The overarching goal of this project is to improve people’s life conditions and health by using this water system. The immediate goal of this project is to build a running water system for 51 households in Lower Mairi Village, and it also benefits five villages with about 600 local people, which also rely on the same source of water in Cuozhou Township of Jiantsa County.

Church Development Service funded this project

Pagmotso is from Kousa Tang Village, Make Tang Township, Jiantsa County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. She is currently teaching in Jiantsa Nationalities No.2 Middle School, in Jiantsa County, Qinghai Province.

What? Build a running water system for 51 households for an impoverished Tibetan village.

Who? 51 households in Lower Mari Village, Cuozhou Township , Jiantsa County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province.

Photos of project implementation

Photo of the spring source where the ditch was dug.

This is very rocky and it was very hard for those old men to dig the ditch, so the old man who is sitting there put a bomb which makes it easier for them to dig the ditch.

These women are digging the ditch at the village nearby, because at noon they need to go back and cook for their old parents and feed their babies. So the project committee asked them to dig the ditch near the village. The men in the village dig other parts of the ditch.

After we loaded all the plastic pipes in Lanzhou, we came directly back to Jiantsa County at about five clock in the morning, but when we arrived in a small village, the truck couldn’t go through to the project site, because it was raining and the small poor road wasn’t fit for such big truck, so villagers unloaded the pipes in this village (it is not the village where we would build the running water, it is nearby village) and then the villagers would use their tricycles to carry the pipes to their village.

This is the market where we purchase cement.


These are the steel pipes we purchased for the project

These are the pictures of both men and women putting the plastic pipes in to the ditch.

These women are also members of the project committee. When they were digging the ditch, there were many large rocks, so they dug the ditch under the rocks and pulled the plastic pipes using ropes.

These women are heating the Lajia (which is a black solid substance that turns liquid when it is heated; professional carpenters from this village said that Liquid Lajia is very useful to connect plastic pipes).

These are the pictures of a distribution water box and soon villagers are going to cover it.


This is the location where the water box was built in the forest; after villagers finished the water box it was very cold and frozen near the drain pipe of the water box. Villagers hung Katak (a Tibetan white scarf which is used for various circumstances such as showing appreciation, wishing good luck, etc.) on the cover of the water box to celebrate the success of the project.

After the villagers finished putting all the plastic pipes in the ditch and built the water box near the spring source, three monks from this village donated some money and villagers got together to celebrate the success of the project.

Summary of the project

Project title: Running Water Project for Lower Mairi Village

Project goals: The overarching goal of this project is to improve people’s life conditions and health by using this water system. The immediate goal of this project is to build a running water system for 51 households in Lower Mairi Village, and it also benefits five villages with about 600 local people, which also rely on the same source of water in Cuozhou Township of Jiantsa County.

Location of the project: Lower Mairi Village is located in the north of Cuozhou Township, Jiantsa County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. It is about 180 kilometers away from Xining, which is the capital city of Qinghai Province. Mairi is an agricultural village with 51 households which are situated in the middle of a mountain. All the people in this village are Tibetans.

Total beneficiaries: This project directly benefits 51households with approximately 353 people in lower Mairi Village.

Implementation organization/ individual: Pagmotso (the project manger), Mr. Gazang Cairang and Mr. Dongzhi Caidan (village leaders), Mr. SanDan, Mr. Jiatso, Mrs. Dorma Cairang, Mrs. Zhi Mei Tso, Mrs. Ge Ri Tso, Ms. Qion Zhou and Ms. Queji (members of lower Mairi Village’s project committee) and Shem Women’s Group.

Founds received: Source, amounts and Date Received.
The Church Development Service funded this project with a total amount of 17,1840 RMB. To ensure the success of this project implementation, the grant was divided into two installments, the first installment covers 80％(137,472RMB) of the total grant and was given to the project manager on August 21st, 2009, and the second installment of 20﹪of the total grant ( 34,368 RMB), Shem will give to the project manager Pagmotso when the project is totally completed successfully.

Project Steps
1. Held a meeting with villagers and a project committee was formed. This group was composed of seven villagers, three men and four women (San Dan, Suo Nan Ring Qing and Ga Sang Caring, Zhi Mei Tso, Ge Ri Tso,Qiong Zhou and Que Ji)

2. Discussed with village leaders and water designers to decide where and how to build the water reservoir.

3. Villagers and water designers decided the needs of materials and place to purchase the materials.

4. Contract signed with project committee and wrote a contract letter between villagers and I (project manager Pagmotso) about this project. If there was some accident, all the responsibility would be taken by the villagers, because some ditch would be dug in rocks, so safety was more important than the project.

5. Village leaders collected the local contribution and brought good sand and stones, and transported the sand and stones to the project site.

