.

Project Photos

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(5)

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(12)

(13)

Beneficiaries Name List:

Thank You Letter

Dear donor,

I represent my village to say thank you very much for your kind help. The solar flashlights help my village to solve several problems; it is useful for the people like us who are living in rural places. The electric power is not stable here. Sometimes they cut off the power and we can not get light at night. But the solar flashlights can help in this situation and it is especially helpful for the older people in the village. We hope you can help more people like us with poor living conditions in the future. Thank you very much for your kind help and we wish you the best.

Dorze Village’s committee
Village Leaders: Kunqoik and SangGayal

To provide 30 solar flashlights to26 old people and 4 handicapped people in Stong che Village to solve the problems they face in their daily life.

Naljor Prison Dharma Service funded this project

Skal bzang mtsho is from Stong che Village, Hor nag Township, Rebgong County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. Currently she is studying for her BA degree at Qinghai Normal University.
Contact Information
Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group
Contact person: Skal bzang mtsho
Address: Qinghai Xining, Xining Shi You Zheng Ju, Xin Ning Lu You Ju 20-5 Xin Xiang, 810008, P.R.C 
Telephone: 0971- 6302115(Shem Office)
Email: info@shemgroup.org
Web:  www.shemgroup.org

Project Location

Stong che Village is located in Hor nag Township, Reb gong County, Rma lho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho sngon Province, PR China. Hor nag Township is about 22 kilometers from Reb gong County, and Reb gong County is about 130 kilometers from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province.

Description of the project or process

The project manager got the solar flashlights before the winter holiday of 2011. Then the project manager took the lights to her home village. At home, when the villagers heard about the project, all the relatives and friends came to the manager’s home and requested that the manager to give them the flashlights. This made the project manager very embarrassed, and she thought it was difficult to decide how to distribute the lights. The managerthought about what would be the right way to choose the recipients. The manager talked with her father and the village leader. After a few days, with the help of her father and the village leader, the manager came to a conclusion. There are three groups of people who received the flashlights.

1)   7 old people (3 male and 4 female) who are above 80 years old in Stong che village. Since the 7 people are the oldest people in Stong che Village and their eyesight and feet are not good, they need the lights at night when they go to toilet and to help them see the road clearly so they do not fall down in the dark.

2)  19 old people (13 male and 6 female) who are 60-79 years old with poor families. The families own very little land, they have no younger people to earn money, they have less livestock than others, and their families have no official workers.

3)     4 people (2 male and 2 female) who are handicapped and they are 38-43 years old.  It is hard for them to walk in the dark. Also, when it is harvest time, they always work day and night, so it is very necessary for them to have lights to work.

On 1^st Feb., 2011, the project manager visited every family who got the lights and took a picture of them.  During this time, the manager explained how to use the light and the advantages of the lights.  Also, she explained the lights came from and why lights were given to them.  The manager didn’t get all the photos of all the people because some old people were sick and the families forbid other people to enter their rooms (except for the family members). Also, one old woman recipient’s husband had died, so it was impolite to take a photo of her.  All of the people felt very happy and they thanked the people who gave them the lights.  They wish a happy and healthy life for the donors. Some said they will chant or pray to the lama or deity for the donors in order to help them have a happy life. Bkr shis bde legs!

The project photos:

In the picture is an old woman whose name is Snying tshe. She is 88 years old and the oldest woman in Stong che Village. Her eyesight is very bad and her feet always have pain. So she relies on a stick to walk.

This old man is 88 years old and his name is Rinchen rgyal. He is the oldest man in the village. When the manager went to his home, he asked his family, “Who is this girl?” and he did not recognize the manager even thought they told him her name. At last, his family told him my father’s name and then he knew the project manager. He is sick, so his mind is not clear. But on that day, he was very happy, and he said thanks to the project manager.

This man’s name is Lha dar. He is 62 years old. Recently, the family has experienced difficulty because his wife has an incurable disease and always takes medicine, so they need money to buy medicine. He also sent his two sons to school and now they are in college, so they need to pay a school fee.  They must rely on the man’s older son and sister-in-law.

This old woman’s name is Snying med. She is 70 years old. Five years ago, her only son died from an accident. Now she lives with her daughter and their income is very little.  They must depend on their crops for money. Also, her foot and hand cannot move very well.  

This woman’s name is Tshe ring skyid.  She is 68 years old. Her eyesight has been very bad since she was a young girl, so all the villagers call her Told zhar ma (which means blind). This summer, her husband died, so she lost the most important person to her.  There is no person who can live with her and take her to the toilet every night. When the manager gave her the light, she cried and thanked her.

This woman is 43 years old and her name is Rin mtsho rgyal. Her right leg was broken by the collapse of a small house when she was 29 years old. After that, her right leg couldn’t support her to walk; it became very straight and couldn’t bend. She can’t do certain chores and can’t walk for long distances.  Every year, her husband takes her to a hot spring to help with the pain in her leg.

The Recipients Name list

Thank You Letter

Thank You Letter in English

Dear donor:

       There are more than ninety households and five hundred people in Stong che Village. The quality of life and income is not good in this village because we depend on farming and working construction to earn money. The transportation is not convenient, and so we are isolated from the outside world. In addition, there are very limited water resources for drinking. These reasons prevent the development of the village.

       Therefore, you (the donor), helped our old villagers, handicapped people and poor families in Stong che Village by providing them with thirty solar flashlights. Here I (one of villagers) represent all the men and women in Stong che Village, old and young, , to say thank you for your help. I hope you can continue to help our village and thanks again.

       At last, we (all the villagers) hope you lead a good and healthy life. Bkr shis bde legs shog!

                                                All of the villagers

                                                Feb, 10, 2011

This project is to financially supported buying 32 solar water heaters for three villages to use as a beneficial water heating tools, which can protect the endangered forests and the rich bio-diversities along Mekong River and lead to a safer environment for the project beneficiaries of over 152 people.

Shem US & Dining for Women from US funded this project

Gelsang Lhamu is from Chalitong Village, Yunlin Township, Deqin County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, and PRC. She is a newly graduated college alumna who majored in English and Tibetan for four and a half years in English Training Program of Qinghai Normal University. Recently, she started undertaking her new job as an office manager in an Eco-tourism Company in Shangri-la, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, and PRC.

What? This project is to financially support to purchase 32 solar water heaters for villages listed below here:  

Who?1. Upper Yongzhi (2 families selected) 2. Middle Yongzhi (3 families selected) 3. Lower Yongzhi (8 families selected) 4. Yongren (2 families selected)       5. Chalideng (3 families selected)     6. Chalitong (1 family selected)            7. Guzha (7 families selected)        8. Yongjiu (6 families selected)

All the villages presented up ahead are governed by Deqin County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, and China.

Photos for implementing the project:

 Solar heaters are getting uploaded into the truck.

Terrible road condition with the heavy rain and the construction

The villagers are downloading the solar water heaters from the trucks

On the distribution day, examining in the pictures the wrapping paper being soaked and wetted by the rain water, during the long journey

Project summary:
Project title: Solar Water Heaters Project for Yulin Township 

Project goals: The immediate goal of this project is to buy 32 solar energy water heaters for the Yunlin region villagers to use as beneficial water heating tools; this will lead to a safer environment and protect the local forests.
The overarching goal of this project is to protect the endangered forests around Chalitong Village.

Location of project: This project was located in Yunlin Township, Diqing prefecture of Yunnan province, which is in the southwest of China.

Total beneficiaries: This solar heater project benefited a total of 128 residents in Yunlin Township.

Implementation organization/individual: Gelsang Lhamu (Betty), Aji (A well known villager who is familiar with heaters), Amabu (The village leader) all benefited Villagers and Shem Women’s Group.

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds received: Shem Women’s Group transferred 43,776rmb (80%) of the fund to the project manager, Gelsang Lhamu on February 25^th, 2010 and she will receive 10,944 RMB(20%) of the funds to after she implements the project successfully.

Details of project activities:  

1. Several short interviews with the villagers were held and contacted the Village Government worker, A Mabu, gathered necessary information for my project proposal. 
2.  Write project proposal
3.  Contacted the Solar Water Heaters Company locates in Diqing Shangri-la Prefecture city that I have purchased in my last project and knew well of the leader. We had made an agreement upon the price/
4. 15^th (managed to contact the village leader and asked him to collect the local contribution money on behalf of me, and wire afterwards to me)
5. 19^th (spent 7 hours of driving from Shangri-la, where I work, reached the solar company based in Xiaguan (Dali) city by the end of the day). Contacted the manager of the company.
6. 20^th (load all goods by the end of the day). Paid the company, getting the receipts.
7. 21^st (stayed in Xiaguan City, because the road re-construction doesn’t allow any transportation till Friday night.)
8. 22^nd (Drove all day, had one night stopped at a small guesthouse on the way)
9. 23^rd (Drove another day till midnight, met a road wretched due to the heavy rain and terrible condition of the road due to the re-construction. We had a sleep within the vehicle in the middle of nowhere.

10.  24^th (Drove another day till midnight, reached the project sites area by around 12:00pm.

11.  25^th (I had to postpone the distribution activity due the heavy rain for one day).

12.  26^th (By noon, the rain finally turned down a bit, and I quickly managed to contact the village leaders from each project site in order to inform the households to come and collect the solar items. It was until very late in the afternoon that all households reached where the vehicle landed, distribution process finished happily while I have taken pictures all the way. Meanwhile, I have managed to start some short interviews and talk about where the funding was from and how solar water heating should benefit for our homeland nature maintenance.

13.  27^th  ( I chose some nearby sites to see if the installation process went well, unfortunately, there was no electricity since the first day of my arrival in the village again due to the heavy rain damage to the lines. I had no battery for my camera. Luckily, one out of 34 started installing the solar heaters to usage, and the one family wants to install when they finish their house building, which they have just began.)        

14.  28^th ( reached back to Shangri-la town where I work)

15.  29th (Start preparing final report, including typing, collect photos and scan receipt so on.)

Project finances: 

*330 rmb was collected from the local people as to adjust the slight change of the management expenses.

List of recipients

List of recipients’ translation

Delays, Difficulties, and lessons learned
Delays

Overall, there weren’t any huge problems encountered, but there is always a problem when it comes to the action. On the distribution date, three families from Yongzhi didn’t show up, unable to provide the local contrition. I decided to transfer their solar heaters to three other families with a rich number of domestic animals that are in great needs of hot water every day. As I am recalling back, weather and road condition has been the toughest obstacles all over the implementation. The rich precipitation for over months damaged numberless road basement, which were under re-construction, soil erosion struck over the road. We even had to sleep one night inside the vehicle due to a huge flooding that covered the road, without any breakfast and lunch. The whole trip took us 3 days and nights in total to reach the project site. Normally, it would only take 2 days and one night.  

Difficulties

It is not easy to carry out a single project without a slight change to the original plan, as a matter of fact; I have faced a number of difficulties since the first day of the implementation.

I reached in Xiaguan City by the afternoon of 19^th and the original plan was to start the transportation journey on the afternoon of 20^th, but the government has enacted a document that all transportation tools can only use the road for once a week, which start on Friday night till Saturday evening. That made us to stay in the city for the 20^th and 21^st, which meant another two days of extra expenses in the city that wasn’t initiatively planed.

One the way, it is un-imaginably risky to challenge the bad road condition, there was not a single inch of paved road, all mixed with mud and rain water. Our driver hardly managed to get through some of the poor road bed. Luckily, we managed to reach the project site safely on time. Finally, when we reached the village, the electric pole had been heated by rolling stones from the mountain and there was no electricity at all until the closing of the project implementation. My poor camera worked ok till the distribution section, and then died off without any power.