6. Villagers started to dig the ditch by hand on 26th of September, 2009

7. After villagers dug the ditch in three days, village leaders San Dan, GaSang Tsering (my uncle) and I went to Lanzhou and checked materials’ price and signed a contract with the plastic pipe factory. But the factory needed to prepare the materials for us and we had to wait five days. The village needs very thick pipes, because the mountain slope is very steep from the water spring to households and there is too much pressure, therefore, the plastic pipes should be high quality and thick, otherwise, the pipes would be broken very easily. So the plastic pipe factory said they would make the deepest plastic pipes with high quality and they would grantee the pipes for ten years.

8. I (Pagmotso) project manager started to go to the project site and took pictures in 30th of September,2009.

9. From 1st to 2nd October, 2009, villagers rested and waited for the pipes, because after villagers dug the ditch, they said that it would be more convenient to place pipes and dig the ditch at the same time. Otherwise, earth or soil will fall down to the ditch again. So villagers had to wait until the pipes were transported from Lanzhou Plastic Pipes Factory.

10. Village leader and I (project manager) went to Xining and checked the best quality and cheapest steel and cement prices on 1st October, 2009.

11. Purchased the steel and cement in Xining and transported it to the project site on October 2nd, 2009.

12. On the afternoon of October 6th, 2009, Lanzhou Plastic Pipes Factory called us to say that they finished making the pipes. So one man from the project committee Suo Nan Ring Qing and I (project manager Pagmotso) went to Lanzhou to get pipes, connection and valves.

13. On October 7th, LanZhou Plastic Factory brought all the pipes and connections to the village.

14. From October 13th to November 6th of 2009, villagers started to put the plastic pipes in the ditch and dug the ditches.

15. From October 29th to November 6th, 2009, the water designer and some professional carpenters from the village started to build the water reservoir and covered it near the spring source.

16. In ther afternoon of November 6th,2009, the villagers put the pipes in the ditch from the spring source to the distribution water box, (which is built near the village).

17. From November 11th, 2009, all the villagers and the water designer started to build the distribution water box above the village.

18. From November 15th to 17th it was very cold and snowed a little bit, so the villagers and the water designer took rest.

19. November 23rd of 2009, the villagers and water designer almost finished the distribution water box, but it still didn’t cover it , because it was very cold and everything was frozen , so the villagers stopped and waited until spring 2010

20. After March 15th of 2010, the villagers started to dig the ditch from the distribution water box to each household.

21. On March 19th of 2010, the villager leader and I went to Xining and bought plastic pipes.

22. On March 25th of 2010, the plastic pipes were transported to the village.

23. From March 26th of 2010, the villagers started to put all the plastic pipes from the distribution water box to each household.

24. On May 2nd of 2010, villagers finished putting all the plastic pipes, taps and valves in each household.

25. From May 2nd to 5th of 2010, the project committee and water designer started to make the cover for the distribution water box.

26. The distribution water box was dry and the cover was ready on 5th of May in 2010.

27. The project committee cleaned the distribution water box and tested the water to see whether it worked.

28. Water came to each household through the plastic pipes and I went to each household and took pictures with the interview.

29. I (project manager Pagmotso) called Shem Women’s Group to inform them of the completion of project.

30. I collected all the receipts from the village leader.

31. The project committee and the village leader set up a future management plan to sustain the project. Two households were chosen to manage the system for two months and this system will rotate in order to involve all 51 households in monitoring the water system.

32. Village wrote a letter of thanks.

33. I started to write the final report.

34. Sent final report with receipts and photos to Shem Women’s Group.

Project Finances

Notes: The total cost of this project is 301,716.89 RMB, which is 36,396.89 RMB higher than the original budget. The extra money was paid by the locals;19,796.89 RMB was paid in cash and rest was labor contribution.

Note #1
Originally we planned to purchase these types (75#, 32#, 25#) of PE pipes, valves, connections and spigots. Then later the water designer found that it was better to purchase (63#, 32#, 20#) thick PE pipes, valves, connections and spigots, because from his careful checking from the spring source to the distribution water box, there would be a lot of water pressure, so we brought very thick 63# of PE pipes in Lanzhou, because there were non in the pipes factory in Xining. At that time, the price of the materials was unbelievably increased; also it was very expensive if we got good quality receipts. Therefore, compared to the original budget, the price of all materials was incredibly increased.

Note #2
According to my original budget, we could buy 3 ton of steels with 17,700 RMB. But when we purchased the steel, the price had increased, so 3 tons of steel cost 17,850 RMB, with tax.

Note #3
In the original budget, we planned to buy 30 tons of cement, but because the water designer and project committee thought there wouldn’t be enough money for the rest of the materials, we bought 20 tons of cement instead, which is not enough for the water box and for each household. Therefore, the village leader and project committee went to the local government and explained the village’s needs, so the government leader said that he would donate 10 tons of cement to the villagers.