Lastly, I was not convinced of the fact there would be some villagers unable to pay the 500 rmb local contribution, whom were not given the project benefits at all, I was not happy to see that frankly, but I didn’t come up with a better solution. I wished they could have been borrowed some money from other families, but I was told Yongzhi village had been under crucial financial shortage in recent years, especially with some of the families.

Lessons learned

This is the third solar project I have managed to carry out with Shem Women’s group since 2007, there was measureless gratitude from most of the villagers to both to me and to the donors, and so does the growth of satisfaction in my own accomplishment and Shem’s help. I would say these experiences helped me to grow more mature and more skillful in the matter of projects implementation, and with the methods of cooperating with local people and the government. Until this day, I couldn’t believe what I have done for my homeland forest and the people, according to all beneficiaries; I learned solar heaters had been reducing a great number of wood burning since 2007.

However, there was another crucial threat been done to the last bit of virgin forest throughout my county. The virgin forest is the homeland of hundreds of wild species and plantation, majority with pine trees. In recently years, with well growth in finance, villagers began breaking down their old house and follow the fashion of building a brand new Tibetan Style house. A traditional Tibetan style house needs at least over hundreds of imperishable sky-high pine trees and rich numbers of other kinds of trees ( I am not familiar with the names). According to my understanding, it can be the most dreadful threat to the mountain’s last bit of virgin and rich plantation. The government has been renewed some laws to control the load of logging, however wood is the main component to build a traditional Tibetan house, and most of the villagers were unable to afford the marketing materials to build a modern reinforced concrete house, which in some mind, is not as good and warm as the Tibetan traditional house. This has been in my mind always, the villager seems only care about how their house would look great and new to other’s eyes, but they hardly realize how the logging would damage the environment in the mountains, which in long term, would cause dreadful disasters in the future.     

Interviews of the beneficiaries:

1)      Ner Qu Ci

She is nearly thirty years old with two sons, and she married a Han Chinese husband from Sichuan. He was the only income earner for the entire family; he stays outside of the village for almost all year around, working with the construction site. Ner Qu Ci has to manage all the house chores, taking care of the babies, including collecting fuel wood, feed domestic animals and other small house works. She was overwhelmed to be one of the receivers, and it could greatly reduce her workload of collecting fuel and house works.   
 

2) Gelsang
Gelsang is a 72 year -old man who has a huge family of children and grandchildren. In the year 2007, during the fuel collecting periods, I was helping my family in the flying-box loading site in the valley, and he was there at that time. All of a sudden, he looked up to the mountain forests with a pair of disappointed eyes and remarked profoundly in a half sighing voice, “Not 50 years ago, the whole mountain was covered by trees and it was beautiful. But look at the mountain now, it’s half empty and people are still cutting trees. I believe that the whole mountain forest would be gone not after 50 years if people continue doing this.” Then during this holiday, when I brought back the solar water heaters to my village, he looked very happy and said, “Gelsang Lhamu, what a great job you have done saving the trees.”

Letter of appreciation

Receipts:

#1 Receipt

The total amount purchased 32 solar water heaters

#2 Receipt

The Bus ticket from Shangri-la to Xiaguan (Dali) City

Approximate amount of management expenses since 19^th April to 28^th April (project implementation periods), while some slight expenses with phone connections and copy files were included in the budget chart.

Yunlin is a township title with 33 Tibetan villages locate on Mekong River bank; officially is under- administrated by the Government of Deqin County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture( Shangri-la), Yunnan Province, China. This project will be taken place in some of the poorest families in 8 villages as named following:

1. Upper Yongzhi (2 families selected)

2. Middle Yongzhi (3 families selected)

3. Lower Yongzhi (8 families selected)

4. Yongren (2 families selected)

5. Chalideng (3 families selected)

6. Chalitong (1 family selected)

7. Guzha (7 families selected)

8. Yongjiu (6 families selected)

This area is characterized by extraordinary topographic extremes-ranging from arid canyons to snow-capped peaks-that have led to the region’s significant biodiversity. The collection of fuel wood, the No. 1 energy source, is denuding forests and eroding soil at alarming rates. There is almost a two hour drive to the county town, Deqin, an 8 hour drive to the prefecture town, Diqing.

Population

Yunlin Township has 927.7 square meters of space. Its population of 5,700 is mainly groups of Tibetan agricultural villages ranging along Langcang (Mekong) River. Within this project, eight villages would be the targeted groups. The beneficiaries: the total number of households is 32 and the total population is estimated as 152, including 183 children under age fifteen, and 82 male and 70 females.

Education

Within the 584 total populations, 70 percent are illiterate with women accounting for 50 percent and men 20 percent. In all the past years, most parents had difficulties affording tuition fees when their children started going to middle school in the county town or the prefecture city. It used to cost them more than 1,000 rmb per year. All the 39 school-aged children in the villages attend the primary school on account of the government’s newly enacted law, “Nine year compulsory education,” which means the government provides free education for all the children till they leave their middle school. Parents these days still need to pay for many school-related services, such as food, insurance and class money (a small amount of money which is collected from everyone in a class, usually 100 rmb, to spend on class activities like picnics). In total, one school semester costs parents between 1000 and 1200 rmb. However, parents usually keep their children at home in order to help them during busy work times or as an assistant for them for complex and great quantities of farm work in the fields (plowing, seeding, weeding and harvesting all year around). This is especially common during times when families collect a special kind of mushroom to sell and when they need to collect fuel in the mountains. As a result, some of the children are kept at home to do the house works for the busy times and some are not sent back to school again. People traditionally believe that girls can be better assistants to their parents. At the present time, (Yongren, Yangza, and Yongjiu) those three villages only have 1 college attendee and three secondary school graduates (2 girls and 1 boy), 4 high school attendee (three boys and one girl) and over 7 middle school children (3 boys and 4 girls). According to local government statistics, school enrollment in Yunlin Township lags far behind than the other places in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

Cash income

Due to the environmental conditions (the villages are surrounded by big mountains covered with a lot of trees), the targeted villagers (Yongren, Yanza and Yongjiu) only own a little land on the mountain range, the smallest is 0.9 mu that is true to the majority of the families, this is certainly not enough for them to eat and feed their animals. So, the villagers do as much as possible to earn money in several ways, which will be outlined below.

Firstly, villagers go up to the mountain forests, collecting a special kind of mushroom during three months periods from July to October each year. In years past, the villagers could find more than 10 kg of mushroom in a day, and sell them in the small market at night that is near the village. At this time 1 kg of mushrooms could sell for around 180 rmb, with the price decreasing to 30 rmb per kg towards to end of the season. In more recent years, the forests have become smaller since people cut down the trees as their main fuel source. In order to find more mushrooms, people now dig big holes, sweeping away the important surface of the earth in the forests. Last year, the average amount people earned was 500 rmb, however previously, every family could earn more than 3,000 rmb in the same time period.

Secondly, if a family has more than two members capable of performing laborious tasks, usually one is sent away from the village to earn extra money. Usually these people work as construction laborers and miners. These families can earn 1,000-3,000 rmb per year. In families who have no extra laborers, very little extra money is made at all.

Finally, as of last year, the government enacted a new law – environmental resettlement. The villagers gave up working on their infertile fields and instead planted walnut trees. According to the magnitude of contributed land, the villagers receive money at the beginning year from the local government. The average amount is 1,300 rmb.

Villagers could barely support themselves all around the year as they can barely depend on the little land they have, therefore, extra money is needed to purchase barley, meat, wheat and rice. This costs each family at least 1000 rmb per year. On average, each family has to spend more than 600 rmb on everyday expenses per year, as well as at least 15 rmb per month for electricity. In total, families have to spend around 2,500 rmb per year, as well as keeping 1,000 rmb aside for emergencies. For families with high school and college students, 8,000 rmb is required per year. As a result, these families have no money to spare, and lack even enough money to use for their own needs.

Herding

Yongren, Yanza and Yongjiu villagers only raise domestic animals, such as pigs, donkeys, horses, cows and bulls. Usually each family owns between one and three domestic animals, and this number is related to their income. Rich families with over 50 domestic animals can earn 1000 rmb per year from selling butter, cheese, and meat. Poor families have no such cash income. Usually, the sheep and cattle are left to remaining elders and children herd these animals during spring, summer and autumn time.

Weather

The weather in those three natural mountain villages (Yongren, Yanza and Yongjiu) is rather warm in all season, though rain is common in spring and summer. Raining weather is ideal for crops and forest mushrooms, but does significant harm to the mountain’s barren land, where people have cut all the trees. Frequently flood rushes create a rather dangerous environment for the villagers.

Problems

The collection of fire wood is denuding the forest at alarming rate.

In the mountain villages of Yunlin Township, the collection of fuel wood, the No. 1 energy source, is denuding forests and eroding soil at alarming rates. At the current rate of consumption, researchers of The Nature Conservancy Fund have predicted that the forest cover of oak, pine, fir and spruce will be gone in 40 to 50 years. One month before every New Year Celebration (a very important festival) people collect fuel for the coming year. At least two members from each family (usually the parents) will go up to the mountains surrounding the village. In more than seven days, during the daytime they stay in the dense forests and cut as much wood as they can.

Women lack spare time for attending social community works

Females throughout the Yunlin Area complete all housework; including tasks like cooking, feeding the animals, sewing and washing. Furthermore, some women share extra outside chores with their husbands equally, like cutting trees on the mountains. As a result, women have no opportunity to participate in community activities as the men do, so they do not have access to a basic power share in their families.

Life is at danger through the process of wood transporting

The process of transporting wood is very risky both in the upper areas of the mountain and down into the valley. The location of the upper flying fox loading site is above a rather steep hill. The villagers must carry bundles of branches tied with steel wire toward the flying fox. Then they attach the bundle to a hook, which then sits on the flying fox. This is a delicate process, as it is easy for wood to fall from the bundle as it speeds down the mountain. Each family carves a sign on the hook for people at the bottom of the valley to recognize their wood. The people who wait in the valley must be very alert in order to avoid the flying pieces of timber, while at the same time searching for their family’s carved symbol.

Access to the outside world is restricted; soil erosion blocked the road

Every year, during the rainy season the road leading to the county is covered by mud flooding from the top of the mountain. As a result, the transportation system becomes totally unavailable. In this situation, the villagers can’t reach the county town even in urgent times such as the start of school or sudden accidents or sickness to anyone in the Village.

Benefits of project

Solar Water Heater is a proven, simple, low technology without any negative feedback; and they are workable, doable strategy to reduce their life threats from the natural disaster.

Village women gain more leisure and their health is less threatened, because solar water heaters could reduce the wood burnt as well the smoke that brings disease.

The unbelievable heavy workload of the villagers would be reduced aggressively. And they will be spared from the large amount of effort that is required to fetch a regular supply of firewood. They will be able to use their valuable leisure time to relax or take part in income generating activities, instead of spending so much time cutting trees in the mountains.

School-aged children will have more time to study and play. They will have enough time to finish their homework and work on extra study for school. Solar water heaters will provide time for the school children to enjoy their own interests after school instead of doing labor in their homes. This will also improve student enrollment rates during the wood-harvesting season, as parents will not have to keep their children at home to do chores.

The dangerous and difficult process of collecting wood via the flying-fox will be no longer necessary. And this task of risking their lives to use the flying-fox could be deleted. Consequently, people’s living conditions will improve.

Solar water heaters are an updated source of electricity-free fuel. They also make environmental regeneration possible, at the same time as giving villagers a safer and more comfortable standard of living. Overall, it fulfills the villagers’ need of hot water everyday.

Traditionally, people have stereotypes of believing girls are less useful than boys, as in the case of education, more boys are sent to school. Girls are better at doing housework and helping their parents when they are busy. I’m currently the second college girl in my village, and the second woman ever to go to college. There are some male college students who have already graduated. The majority of the girls become victims of arranged marriages and the burdens that come in their youth. During the wood collecting season while some children are kept at home to finish housework tasks, both of their parents are equally involved in wood colleting tasks and the conveying process. Besides, the majority of the women owe a certain time to prepare the dinner afterward and accomplish the family indoor tasks, including all the house works.

Project Plan

1) Several short interviews with the villagers were held and contacted the Village Government worker, Acheng, gathered necessary information for my project proposal. (Already done)

2) Write project proposal. (Already done)

3) Contacted the Solar Water Heaters Company locates in Diqing Shangri-la Prefecture city that I have purchased in my last project and knew well of the leader. We had made an agreement upon the price. (Already done)

4) Once the funding is secured, go back to the project location and hold a meeting, meanwhile the local contribution is collected.

5) Get back to the prefecture and start the purchasing.

6) The solar water heaters will arrive at the project location and installed within one week.

7) Complete the project. Show the villagers how to use and care for their heaters, meanwhile interviewing them (male, female and children).

9) Pictures are taken meanwhile (the mountains, the flood’s hole, the forests and the solar water heaters).

10) Write final report.

11) Send final report with all pictures and receipts.

Time frame

this project will take a total of more than 13 days to finish the whole process: Once the funding is secured, it will take one day to visit the solar water heating company to prepare the materials and loading the heaters to truck. By the next day, we will start the journey to Yunlin Township targeted villages, and arrive there by the twilight. The distribution to Yangza, Yongzen and Yongjiu three natural villages should take one day to finish. And the installation of the heaters to every family takes more than 10 days to finish.

Detailed Budget

Total amount requested from donor: 54,720rmb

Reference information

Since July 2007, I have successfully implemented two small scale development projects mainly to protect the damaged mountain forests as well to prove the rural Tibetan villagers’ life in Yunlin Areas. The total beneficiaries are more than 700. Among them, 510 residents have received solar cookers to cook for their animals, which have been reducing their burning of forest wood as their No. 1 energy fuel. Another 210 people have received solar water heaters to achieve the same aim, i.e., to protect the mountain’s rich heritage of plants and animals in Yunlin areas and, in the long term, to make people’s life better. However, groups of villagers, who scattered among the Mekong River through the mountain range, were not included as the beneficiaries in the first two projects. These villagers have come and showed me their great passion for solar water heaters. They asked me passionately to get them water heaters as I have done to my own villagers, therefore, here I am, to write another solar water heaters proposal, to try my best to bring them heaters, which they could never afford themselves. My pervious projects were funded by Shambala Connection and the Australian Embassy in July, 2007 and February, 2008.

Governmental support

on 19th, April 2008, Yunling Governmental worker, Aching contacted me by phone. He represented the government and asked me to submit a new proposal to the donors for more solar water heaters for more villages, since they barely succeed to help the villagers as they have always wanted to. He stated through the phone, “Solar water heaters are the exact items our villagers have been yearning for over decades and never could afford themselves. The environment’s condition has only been damaged worse and villagers’ life condition stays in the same step, solar water heaters could save the trees, free of charge, and bring the villagers to climb further to a better, more convenient life as well as undisturbed by natural disasters such as flooding.”

Map of Deqin County

Deqin is my county and belongs to Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province.

Pictures taken in the project site

Mountain with little trees on the surface.

Mountain with a few trees surrounding the village houses.

Rocky Mountains along Mekong River.

Flood hole right through the village, cutting through the middle of the fields and houses.

The flood hole cut through the village water canal and stopped half of the villagers’ water source.

Fields collapsed by rain damage.

to purchase 70 solar generating panels for 70 households and improve living conditions for Cuozhou Township, Jiajia Township and Duojia Township.

Shem US & Dining for Women from US funded this project

Gawangjyid is from Yehe Village, Cuozhou Township, Jiantsa County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Currently she is working for Shokay (Ventures in Development).

What? Purchase 70 solar generating panels for 70 households to improve the living conditions of the 70 poorest families from Cuozhou Township, Jiajia Township and Duojia Township.

Who? Cuozhou Township (Nega Village, Tsoxiong Village, and Yehe Village), Jiajia Township (A Jiong Village, Nandang Village, HaxuVillage, Ruma Village, Waze Village and Jiangze Village,), Duojia Township (Lhajiong Village and Langwa Village), Jiantsa County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China

Photos of project implementation

The weather is so windy, hence the project manager decided to unload all of the solar panels in a family’s yard.

The villagers are placing all the solar panels in lines as they unload them.

Project recipients are making finger prints for their signature, and handing in the local contribution.

Village heads start distributing the solar panels as the project manager calls the recipients name one by one.

Project recipients are standing in lines to get the solar panels.

Project summary
Project title: Solar Electricity Generating Panel Project for Cuozhou, Jiajia and Duojia townships
Project goals: To purchase 70 solar generating panels for 70 households and improve the living conditions for 70 poorest families from Cuozhou Township, Jiajia Township and Duojia Township.
Project location: This project is located in Cuozhou Township (Nega Village, Lhade Village, and Yehe Village), Jiajia Township (A Jiong Village, Nandang Village, HaxiuVillage, Ruma Village, Waze Village and Jiangze Village), Duojia Township (Lhajiong Village and Langha Village), Jiantsa County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, PRC. Cuozhou Township is 180 kilometers away from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province. Jiajia Township and Duojia Township are 185 kilometers away from Xining City. All of these areas are both agricultural and nomadic villages with 270 families total. Half of the family members herd in the pastures and half of them farm in the field.
Total beneficiaries: This project directly benefits 70 households with 490 people from those eleven villages in Cuozhou Township (Nega Village, Cuoxiong Village, and Yehe Village), Jiajia Township (A Jiong Village, Nandang Village, HaxuVillage, Ruma Village, Waze Village and Jiangze Village), and Duojia Township (Lhajiong Village and Langha Village)
Implementation organization/Individual: Gawang Jyid (project manager), Danba (JiaJia tribe leader), Zhouluo (Yehe village head), Wangjie and YangcuoJi (volunteer villagers from Ruma village), Zhaxi (villager from Langha), Yangzhong (villager from Lha Jiong), Zhuoma Bum (villager from Tso Xiong) and Shem Women’s Group.
Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group
Funds received (Source, Amount, and Date Received): Gawang Jyid received 37,064rmb from Shem Women’s Group on March 2nd, 2010 and will receive 9,266rmb after the project manager implements the project successfully.

Details of project activities
1. Had a meeting with the village leaders and a female representative from each village to collect information about their urgent needs or biggest problems.
2. Chose one person from each village to take responsibility for work related to the project. Zhouluo from Yehe Village, Zhuomaben from Cuoxiong Village, Gaisang from Nega Village, Yangtso from Ajiong Village, Danba from Haxu Village, Wangjie from Ruma Village, Renchen Nor Ri from Waze Village, Yangzhong from Lhajiong Village, Caijia from Lhangha Village.
3. Found the cheapest and best quality solar panels and found out how much each solar panel costs. We contacted Gesang Solar Panel Company first because of their great reputation and history of success.
4. Wrote project proposal.
5. Found a donor for funding and sent the proposal.
6. Held a meeting with village leaders, and discussed each person’s contribution of labor (e.g. when the solar panels arrived to the project site, they should help the project manager distribute the solar panels carefully and make sure they know how to use it.)
7. Had a meeting with village leaders to arrange a time to carefully transport the solar panels.
8. Purchased the cheapest, best quality solar panels and transported them in a tractor to Ruma Village since Ruma Village is in the middle and it is convenient for other villagers come there to get their solar panels.
9. Completed project.
10. Interviewed recipients and took pictures.
11. Completed the final report.
12. Sent final report with all pictures and receipts to Shem.

Project finance

Note: Project manager Gawang Jyid received 46,330 RMB from Shem Women’s Group and received 10,850 RMB from the village. The original local contribution was estimated at 10,750 RMB, but the villagers gave the project manager 100 RMB more than the original estimate. The reason was that the villagers rounded up the 153.57 RMB that each recipient owed to 155 RMB per person, so 100 RMB was left from the local contribution which is not in the above table. As a result, the project manager got a total of 57,180 RMB for the project. The project cost 56,840 RMB and 340 RMB was left from both the donor and local contribution. From that 340 RMB, 90 RMB was left from the donor contribution.

List of recipients

Translation of the recipients

Delays, Difficulties and Lessons Learnt

Delays
The factory needed 15 days to produce 70 solar panels for Gawang Jyid, so she signed a contract with them, but after 15 days, Gesang Solar Panel Factory told Gawang Jyid that they were very sorry, but they hadn’t completed the order. Therefore, Gawang Jyid gave them one more week to finish the rest of the work.

Difficulties
With the villagers’ help and great cooperation, the project manager didn’t face any serious problems or difficulties during the implementation of Solar Electricity Generating Panel Project. From Xining to Kang Yang Township, the road is wide and paved well, but from Kang Yang to Ruma Village, Jiajia Township the road is not really good. It is paved simply, but the road is through mountains, and narrows as well. Therefore, the driver complained about road all the way. Gawang Jyid explained all the road conditions before they signed the contract and the contract emphasized that the driver would transport 70 solar panels to the project site safely. So, the driver couldn’t do anything such as stop on the way.

Another difficulty was that some villages have more people living in the pasture (compared to 2007 when she wrote the proposal) and some other villages have fewer people living in the pasture, so the total number of households in the pasture is around 80 now, but Gawang Jyid only had 70 solar panels. Therefore, the village heads helped the project manager choose the 70 poorest households. The village heads and project manager chose them according to their family conditions, such as the number of yaks, sheep, land mu, and the number of people who are able to work. The project manager could see from their faces that those 10 families who were not chosen were upset. Therefore, project manager Gawang Jyid had to comfort them with saying that she will apply for solar panels for them in the future as well.

Lessons learnt
By managing this project, project manager learnt and experienced the following things:

1)It is very important to be respectful, thoughtful, enthusiastic and flexible in order to carry out a project successfully.
2)Project manager should make everything clear when dealing with any other person, and must sign a contract in order to avoid any problems that might happen.
3)žIt is important to be well prepared before starting the project in order to prevent the problems.
ž4)The project manager should be familiar with the project site in order to choose the best method to implement the project.
5)Every project has different kind of things to learn; e.g., even though Gawang Jyid had done solar cooker and threshing machine projects before, she learned more things from implementing this solar panel project.
6)Larger scale projects can make the manager practice more.
ž7)Helping the poorest people to meet the urgent need is the most pleasant thing to do

Interview of the project beneficiaries

This is Jiumei standing in front of his house. He told the project manager that he is very excited and happy to get light at night from those warm and kind-hearted donors. He said he felt thankful for those who helped him get this light.

Her name is Gasang Ji. When project manager Gawang Jyid entered her house, Gasang Ji took Gawang Jyid’s hand into her hand, crying and saying that Gawang Jyid had given eyes to them. As Gawang Jyid explained again that she is only the person who transported the solar panels to them, but there are some other important people who really helped them to get solar panel is the donor, then Gasang Ji was saying constantly “those long-life kind-hearted donors, those long-life kind-hearted donors, those long-life…”

Thank you letter

Translation of thank you letter

Thank you letter

Dear most thankful donor,
On behalf of all the Jiajia, Duojia, and Cuozhou people, we ( Jiajia community) would like to show our great gratitude to you for giving 70 solar electricity generating panels to the poorest households that are living in the pastures. We would like to say Thank You Very Much from the bottom of our heart!

Sincerely

Jiajia Community
April 3^rd, 2010

The list of receipts

Receipt #1

Total amount of money to purchase 70 solar panels: 56,000 RMB.

Receipt#2

Transportation fee from the factory to the project site: 450 RMB.

Receipt #3

There are in total 11 pieces of taxi receipts for visiting factory to decide which product to purchase and to check the quality of the product when the factory completed the product, as well as go to factory to get the panelsand back to office after the project is implemented. Plus phone fee, taxi from the village to Jianzha County Town, bus from Jianzha to Xining: Total for management costs is 390 RMB.

Original Proposal
Project Location
This project will be located in Cuozhou Township (exactly in Cuoxiong Village, Lhade Village, and Yehe Village), Jiajia Township (in HaxiuVillage, Ruma Village, Waze Village and Jiangze Village), Duojia Township (in Lhajiong Village and Langha Village), Jiantsa County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, PRC. Cuozhou Township is 180 kilometers away from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai province. Jiajia Township and Duojia Township are 185 kilometers away from Xining City. All of these areas are both agricultural and nomadic villages with 270 families’ total. Half of the family members herd in the pastures and half of them farm in the field.

Population
In these nine villages there are 1890 people, making up 270 households. Usually there are 1530 people in the farming areas and 360 people in the pastures. This project will directly benefit 70 households with 490 people from those nine villages. Of these 490 people, 170 are children, 157 are men and 163are women. These are very poor people who cannot afford cheap, low-quality solar panels. (The project manager selected the poorest families from these villages with the help of the village leaders and some old, faithful villagers).

Education
Only 43 out of the 170 children currently attend school. 4 of them are college students（1 girl and 3 boys）13 of them are middle school students (5 girls and 8 boys) and 26 of them are primary school students 11 girls and 15 boys. The rest of the 127 school aged children help their parents with herding and farming. All of the middle aged and old people are illiterate in these villages due to the following reasons:

Before 1981, all the fields and livestock were shared by all the villagers together. Whichever family labored more for the public fields and livestock got more barley and wheat. Therefore, at that time all the parents kept their children at home for labor. Consequentially all the villagers worked very hard and didn’t have time and money to pay for tuition. Hence the entire population of old and adult villagers are illiterate now.

After 1981, fields and livestock were divided for each household. Since then, each family owned their own fields or livestock. But they were too poor to send their children to the school immediately. After they divided the fields and livestock, they could only have around ten sheep or goats and five yaks according to the number of family members who could work. Although they still do not have a large amount of livestock, they have to herd them in the pasture for the whole year. When they are herding they cannot leave to earn additional income and thus cannot afford tuition for schooling

Cash Income
Every year, each household could earn 700-800 rmb on average by digging caterpillar fungus. (Caterpillar fungus is a kind of herb and plant that grows on the grassland. And they can sell it with around 8-9 rmb for each.) They have to buy clothes, tea, salt, candles, vegetables and also some barley and wheat with that little money. Due to their low incomes they are unable to purchase sufficient supplies for the whole year. With that little money, they buy around 70 candles costing about 90 rmb for the whole year. They only use these candles when it’s entirely dark that they can’t see anything at all with burning sap. They’re also used some other special evenings such as when guests are at their home or during ceremonies or ritual evenings. Hence they purchase one pair of clothes to share with all family members, one little pack of tea and salt, 70 candles, vegetables, one pack of barley and a little wheat. It is very hard for them to buy clothes, because they would have to spend 500 rmb on average if they bought clothes for each family member. Therefore they have to wear one set of clothes for three or four years until they become very old and worn-out. Milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, barley and wheat are their main food sources. Sometimes they kill a weak or old yak, sheep or goat to have enough money to survive. Thereby, some years these poorest 70 families from these nine villages can barely sustain their lives. So this project can greatly improve the lives of those very poor 70 households.

Agriculture
The villagers in these nine villages plant wheat, barley, potatoes, and beans. The richest families have 3.5-mu of fields to plant those crops (just enough for a year’s worth of food without surplus). Each year they can produce 500 jin of barley, wheat or potatoes, per mu. However, the poorer families only have 2 mu of fields, which means 2 mu to feed all members of the family. If one year has less rain, those poorer families might not even have enough food for themselves. Sometimes the government gives one or two packs of flour to the poorest families, but this is not sufficient.

Herding
These villages are semi-nomadic places. In these nine villages, 122 households have only five or six yaks, 114 households have around 10sheep, and 32 households have 4 or 5 yaks and also 7 or 8 sheep (these families are the relatively rich families in the villages). Some families don’t have yaks but might only have around ten sheep. This project will benefit 37 families from 122 households who only have yaks and 33 families from 114 households who only have sheep, because these 70 families are the poorest families in this area.

Project goals
The overall goal of this project is to improve living conditions for Cuozhou Township, Jiajia Township and Duojia Township.
The immediate purpose of this project is to purchase 70 solar generating panel for 70 households

Electricity is essential for our lives, but those 490 villagers not only live in darkness at night, but also they can’t see anything on the TV to get information or broaden their view of the world. More importantly, if there is light, there will be fewer instances of villagers getting hurt by yaks. Access to light will also improve villagers’ access to education.

Problems

Sometimes those 70 households who are in the pasture lose their livestock during their herding and are not able to drive them home before dark. Therefore, they have to milk and feed the lambs, bucks or baby yaks during the night. One of woman was blinded by a yak’s horn when she was trying to tie the yak to its line during the night; the yak stuck its horn in her left eye. She doesn’t have money to go hospital to heal it, so her left eye has been blinded since then. While a thirteen year old girl was feeding a baby yak underneath its mother, one another yak came to attack the baby yak and its mother. That girl was placed between the two yaks and she was terribly wounded. In winter, the villagers have to keep their lambs and baby goats on their kang (bed made of earth; smoke comes from an adobe stove and heats the bed) under the basket. One night, a mother was cooking in the darkness when her little baby was sleeping. While she heard the scream, a lamb came to the baby and chewed the baby’s fingers. So, villagers were terrified, although they cautiously take care of themselves to avoid those risks, those dangerous events occur only during the dark time, so if they have solar panels, they can make light in the house and carry the light to outside also to see the livestock. Until now, seven villagers have been terribly wounded by livestock due to lack of light.
Because the villagers don’t have enough money to buy candle, they usually burn sap to make light till it is very dark, and then they would light candles. They can collect sap from the trees, but they can’t make too much light from it. Candles produce more smoke in an already smoke-filled house. Plus they also have to cook by burning wood or yak dung, which creates more smoke as well. The smoke makes the villagers’ eyes tear up all the time and gradually damages villagers’ eyes. In addition, it is very dark usually when they are feeding their livestock, so they can’t see if there is dirty garbage such as worn-out pieces of clothes or plastic bags in the animals’ food. (Animal foods are dried straws and the surface of wheat, which are usually on the ground randomly, so it is easy to mix with garbage.) Because they pour it to the livestock’s bowl with a big spoon and mix it in to a little bit flour with a stick. Hence sometimes livestock would die from contaminated food. However, the villagers would eat its meat though it was dead of illness, because food is not so sufficient for them if they don’t eat it. Hence some villagers would become strictly ill and sometimes a few of them would die. All the villagers have had stomachaches; one girl and an old man were dead because of eating contaminated yak meat.
From this year, the government decided not to collect tuition for primary and middle school students. Hence the rate of attending school is increasing in other villages. However, those 127 children from those 70 households still can’t attend school, because all of the children have to help their parents to try to finish the house work before dark. Further more, those 43 children who are attending school are unable to finish their homework or read other books at home when it is dark. These villages are located in a remote area. They don’t have electricity to see movies or watch TV. They have no access to see about other people, societies, countries, and global issues.

Benefits

Due to all of potentially harmful and dangerous things that can unexpectedly happen in darkness this project will improve these 490 villagers’ safety. Because at least they could see what is happening and what is around them.
Supplying this project will improve the villagers’ health. If these people have electricity generating panels, they don’t have to burn as much sap to create light and won’t have to destroy their eyes from its smoke.
If they have electricity, they could see if there any dirty things in the livestock’s food or not (i.e., they can bring the livestock’s bowl inside the house under the light to see if there is any garbage or not. They can take the light bulb with them to give food to the livestock, because the bulb’s line is pretty long and the distance from people’s room and livestock room are very short). Then the livestock will get sick less often. As a result, the villagers won’t die or get sick from eating contaminated livestock. Therefore, providing this project can improve the villagers’ health.
If this project is funded, most of those 127 children would have a greater opportunity to graduate from primary or middle school and become literate. Those students who are attending school will be able to do their homework and do some reading in the evening. Hence this project can give opportunities for those 26 children to improve their primary and middle school education. When I talked to some of the parents, they said that now they have solar cookers from a previous Shem project they do not need to collect as much yak dung as before, so they can send their children to primary school and middle school at least. Not many children were sent to the school, but at least 7 children were sent to the school after my solar cooker project was done.

Gender Equality
Usually women and girls cook in the house for family members and feed livestock in the darkness. If this project is funded, women and girls’ difficulties related to light would be driven away. Men and boys would also be happy about it, because they are also not comfortable when their mothers, sisters and wives are suffering from darkness. So local men, women and children are involved in the project planning and will be involved in implementation and maintenance, because all of them will benefit from this project directly.

This project will also improve people’s perceptions of women and their capabilities. Women’s social status in this village is very low. Girls are not expected to do any helpful things for the villagers and their community. For example, when I was doing the clothes project for the first time, the villagers really didn’t believe what I was doing and they wondered how I could do that. Their idea of me changed a little since I have completed two clothes projects. When I first had a meeting with the villagers and discussed the urgent need for solar cookers, they thought I was not capable enough to do such a big job; they didn’t take the project seriously. However, after I completed the solar cooker project, their view of me totally changed. They paid me compliments and said that I was “even more capable than a man.” Not only their view of me changed, but they also paid more of their attention to their daughters.

Effect on Children

Children also benefit as I stated in the Benefit part. Specifically this project will help them in many ways. First of all, this project will help children attending school. Secondly they can do home works under the light that the teachers won’t get angry at them and punish them, and also they can read the texts or other books to catch up the other students or learn more. And thirdly babies don’t get hurt at least from lambs and calf in the darkness. Children also won’t be hurt by livestock. All of them will grow up without get injury in the night. It is very sad to see that a child got injured and stay with it in his or her whole life. So this project will stop those uncomfortable and pity thing to happen. More over, the villagers said as far they know, children’s eyes are easy to be hurt, the light from solar panel won’t hurt children’s eyes though they read many books under the light than the smoke comes from the sap burning for making light does.

Government Support
May 3rd, 2006 – Gawangjyid talked to the government leader Namlah. He gave enthusiastic consent and said that he would appreciate it if the donors realized our difficulties and funded any kind of project.

Project Steps
Have a meeting with the family leaders (men and women) to collect information of their urgent needs or biggest problems in each village. (I did this)
The project manager and the village leaders selected the 70housholds.
Choose four people from each village to take responsibility for any kind of work related to the project. Two responsible women, the village leader and another man who takes care of the village usually. Also choose a general leader to take responsibility for all of them. (I discussed this with the villagers and they said they would do the work if the project was funded.)
Find the Solar Electricity Generating Panel Company selling the cheapest and best quality and make sure we know how much it will cost per solar electricity generating panel. This step has already been completed, and we will use the Huangnan Autonomous Prefecture’s Nima Brand Company Factory because of their great reputation and history of success. (completed)
Write project proposal. (completed)
Find a donor for funding and send the proposal.
Hold a meeting with villagers (men, women and children), and discuss each person’s contribution of labor (e.g. carry solar electricity generating panel to the village, distribute to each family and make sure everybody knows how to use it, take responsibility for not damaging the solar electricity generating panel).
Have a meeting with all of those four people from each village to arrange a time to carefully carry the solar electricity generating panel to each village.
Purchase the most cost-effective, best quality solar electricity generating panel and carry them in the Nima Brand Company truck to the village.
After distributing the solar electricity generating panel to each family and making sure everybody knows how to use it, supervise the process of the project with four people who are already chosen. Do this with the general leader, whom we’ve already chosen, and the four people chosen from each village.
Complete project.
Interview villagers (men, women and children) and take pictures.
Complete final report.
Send final report with all pictures and receipts.

Time Frame
This project takes 35 days to complete it from the project is funded

2 days: Have a meeting with the villagers and choose two people to buy solar electricity generating panels. (Choose these two people from 36 people who are already chosen to take responsibility for the project).

5 days: Purchase solar electricity generating panels and carry them to the villages.

5 days: Give solar panels to 70 households

12 days: Interview residents and take pictures.

11 days: Complete the final report and send to the donor.

Detailed Budget

The total project cost: 57,580rmb

The total donor contribution: 57,580 rmb (6,783dollars)

The local contribution: 10,7rmb50

Shem Women’s Group: 500rmb

Sustainability
This project is a sustainable project. As I mentioned all the villagers (men, women, and children) are involved in planning and implementing this project. And also they are the indigenous people, so they are clear about the difficulties that I mentioned in the ‘problem’ part. Therefore, they will recognize the benefit of solar electricity generating panels and take care of them as if they were treasures. This project will be sustained for at least ten years because the solar electricity generating panels that we will buy are of good quality. The few families in neighboring villages who have already bought solar electricity generating panels from Nima Brand Company have used them for four years. I went to ask them about the quality as I did when I was doing the solar cooker project for Yehe village, and they claimed the quality was excellent. They didn’t find any flaws during the four years of use. Also one of our Shem members bought solar panels from Nima Company (two other Shem members have bought from Nima Company, but not in Huangnan Prefecture) and she vouches for their quality. Additionally, the solar panels are covered by one year warrantee from Nima Company.

Additional Information
I completed one solar cooker project for 350 people in Yehe village in December 2006. When I was doing that project, a neighbor villager came and asked for solar cookers for their village. Therefore, I told them that I would try my best to write another solar cooker proposal for them. Recently, however, I heard that the government is going to give them solar cookers. Hence I wrote this solar panel proposal for them.

So far, I have completed two used clothes projects and one solar cooker project which solved many problems that the villagers are facing. I will implement this project as soon as it is funded and will then write a proposal for a threshing machine.

Interviews
When I decided to do this project, I interviewed many people in each of the nine villages. When I interviewed an old woman named Tsering Dorma she said that not having electricity or light at night was very difficult for her, but she’d never imagine that she could use a solar panel, because it’s too expensive for them to afford. She cried in despair, making me also cry.

Another interview was conducted with a young man named Deger. He said the lack of light it was not sorrowful for him, because he believed that is his karma. However, he really didn’t want his son to have this kind of life. He said that once he sent his son to the school which was far away. His son came back home after dark every day, so he could not do his homework. It was too difficult for his son to continue his studies, so he stopped going to school. The man said that this was the biggest sorrow of his life.

Map of Project Site

This project is to purchase 30 solar panels and distribute them to 30 households in Tsha Ra Village; and the overarching goal of this project is to provide light for all the villagers and to reduce women’s heavy workloads by eliminating the need to make butter lamps for use at night.

East Timor Women Australia funded this project

Xiangba Lacuo is from Tsha Ra Village, Mkhar Sgng Township, Ganzi County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, PR China. She is currently working towards an associated degree in the English Training Program at Qinghai Nationalities Teacher’s College, Qinghai Normal University.

What? Supply 30 solar electricity-generating panels for 30 households in Tsha Ra Village to provide light for them at night.

Who? Tsha Ra Village, Mkhar Sgng Township, Ganzi County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

Photos of the project implementation

The project manager is checking the quality of the solar panels.

Some of the villagers and the solar expert are loading the solar panels.

The villagers are unloading the solar panels.

The villagers are placing all the solar panels into several rows and getting ready to distribute them to the project recipients.

The project manager and the solar expert are training the villagers about how to use the solar panels.

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

The woman in the picture said they no longer need to stay in the darkness during the night.

This is the brilliant light that each family can enjoy thanks to the solar panel. They are no longer suffering from having no light during the night and worry about cost of candles and kerosene.

Project Summary

Project title: Solar Electricity Generating Panels Project for Tsha Ra Village.

Project Goals: The immediate goal of this project is to purchase 30 solar panels for 30 households in Tsha Ra Village. The overarching goal of this project is to provide bright light for all the villagers and reduce women’s heavy workloads; the villagers will be healthier because they will be able to get rid of the smoke from kerosene, candles and butter lamps. Especially during the nighttime, women will be able to do the housework conveniently by the bright light.

Project Location: This project is located in Tsha Ra Village, Mkhar Sgng Township, Ganzi County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, and PR China. Mkhar Sgng Township is 30 km away from Ganzi County Town and Ganzi County is located in the northeast of the provincial city of Sichuan and it’s about 745 km away from Chengdu City. Ghengdu is about 1,388 km away from Xining.

Total beneficiaries: There are about 151 people in Tsha Ra Village who directly benefited from this project.

Implementation organization/individual: Xiangba Lacuo (Phoebe), Ze Jia Luo (Mkhar Sgng township leader), Ge Gan ( the village leader), Ze Weng Da Ji, Luo Ga Qing Zhen and La Weng Cuo (villagers); and Shem Women’s Group.

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds received: Amount and date received
The project manger, Xiangba Lacuo, received 80% of project funds (32,764 RMB) from Shem Women’s Group on December 15th 2009, and will receive 20% (8,191 RMB) after the project manager implements the project successfully and submits the final report for the project.

Details of the project activities
1. In 2008, during the winter holiday, the project manager discussed the problems with villagers and what could be done to reduce those problems.
2. In May 2008, talked to the village leader about the community’s most important needs and discussed how the electricity problem can be solved.
3. In May 2008, held a meeting with villagers and negotiated details about the project.
4. In June 2008, collected all the information about the project.
5. In July 2008, found out the price of the materials for the project (solar panels) from ‘Mtho Sgng Gi Ni Aod’ company.
6. Completed the proposal.
7. In July 2009, project was funded.
8. On January 11, 2010, collected local contributions.
9. On January 12, 2010, two men and two women from the village went with the project manager to purchase 30 solar panels from ‘Mtho Sgng Gi Ni Aod’ company where they had previously ordered 30 qualified solar panels.
10. Hired a truck to transport the solar panels from Gan zi County to Tsha Ra Village.
11. Held a meeting again and unloaded the solar panels from the truck.
12. Solar expert trained villagers on how to use the solar panels properly.
13. Distributed the solar panels to the villagers and they signed their names.
14. Took pictures during the implementation of the project.
15. Started to write the final report of solar panel project.

Project finances

Delays and lessons learned
Delay
There was one main issue that delayed the implementation of the project for several months: Since the project manager was in school when the project was funded, it was not possible to take 20 days off during the semester. Therefore she had to wait until the winter holiday to implement the project.

Lessons learned
By doing this solar panel project, the project manager got experience in how to deal with different people, and learned how to contact companies and drivers so that solar panels could be guaranteed and transported to the project location safely. The project manager is inspired by the experience of implementing this project. Her expectation of doing more development work is expanded. The project manager learned confidence is the most important thing for being a project manager, especially a female manager. If the project manager is not afraid of facing tough things, but instead confronts difficulties with a big smile, everything will be done with great success. She also learned how to make a schedule and follow that schedule. One more important thing that she learned through this project is “no matter what you do, if you take  full responsibility for finishing it, there is no doubt of a wonderful result.”    

Interviews of the project beneficiaries

This is Gen Ga’s family; there are four people in the family. They are extremely happy to have such a bright light during the night time. The two boys can read and write under the solar light at night. Gen Ga’s wife said “her sons are willing to read and write under the shining light, we are really grateful for this help.” She feels comfortable working at night because of the light.

Droma said, “I am willing to chant Mani and I could chant even more than what I promised to chant a day from my devoted Lama; furthermore our grand-daughter could finish her homework completely during the night by the shining light of solar panel.” And her daughter-in-law is happy to do the housework anytime at night.

This teenager is studying in Ganzi Tibetan middle school. This is her last semester for studying in middle school, so it is time to review all the subjects and she has to prepare for the senior entrance examination in June. She said “I am more confident that I will pass the examination, because I can review under the brilliant light. And I could follow my schedule on time. Otherwise I could never finish what I planned before, because the candle  burnt out and finished quickly, and I can’t burn too many candles since it’s too expensive. Now I can review during both day and night time and do not need worry about finishing burning candles.”

Thank you letter

Translation of thank you letter
Dear ETWA
First of all, on behalf of all the villagers, I want to sincerely thank you. Our villagers owe you a great debt of gratitude. This is the greatest contribution that ever happened to us. This is the first time for our village to receive such great benefit. These solar panels are  special things that we can use without any expense. With your support we have 30 solar panels in 30 households.

In general, our village’s economic condition is relatively poor and villagers are living by digging cater pillar fungus and doing construction work. These solar electricity generating panels improved our living conditions. While we did not have these solar panels, women’s workload is technically heavy and we had to use kerosene, candles and butter lamps, which harm people’s health and eye sight.

Right now, not only those problems are solved, but also we can enjoy such bright light during the nighttime. Moreover, we can play the radio and listen to music and news. We really appreciate your great contribution and help to our village. We will surely employ these things in a good manner. And we will cooperatively protect the solar panels with a great care in the future.

Faithfully,

Tsha Ra Village, 19th of January, 2010

List of recipients

The translation for the list of recipients

The contract between the village and the Solar Panel Company

Receipt # 1

It is for 45,000 RMB for purchasing 30 solar panels.

Receipt #2

It is for 115 RMB for the transportation fee for the solar panels from Ganzi County town to Tsha Ra Village (project location)

Receipt # 3 project management expenses

It is for 30 RMB for phone call fee during the implementing the project.

It is for 83 RMB for the train ticket from Xining to Cheng du.

It is for 300 RMB for transporting one person by small car from Chengdu City to Ganzi county town.

Original Proposal

Project Location
This project is located in Tsha Ra Village, Mkhar Sgng Township, Ganzi County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, and PR China. Mkhar Sgng Township is located 30km away from Ganzi county town and Ganzi County is located in the northeast of the provincial city of Sichuan. It is about 745 km away from Chengdu City. Chengdu is about 1,388 km away from Xining.
Population
All the people in Tsha Ra Village are Tibetan. There are about 151 people living in 30 households; 60 women, 46 men and 45children.

Education
In Tsha Ra Village, 70% of the local people do not know how to write and read even not their own language, Tibetan. The 5% of the villagers can read and write Tibetan and they are monks and nuns, who learned Tibetan from the monastery or nunnery. Ten percent of people who are literate are old people even though they received a poor education when they were young because of poverty and because education was often seen as a waste of time. The left fifteen percent of literate people are young villagers and current students. Some of them went to primary school for almost five or six years. After primary school many parents withdraw their children from schooling because the family needs more income. Moreover, most parents cannot afford senior middle school tuition. Therefore, many students are not able to continue their schooling. At present in Tsha Ra Village, 29 students are receiving education: 2 students are in college (1 boy and 1 girl), 4 students are in high school (3 boys and 1 girl), 2 students are in middle school (2 girls), and 21students are in primary school (10 boys and11 girls). In primary school students do not need to pay school tuition, because it is a private school in my home area. All together about 30% of people are literate in Tsha Ra Village. There are about 9 children staying at home because their families can not offer the tuition after they graduated from primary school. The rest about 7 of them are staying at home because their ages are not suitable to go to school.

The majority of people in Tsha Ra Village have a low expectation for schooling. They think that if they send their children to school, it just wastes money and time. They fear that their children will not obtain official jobs after they graduate from college. Therefore they withdraw their children from school in order to earn money instead.

Cash Income
In Tsha Ra Village people can earn money in two ways. The first one is doing construction work. Usually people do construction work for about four to five months per year. Every year villagers go outsides to do construction work and physical labor. Each person earns about 2500 RMB per year.

If a family has two or three working members then they can earn 4500 RMB or more per year. Thus, a family’s income is highly dependent on the number of working members it has. Construction work is usually available during the summer, from June to July.

In addition, adults leave their families and walk for two or three days in order to gather caterpillar fungus, a kind of medical herb that is very expensive and very difficult to find. Usually caterpillar fungus can be found at the top of the mountain and in the grasslands. Each caterpillar fungus sells for around8-10 RMB. People often go to dig the fungus at the beginning of May and come back home at the end of June. Each person can earn roughly 2300 RMB from caterpillar fungus but they have to pay 1000 RMB landing land tax. Thus, in total, each person earns 1300 RMB per year from caterpillar fungus. Good seasons for caterpillar fungus are happening less and less frequently.

Tsha Ra village’s total cash income is approximately 201,400 RMB a year. People spend about 1500 RMB on food and 500 RMB on the clothes. Each month a household spends another 1000 RMB on other essentials such as salt, tea, rice, noodles, kerosene and candles. Also in one month each household spends another 100 RMB on telephone bills. Moreover in the summer, villagers need to buy fertilizer, which costs about 400-500 RMB.

In total, the average family earns 4300 RMB in cash income per year and spends, on average, 3,700 RMB per year. This leaves families with 700 RMB as extra money left over each year. If the family has children who are going to university (each student’s tuition costs around 6,000rmb per year) or middle school they have to borrow money from others or take out a loan from the bank.
Agriculture
All the people in Tsha Ra Village are farmers. People grow barley, wheat, beans and potatoes on their land, five mu (1mu=0.066 hectares) per family on average. The lands are fertile with plenty of access to water. Each family grows approximately 1000-1500 kg of grains (barley, wheat and beans) and 10 bags of potatoes each year. This crop is just enough to live off of and there is seldom excess food to sell for cash income.

Herding
All the people in the Tsha Ra Village are also herders and each family has an average of six to seven livestock such as yak, horse, cow, sheep, and pig. Yaks and cows are used for milking to produce products like butter, cheese and yogurt from those animals. Usually people do not sell those productions to earn money, because they need it to sustain their families. . Yaks, cows and horses are used for farmwork, especially during the autumn days when villagers load bunches of barley, wheat and beans on the back of horse, yaks and cows for collecting their annual harvested crops. And Villagers use sheep’s wool to make warm clothes-such as jackets and socks for children-in preparation for the harsh winter.

Project Goals
The immediate goal of this project is to purchase 30 solar panels and distribute them to 30 households in Tsha Ra Village. The overarching goal of this project is to provide light for all the villagers and to reduce women’s heavy workloads by eliminating the need to make butter lamps for use at night. Reducing the use of kerosene lamps, candles, and butter lamps will also improve villagers’ helath by getting rid of the smoke from these sources of light. Additionally, during the night time, women will also be able to do the housework conveniently by the bright light, without straining their eyes.

Problems

Not enough electricity for villagers
There is a river near the Tsha Ra Village (about 200 meters from the village) and there is a small hydroelectric station on the river. This hydroelectric station generates electricity for 42 different villages including Tsha Ra Village. However, the river has been receiving very low flow in recent years and receives almost zero flow in winter because the water is frozen. Tsha Ra Village receives no electricity from this plant in winter and only intermittent supply during the summer.

Lack of electricity reduces cash income
Ganzi County Town is 20 kilometers away from Tsha Ra Village, and the villagers have to go to the county town in order to purchase candles, kerosene, and butter for light at night. One candle costs 2 RMB, one jin of kerosene costs 6 RMB and one plastic bag of Beijing butter (a kind of butter which is not made from milk and which is not good for eating) costs approximately 13 RMB, people spend 450 RMB on kerosene, candles and butter per year. If villagers go to county town, they have to buy around 10 jins each of kerosene, butter, and candles because the distance between the village and the county town is too great to allow villagers to buy these goods as they are needed. The villagers have to go to the county town about 10 times a year to buy kerosene, butter and candles; in this case the villagers spend time, energy and money on buying candles for light. Sometimes, they are not able to save up enough money to buy in bulk and must go without light.

Lack of Electricity Affects Children’s Study
During the evening children currently study and finish their homework by the dim and flickering light of candles, kerosene lamps, or butter lamps. This harms their eyes. Sometimes, children do not want to study because it is so difficult in this poor lighting and they do a poor job on their homework. If they do not finish their homework well they are punished by their teachers and score lower on their exams.

Lack of information
Because of the shortage of electricity in Tsha Ra Village, villagers cannot obtain information or news from television or radio. Even if we can use battery to play radios, batteries are very easy to use up and cost 3.5 yuan per pair. That’s why they have no idea about what is going on outside of the world; they just like birds in the cage. What they could see and what they could listen are always the same thing, there is nothing special and nothing fresh will occur in their view. Sometimes, they don’t have much work to do, at that time if only they have interesting TVs shows to watch and some music to listen for enjoying and relax and release their tiredness as well. The local villagers can watch and listen anything from the TV and radios.

Less safety and health assurance
The people in the village strike matches or use a lighter to light candles, kerosene lamps, and butter lamps. This has caused several severe fires in my home area. Often these fires are caused by children playing with matches and lighters, so sometimes the children get hurt by playing light and matches. Village adults would like a safer way of receiving light. It also may brings some kind diseases such as lung cancer to villagers from burning smoke especially for women, who keep staying in smoking kitchen for a long time.

Increased women’s labor
Usually, it is women’s job to do all the housework in Tsha Ra Village. Especially in the night time they have to go to bed late in order to finish washing utensils. Also they have to melt the butter for evening light and make preparation of kerosene and candles for each night. It is difficult to finish all this work without electricity. Electricity would also obviate the need for melting butter lamps.

Benefits
By buying and distributing 30 solar panels we will be creating safe, clean light and electricity for each household in Tshha Ra Village.

• Villagers will have bright lights during the nighttime and they do not need to use dim light from kerosene, butter, or candles. Families do not need to worry when electricity light will run out as they do with kerosene and candles..

• Villagers do not need to purchase candles, kerosene and butter. Instead they can use their cash on basic necessities such as food and clothing.

• Children can fully concentrate on their study and finish their homework efficiently under the bright light. They can improve their Mandarin listening and understanding by listening to the radios and watching TV.

• While the villagers have sometimes to take some rest. All of a family’s members can watch TV, listen to music and have a lot of fun. Both old people in the village and students can get a many information and news from television and radio. It can make their life more interesting and they can enjoy with various things which are related to their real life through the TVs and radios.

• Villagers do not need to worry about fire caused by the matches and lighters that they currently use to light candles and lamps.

• Women would not hae to do so much work. Especially at the night they can finish cooking and washing utensils conveniently because of the bright light. They would no longer need to stay up late to melt butter for butter lamps.

Beneficiaries
This solar panel project will directly benefit about 151 people in Tsha Ra village.

Gender equality
If this project is accomplished, this project will mostly benefit the local women in Tsha Ra Village. In my home community, women have lower position than men and women have to do all the housework. Especially during the night time women have to stay late and finish all the housework, such as cooking food and serving their family members warmly. After meals women have to clean and wash all the utensils. It’s very difficult for them to do all those work without lighting. Generally women do not have much time to rest. Moreover, only a few girls are sent to school in my home area, because people have lower expectation of females’ education than that of males. Families also need women to stay home and work in the household. If I can accomplish this project, then people will see women also can do such big work as men and people’s attitude towards women will be change. This project will help to raise women’s position in the local society and reduce the amount of time that they must spend working around the house. This will allow more girls to gain an education. Once this process is started, women will be more respected as people will see that they too can do well in school.
Governmental support
The project manager, Xiangba Lacuo has discussed this project with the Mkhar Sgng township leader, Ze Jia Luo. He discussed with local Township members and they had fully permitted me and encouraged me to lead this project in my village. Because they knew that this project will help poor families in an important way.

Project Activities

1. Firstly, discuss the problems with villagers and see what can be done to reduce those problems. (done)

2. Talk to village’s leader about the community’s most important needs and discuss how the electricity problem can be solved. (done)

3. Try to collect all the information about the project. (done)

4. Find out the price of the materials for the project (solar panel). (done)

5. Start to write proposal. (done)

6. Receive the funds for the project.

7. To implement the project.

8. Hold a meeting with the villagers

9. To purchase materials solar panels from Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Ganzi county.

10. Transport the solar panels to the project location.

11. Distribute the solar panels to the village.

12. Take pictures about the project.

13. Finish the project completely.

14. Write the final report.

Time Frame
This project will take 20 days to complete.

Five days: Go to the project location, Xining–Chengdu–Ganzi

One day: Hold a meeting with the villagers

Two days: Collect local contribution

Four days: Ask the ‘Mtho Sgng Gi Ni Aod’ company (which is in the Ganzi county Ganzi prefecture and Sichuan Province) get ready for the materials and check and see if everything is fine.

One day: Purchase the solar panels.

One day: Transport the solar panels to the Thsa Ra village.

One day: Distribute the solar panels to each household.

Two days: Take photos and interview the beneficiaries

Three days: Complete the final report

Detail Budget

Total requested from the Donor is: 40,955rmb

Local contribution: 4,700rmb

Shem Contribution: 500rmb

Total cost: 46,155rmb

* The project manager is going to collect 157rmb from each household. There are 30 households in Tsha Ra village.

Sustainability
Solar panels will be purchased from ‘Mtho Sgng Gi Ni Aod’ company which guarantees battery life for one year and guarantees solar panel guarantee for ten years to fix or repair any damages. The company will exchange the solar panels in a month if there is any problem. If the solar panels have any problem, villagers will contact the manager of the company for repairs or replacement and villagers will pay the cost of the repair by themselves.

Past experience
During 2007 winter holiday, Xiangba La Cuo taught English for around two months in Ganzi Tibetan Middle school, teaching 114 students for 4 hours per day. In addition, she has successfully completed a book project for a primary school located in Ganzi County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province to which the donor contributed 5,000 RMB.

Map of the project location

This project is to provide 50 solar generating electricity panels to bring light into the life of most impoverished nomads in Jatsa Village. And to endow them with a hope for better living condition and empower the women and children by providing adequate information access and proper living environment.

The Australian Embassy funded this project

Wende zhuoma is from Geygu Town, Yushu County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Currently she is pursuing master degree in Miriam College, Philippines. She is major in Master of Science in Environmental Studies. She will be graduating in March, 2008

What? Buy 50 solar electricity generating panels for Jatsa Village.

Who? 50 households in Jatsa Village, Upper Laxiu Township, Yushu County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.

Photos of the project implementation

The project manager Wende Drolma was discussing with the boss of the solar panel company about the quality and price of the solar panels.

The project manager was discussing with the local leaders how to finalize the poorest households for the project.

The project manager was interviewing the local nomads to collect basic information about their living condition，in order to finalize the solar panel receivers.

The project manager was distributing the solar panels to the villagers.

After receiving the instructiol, the villagers installed the light bulbs and connected the solar panel with power board and checking if the solar panel works properly.

Project summary
Project title: Solar Electricity Generating Panel Project for Jatsa Village
Project goals: The immediate goal of this project was by providing 50 solar generating panels to most impoverished nomads in Jatsa Village to bring light into their daily life. And to endow then with a hope for better living condition and empower the woman and children by providing adequate information access and proper living environment.
Location of project: The project is located in Jatsa Village, Upper Laxiu District, Yushu County, Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai Province, and PRC. Jatsa Vullage is Located in Northeast of Yushu County, 90 kilometers away from the county town Gyegu and 890 kilometers away from Silan (Xining) the provincial capital city of Qinghai Province.
Project beneficiaries: This project directly benefits 48 Tibetan households and the rest of the whole village as two of the solar panels were donated to the village for public use in any activities. Therefore, the total beneficiary of the project is around 780 people.
Implementation organization/individual: The village party secretary Kharma Songbu, two other local leaders, Jomba and Gasong Tseren, Shem Women’s Group and Wende Drolma (project manager).
Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group
Funds received: Amount and date received
On December 28th 2009, the project manager Wende Drolma received 32,636.8 rmb from Shem Women’s Group as the first installment of the funds and Shem Women’s Group will distribute the second installment of the funds when the project manager finishes the final report.

Details of project activities

• Called the village leader and informed the project approval.
• Phoned the village leaders to update about the situation in the project site to check if the project could be implemented, especially considering the road condition.
• Phoned Shem office to update about project implementation.
• Called the village leaders and decided the date to start implementation.
• Called Shem office and informed the date for commence of the project.
• Visited the project site and selected the poorest house holds.
• Visited the site again to conduct house to house interview to finalize the solar panel receivers.
• Called the village leader to collect the local contribution.
• Traveled to Xining and met Shem and received the donor contribution.
• Met the head of Solar Panel Company (Drolma) and ensured the price, the quality and grantee of the solar panels.
• Singed the contract and purchased the solar panels. Decided the date for transporting the solar panels from Xining City to Gyegu town, Yushu County.
• Transported 50 solar panels from Xining City to Gyegu Town, Yushu County.
• Transported the solar panels to project site.
• Held the meeting with the receivers and village leaders to distribute 50 panels to 50 households and explained the instructions and guarantees etc.
• Informed Shem about the date of distribution.
• Visited the receivers and conducted interviews.
• Went to town to scan photos and receipts
• Translated interviews and the villagers’ thanks letter
• Worked on the final report

Project Finances

All figures are in Chinese RMB
Notes1: *The project manager (Wende Drolma) was in Gyegu Town, Yushu County, thus to purchase the solar panels she has to travel from Gyegu to Xining.
Note2: Since 2009, the cost for everything has increased in Yushu County, so does the price for gasoline. The transportation fee from Gyegu to the village has been increased incredibly. In 2008, it was 450 rmb for a medium vehicle from Gyegu to the village, but at the project implementation time, it was around 1,500 rmb from Gyegu to the village. Encountering with this problem the project manager Wende Drolma called the villager leader and discussed the issue with him. The villager leader discussed the issue with the local receivers and they were able to arrange a medium truck at the price of 450rmb.
Note 3: The nunnery has received PV solar system for lighting in September of 2009 from the government. So the five solar panels which were originally planned to give to the nunnery was given to three house holds and two for the whole village as village property and will be used in village meetings and activities.

List of recipients

Note4: Two solar panels were given to the village as public property. So it was signed by the villager party secretary.

Difficulties and lessons learned from the project
Difficulties
I would say managing this project, I did not meet many problems. Based on my former experiences in managing projects I was able to implement the project very successfully. The few difficulties that I met were listed below:

The most important problem that I met with this project is in selecting of the poorest households from the village. I was not familiar with the families in the project area. In selection of the receivers, I originally wanted to hold a village meeting to select the poorest households from the area, but this was not adapted due to several factors. First, since it was a nomadic area, the households were sparsely located. Only few households who were living near to the village head quarter came to the meeting. Second, the meeting for selection of the poorest households was in vain. The reason was that every one claims that they were the poorest and would not really give useful information of poorest households in the area. Finally, I discussed with the local leaders and selected around 60 households to make house to house interview. It was very difficult to conduct these interviews. The road condition was very bad, to some of the houses there was no proper path, and we had to drive on bumping grassland, through ice and then walk to get those families.

Another difficulty that I have encountered in implementing of the project is the viability of the information that was given by the village leader and the local people. Sometimes I find total contradictory between the information that was given by the villager leaders and the local people. For instance, there was a family. They have thirteen family members, two adults and one old granny. The kids are still quite young. When I interviewed, they were living in an experimental house under the local school project. He said that they even don’t have their own house, and they don’t have any livestock. I thought they were poor. But then the villager leader told me that last year the head of the family bought amber for his wife, which cost around 8,000rmb. I was surprised and asked where the money came from. He stated that the head of the family was very good at doing Tibetan mastiff business and he earned some money through that.

Personally, in implementation of this project I encountered few small difficulties. First, due to the cold and windy weather in the project area, I got sick after I made the first pack of interviews, which put me in bed with IV for three days. Second, since Gyegu town was not really a developed area, in renting taxis and cars there were no formal receipts, so lot of the expenses were paid by the local leaders and the project manager. Therefore, I want to express my thanks to the village leaders for their support in implementation of this project.

Lessons learned
During implementation of this project and post to the implementation of this project I have learned few things to further improve myself in implementing of other projects in future as well as to further improve my knowledge.
· Keep updated with the local leaders on a regular time base, indifferent of project approval in order to make sure the information on the project proposal is valid.
· Make sure not only to base the information on one’s statement. To get the full information, one has to collect the information from multi-resource persons.
· I learned that conducting house to house interview is very important in terms of selecting beneficiaries of the project.
· Most importantly I realized that our motivation to help these impoverished people is actually derived from those smiling faces of the beneficiaries as they were receiving solar generating panels.

Interviews of the project beneficiaries

Her name is Yu Dron. She is 83 years old. There are five people in her family. She has a daughter. The daughter got married few years ago. She has three children. At that time, their living condition was not the poorest in the village. However, the good life did not last for long. Two years ago, she got psychic problem. Local people said that she got mad. Therefore, her husband divorced with her. Now Yu Dron has to take care of the three children and her daughter. All of the three children were in school. She only has around five yaks, and even that was too much for her to attend. She said that she doesn’t have any income generated from caterpillar fungus. The three children are not very good at collecting caterpillar fungus. She is too old to collect caterpillar fungus. She said now she is depending her life and the family on the stipends that she receives from the government which is about 200rmb per month. She is very thankful to the Australia Embassy. She said that she is enormously happy that there are so many kind hearted people in this world. She emphasized that she will always pray for those kind hearted people who are reaching to the thousands of poor people like her.

Gaju family is a big family with seven children. There were only two labors for the family. She said that they only have around ten yaks. For the sake of the yaks, as least we would not starve. In summer, she said that she and her husband would go to the mountains to collect caterpillar fungus, but then she pointed to her husband and said that her husband only able to find few. Her husband smiled and stated: I admit that. I don’t know what happened to me. I just can’t see the caterpillar fungus. So we really don’t have much income from caterpillar fungus. We had to depend our life on these blacked haired yaks.” When I asked about the benefits brought by solar panel, he stated that all of his family was very grateful to the donors and the project manager as well as those involved in this project. He said he always wished for a solar panel, but he did not have enough money to buy one. So they use candles for light. Sometimes candles would run out and they have to use kerosene.  He said now we have bright light at night and we don’t have to worry that it would run out. I thank the donors and those who helped us. Without their help, I can only dream for a solar panel but not really getting it.

They are an unattended couple. The old man is named Bub Drob. His eighty years old. The old woman is named Tsetso. She is seventy-seven years old. They don’t have any children to take care of them. They don’t have any livestock to depend their life on. Currently they are staying in a room that was lending by the village. When I asked them what their source of livelihood was, they answered that they merely depend their life on governmental subsidy which is around 1200 per year. The old granny said that they can usually sustain their life with that amount of money. However, she said that they were so worried what could they do if they get sick. They don’t know where or whom to ask. The old man stated that they have to purchase candle for light for the past years. They were incapable of traveling to the town, so usually they have to ask some one else to purchase the candles for them. Sometimes, he said there would be days that they don’t even have light at all and they would just go to bed before it gets dark. Then, he added, “it was quite hard for us to fall asleep and I would wake up before the day light and have to wait patiently for the day break.” He was very thankful to the donors. He said that he feel content for his life, as long as his health condition remains good.

This woman is Tseta Dorjee’s mother. They were a medium class family when her husband was alive. However, her husband got sick and was in bed for almost two years. They had to spend lot of money on that. She said she also sold lot of their livestock in order to pay for her husband’s medication fee. She thought he would get better one day, but he did not. Now she has to take care of the five children. She was very happy when she was selected as one of the solar panel receivers. She stated: I thought the whole world turned against me when my husband passed away and left all these children with me. Thousands of thanks to Australia Embassy, I am so delighted that their hands are reaching to us. I can’t imagine there are kind people like them. I will always remember to pray for them. I wish them long life and prosperity.”

Letter of appreciation

Translation of thank you letter

Thanks Letter

Most un-forgetful dear donors

I would like to represent whole Jatsa Village to express our deepest appreciation for your great concern and enormous support for us. Thanks for your generosity in supplying us with 50 solar panels. These fifty solar panels were received by fifty most impoverished households in the village. We both the village leaders and the villagers will not forget your compassion and generosity. All of us want to express our most un-forgetful thanks to you again and again.

Best wishes!
Sincerely
Rashu Village Committee

This is the contract signed by the head of company (Droma) and the project manager (Wende Drolma).

Receipts
#1

The total amount of money paid for 50 solar panels (45,000rmb)

#2

This is total transportation fee from Gyegu which is the political and economic center of the town to the project site (450rmb).

#3

This is the expense for a trip from Yushu to Xining (For the projector manager)

#4

Above receipts are the total amounts of money spent on the project management which include the food, the accommodation, the visiting transportation fee, and the phone calls. It costs 401 rmb and paid by local people.

Original proposal 

Project location
The project will be located in Jatsa Village, Upper Laxiu District, Yushu County, Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai Province, and PRC. Jatsa Village is located in Northeast of Yushu County, 90 kilometers away from the county town Gyegu and 890 kilometers away from Silan (Xining) the provincial capital city of Qinghai Province.

Population
Jatsa Village is consisted of 140 households, over 780 people. Among which 30% of the population is female and 40% of the population is consisted of male. And another 30% is consisted of children.

Education
The education level in the village is generally very low. The illiteracy level is very high. Few years ago a primary school was built in the village. However, the enrolment of the children is very low. Moreover, most of the children who have enrolled in the school ended up dropping from the school soon after they can work as an adult. Currently, no one from the village has studied in the college.

Cash Income
The villagers’ only source of annual income is caterpillar fungus (Cordyceps sinensis), which has very short growing season of two months from May to June. Caterpillar fungus is a valuable medicinal herb which is parasitic fungi. More over, the quality of the caterpillar fungus in the area is not very good and it is very sparsely distributed. Therefore, each family can only earn an average of 2,000 RMB annually to sustain their basic subsistence.

Due to the remote location of the area, they rarely have a chance for trade and barter. Further, in majority of the cases they can barely sustain the basic need for survival and surplus is hardly produced. The mere cash income of 2,000rmb has to be spent for all the house necessities, which usually turn out to be insufficient.

Herding
In last few decades, pastureland of northern plateau has seriously degraded. Rodents has suddenly broken out and exacerbated the degradation process of pastureland. The government implemented ecological migration project as a control management. This project required relocation of some nomads to the town and reduction of livestock for those left behind. The number of livestock has already reduced since the worsening condition of the pastureland couldn’t support big number of livestock. The safeguard of the nomads are already in danger. In addition, the government still requested de-stocking in each household, only 5 livestock are allowed. According to the research some family even don’t have 5 head per capita, but for those who have they were ordered to reduce the quota. In present, the survival of these nomads strongly and seriously weighs against a sudden break of natural calamities, such as a snow disaster or dry summer.

Agriculture
Due to the harsh environment condition associated with cold climate, and strong wind, the agriculture is not adaptable in the area. Therefore, there is no source of income from agricultural sector.

The Need of the Project
Historically the village has no electricity and no school, only very recently the village has established a primary school. The school is the only place where a dim of light is observed at night. The teachers’ dorm and office is supplied with electricity, which is powered by petrol gas for two hours every night.

During my research, I observed the students crowding under the dim light that shone through the windows of the office and the dorms studying and reciting like flies at dark night circling under a light bulb. For the rest of the nomads, bright light at night is only a story of towns and their dreams. When I interviewed the village leader, he deeply expressed the difficulty of having no light and no money to buy solar generating panels. In addition, the need of this project is deeply associated with several reasons below:

l Overall health condition of the nomads has worsened due to the smoke from burning of kerosene and butter lamp. Evidently, the frequent diagnosing of positive TB, respiratory diseases and bronchitis as well as other lung related problems indicate high risk of burning these materials as light resource. According to the local villagers, these health problems are more severe among the children and women.

l Lack of electricity has increased the workload of women and decreased their leisure time. A nomadic woman has to start work as early as four or five, followed with sequence of routine work from serving the family, caring the livestock to mind every house chores. The women can hardly attend any work under the dim light of kerosene or butter lamp. Therefore, they have to finish every work during the day time and they don’t have any leisure time for resting and attend other social activities.

l Purchasing of kerosene and candles has become an economic burden of the nomads. Considering the low income of the nomads, sufficient supply of these materials is even considered as extravagant. In average, each family has to spend at least 200rmb annually just for the candles, yet with their low income they still have to buy other daily necessities, medicine and food.

l Lack of electricity is also one of the main reasons for low enrollment of female students in the school. The girls in the family usually have to help their mothers to attend daily house chores and care for the livestock. Therefore, there is no time for the girls to study. As result, the school attendance of the female is very low. Even those who are enrolled have little time to study.

l The nomads are totally isolated from the outside world due to inadequate communication and information access resulted by lack of electricity and remote location.

Project Goals
The immediately goal of this project is to provide 50 solar generating electricity panels to bring light into the life of most impoverished nomads in Jatsa Village. And to endow them with a hope for better living condition and empower the women and children by providing adequate information access and proper living environment.

Benefits of the project
Improve the living condition of the impoverished nomads by providing them with solar generating electricity panels
This project aims to reduce the economic burden of the impoverished nomads to improve their living condition. By providing them with solar generating electricity panels, the families can save the expense for candles and kerosene, which is over 200rmb. More over, they can either consume the butter, which they have to save for butter lamp or they can sell them. In addition, this project will also generate local income. The local productivity can be improved since more works could be done at night.

Improve the social role of women in the nomadic community
This project will greatly improve the social role of women in nomadic community. Sufficient supply of bright light at night allows women to do some works at night which formerly has to be done during the day time due to inconvenience of working at night. Therefore with solar electricity generating panels they can participate in some social and religious activities during the day time instead of working. The women’s work load will be less tensely scheduled.

Improve the literacy level among the nomads, especially among the girls
The over all enrollment of the nomads will be increased since they will have more leisure time as direct result of having electricity resource. This project will reduce the labor requirement from the children, allow them with more time for study, especially the young girls since their mothers will have more time to work. The school achievement of those girls who are enrolled will also be improved, since they will have more time to study.

Improve the information and communication access of the nomads
This project will provide the nomads with adequate information and communication access. With solar generation electricity panels they will be able to play radio and access to the world outside. In this way, they will be more closely related to the world outside and expand their knowledge of the world outside.

Improve the health condition of the nomads
This project aims to improve the health condition of the nomads by provide them with a clean living environment. The women and children who are always working in smoky kitchen are more vulnerable to lung diseases and eyesight problem. This project will reduce the high safety risk of these women and children.

Project Beneficiaries
l This project will directly benefit 45impoverished households, 315 villagers, in Jatsa Village, and 80 nuns from Jatsa Nunnery. Totally of 395 people will be benefited from this project. 45 solar generating electricity panels will be distributed to the poorest families in the village. 5 solar generating panels will be distributed to the nunnery for public use. （Two will be used in chanting room, and two in shrine room, one in Kitchen）.

l This project will indirectly benefit other neighborhoods in the village. For instance, the villagers can participate in the other village activities or religious activities hold at night under the solar panel.

l The families of 80 nuns will be indirectly benefited. The nuns will no longer need to take butter and candles from their families. In this way it also reduces the economic burden of their families.

l This project will especially benefit the women and children in the village.

a. The women will be able to increase their leisure time, and reduce their heavy work load. During the day time they can participate in other social activities instead of working at home, since they can leave the work for night.

b. In nomadic areas it is usually the man who travel to towns and other places, but women and children rarely get chance for traveling. Solar generating panel can play radio which creates information access to the world outside. Thus it can improve the knowledge of the women and children.

c. The children will have more time to study and play. In addition, the health condition of these environmental victimized groups will be greatly improved.

d. Managing of this project by a woman also encourages local villages to respect women and believe in their capacity to work.

Governmental Support
This project is identified by the local village leader Jiangba and further discussed with the project applicant. Therefore, this project is very supportive of the local villages and the local village leader Jiangba. This project is also discussed with the local government via the villager leader in month of October 2007. The local government consisted of village leader; village secretary expressed their support in the project, because the development of these small remote communities is usually neglected by the government. Further, the local government encourages more people to devote in grass root community development to help these marginalized communities.

Environmental Concern
Grassland degradation has seriously threatened safeguard of these impoverished nomads. They are swaying at the edge of losing their domain which is their source of livelihood. Without grassland they can’t maintain the domesticated livestock, which means they have no source of livelihood. Therefore, at this moment of history, it is very important to take environmental concerns into consideration of every project that are implemented in these areas.

This project will be environmentally sound and very friendly. Solar generating panels are purely powered by solar energy. It has no content of any pollutants. More over, it protects the environment by providing a sustainable and clean light resource. This project also prevents villagers from seek for other environmentally unfriendly light resources such as petrol gas.

Project Steps
1. Visit the project site (JatsaVillage), identify the need of the project. (Done)
2. Discuss with the village leader on need of the project and situation of the village. (Done)
3. Apply fund for 50 solar generating electricity panels.(done)
4. Once the fund is secured, hold meeting with village leaders. Decide how to manage solar panel distribution.
5. Collect local contribution from villagers.
6. Purchase solar panels from Nima Company in Qinghai provincial capital City-Xining.
7. Transport the solar generating electricity panels from Xining to Gyegu Town.
8. Hire a truck to transport the solar generating panels from Gyegu to Jatsa Village.
9. Hold meeting with the village and instruct the village on how to use the solar panels.
10. Distribute the solar generating electricity panels.
11. Interview the villagers after the implementation of the project.
12. Collect the information and evaluate the project’s achievement.
13. Send final report.

Time Duration of the project
· 3 days to purchase the solar generating electricity panels in Xining.
· 3 days to transport the solar generating electricity panels from Xining to Gyegu.
· 1 day to transport the solar generating electricity panels from Gyegu to Jatsa Village.
· 1 day to hold the local meeting.
· 1 day to give instructions and distribute the solar generating electricity panels.
· 10 days after the implementation of the project, collect the data for final report.

Project budget

Donor contribution: 40,796rmb
Local contribution: 5400rmb
Shem contribution: 500rmb

Sustainability of the project
The quality of solar generating electricity panels are very good based on former projects completed by Shem Women’s Group and other solar panel users. The company also assures five years of guarantee on their products. They will repair any dysfunction within the five years. According to the users of Nima Solar generating electricity panel, it can usually last for around ten years if it is properly managed.

If anything broken or any technical problems occurred within five years after the purchase, the company will be responsible for repair. In this case the villager or the solar panel holder has to either contact the villager leader or project manager Wende Drolma. The company provides 2light bulbs, 7m of electrical line and a battery. These components are purchasable in county town after the warrantee expired.

The villagers will also contribute a considerable amount of money (100 rmb) in this project. Considering their low economic income and current inflation economic condition of China, 100rmb is already a considerable amount for the impoverished nomads. This contribution and high quality of the solar panel ensure that the villagers will take good care of the solar panels that they receive.

Wende Drolma will instructor the villagers on how to operate their solar panels and basic maintenance knowledge before the distribution of the panels.

Past experiences
Wende Drolma has done several projects in the past. She has successfully completed a solar panel project in 2004 in Renqing Lan Monastery supported by Canada Fund. She has also completed two second hand clothes project in 2005 supported by British Sue Bishop. In addition, in the same year she has completed a potable water project which was supported by Canada Fund.

Additional Information
The project applicant Wende Drolma has conducted her research in the area during September and October 2007. During her research, as a field participant, she observed impoverished living condition of nomads, and women’s heavy daily chores. She saw women mending and separating milk under dim light of butter. She experienced difficulty of writing and reading under smoky light of candle. After her discussion with the village leader, she strongly felt the need of bright light to bring hope into life of these impoverished nomads.

Map of the project location

To distribute 48 solar flashlights to 48 households in Gongba Village in order to improve the condition of their daily life.

Naljor Prison Dharma Service funded this project

Suonan Zhuoma is from Gongba Village, Hedong Township, Guide County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, PRC. She is studying in Qinghai Nationalities University majored in Tibetan and English language.

What: To provide 48 solar flashlights to 48 households in Gongba Village .

Project location
Gongba Village is about 7 kilometers from Guide County; there are about 130 kilometers which takes 2 and half hours by bus from Guide to Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province.

Brief Description of Implementation
There are 350households in Gongba village, and the project manager received 48 solar flashlights from Shem Women’s Group on June 12^th, 2009. When Gongba village leader Xiang Qian had holding meeting with the villagers about agricultural business , the project manager Suonan Zhuoma took the chance and chose 48 poor families based on their herding, farming land, family condition and income. After chose 48 families, project manager’s sister helped Suonan Zhuoma to take photos and distribute the solar lights to the villagers while the Suonan Zhuoma explained the usage of solar flashlights. Some villagers who received the solar flashlights said that it is fashionable and the quality is very good and other villagers said it will be very convenient to irrigate the fields at the night with the new solar flashlights.

Photos of the project implementation

Those people are the project beneficiaries, they are very happy to receive the solar light. The young boy sitting on the left is named Song Wei, he is 17 years old and there are two people in his family. His father is 50 years old and his parents divorced many years ago. So he lives with his father now. Because of the poor living condition on maintain and lack of labor at home, he didn’t go to school after the primary school. Although he is still young, he goes out every year to make money. After received the solar light, he said that he can use flashlight in the night if he has things to do at night.  The man sits in the middle is 52 years old .There are 3 people in his family and his father is lying in the hospital waiting for operation, so he is working hard to make money to prepare for the operation. He said that flashlight can help his wife in the hospital when she goes to toilet .The man in the right is Song Lian Cai, his parents died in a few years ago and he is still single. He said that flashlight will be very useful when they irrigate fields at night.

This young man is Sengyuan and he is a Chinese guy. His father died with heart disease and later his mother also got sick, so he has to work hard and takes care of his mother. On behalf of all the villagers who received solar flashlights, he said thanks to the staff of Shem Women’s Group and the kind donor.

The Beneficiaries name list

The name list of Beneficiaries in Chinese Pinying

Thank You Letter

Thank you letter translation

Dear thankful Donor,
I am a simple villager from Gongba Village, Hedong Township, Guide County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province and I am also one of the project beneficiaries.
On behalf of those 48 poor families in our village I would like to say thank you for your kind helps. It has been very hard for the villagers to buy such a good quality solar flashlights and today we received the solar flashlights from you. Those solar flashlights could solve some daily problems we have in countryside and is very useful when we irrigate field in the night. Therefore, today I am representing all these project beneficiaries to say thanks and please accept the gratefulness from our heart.

By Xiang Qian