Note #4
When the project started, the weather was really changeable; it rained very often and created lots of delays. Especially during November of 2009, it was very cold and snowed a lot. One unexpected thing was that after we had finished putting in all the pipes, the water didn’t come out through the pipes. Then the water designer checked again and found that he had made a mistake about the distance and the spring source was quite low. Therefore, the water designer stayed in the village for many days and helped the villagers build both the water box and distribution water box as well. Thus, the project committee bargained with the water designer and finally we paid 3,000 RMB in total (according to my original budget, the water designer will be charged 100 RMB per day for 14 days, but while we were doing the project, the cost was much higher because we needed to pay taxes to get a real receipt and it also took many days. Therefore, we bargained with the designer and finally paid 120 RMB per day for 25 days, which was 3,000 RMB in total.

Note #5
While we purchased the bricks, the price increased and we needed to pay taxes in order to get real receipts. However, one monk called Luo Sang Yun dan (from lower Mai Ri village) had experience purchasing bricks and he knew well about the bricks, so he helped us to pay fewer taxes for the real receipts. Therefore, finally we paid 0.7 RMB per brick for 10,000 bricks in total (which included bricks’ tax and transportation).

Note #6
This project proposal was finished when I was a student in Xining, before my graduation. However, the project was begun after I came to Jiantsa County, which was near my project site. When implementing this project, I personally needed to go and observe the project, but it was very difficult to get permission from the school leader in Jiantsa County (where I was working) because if we are absent from one class the school would deduct my salary and scold me . So I needed to call vthe illage leader and project committee many times and sometimes I asked my colleagues to help me to go there by their motorcycle on the weekends, paying for their motorcycle’s petrol.

Also, members of the project committee and I, the project manager, and my uncle went back and forth to the factories many times to purchase pipes and cement; consequently, the project management expenses were higher than I originally budgeted.

Note #7
Because of the water designer’s mistake about measuring the distance and the location of the spring source, we had to purchase more pipes, which cost 23,120 RMB, which was more than the original budget. The project committee and the village leader borrowed 19,596.89 RMB from other people with interest, and we had to pay the leftover money from the donor contribution, 3,523.11 RMB for the pipes too.

Note #8
In my original budget, I requested plastic pipes, connections, cement and steel transportation fee from donors, but once we purchased those materials, the plastic pipes and connection transportation fee were paid by the Lanzhou Plastic Pipe Factory, and after we bought cement and steel, paid the water designer by borrowing money from relatives, cement and steel transportation fees was paid by the local contribution. So we used 4,880 RMB of the transportation fee on extra pipes (see Receipt #7) and the water designer fee (see Receipt #4).

Note #9
According to my original budget, the project was scheduled to take two months, but it actually took more than two months, because of the weather. It took 70 days, so the labor fee we calculated as 50 workers * 70 days * 30 RMB per day = 105,000 RMB. This counted as the villagers’ local contribution, and we didn’t pay for that.

Delays, difficulties and lessons are learned
Delay of the activities;
The project could not begin as soon as the funds were received due to the following reasons:

Firstly, it was harvest season when the project was funded and many people had to harvest. Usually it would only take 20 days to finish the harvest. However, this year was very different from previous years, because it rained a lot and villagers stopped doing harvest. Thus, we waited one month and nine days to finish the harvest.

Secondly, the spring we originally planned to get water from was no longer sustainable. Before the project started, there was a small village called Luowa, (which was nearby Lower Mairi Village) that agreed that Lower Mairi Village could use the spring to build a running water system. But after they heard that the project was funded, Luowa villagers told the Lower Mairi villagers that they couldn’t use the spring. They were saying that the spring would not enough for both villages. Therefore, Lower Mairi Village chose some people who had some relatives or friends in Luowa Village and sent them to Luowa Village to ask permission several times, but they still didn’t give permission. So we started to search for another spring and luckily we found a good spring, but this delayed us a lot.

Also, digging a ditch in the forest is illegal, because sometimes we need to cut trees for the ditch and destroy some plants. So we spent one day and went to Jiantsa Forest Bureau and discussed the project with them, and finally they agreed. After we dealt with all those things, villagers started to dig the ditch on September 26th, 2009.

Difficulties encountered during project implementation;
For me this is my first time to do such construction project, so I lacked relevant knowledge, experience and management skills, which caused lots of difficulties and challenges. At the beginning of the project, all the village leaders were not so cooperative; they were doing things their own way without asking me. Once I went to my aunt’s funeral, two of the project committee members bought small materials without getting receipts, because they didn’t realize how important it was to get receipts, even for such small things. So I had to explain to them very seriously. Also, village leaders asked me to hire excavators to dig the ditch, because it was difficult for people to dig in rocks. But to hire excavators would take away large portion from the first installment of the funds. The second installment would surely not be enough to implement rest of the project works. So after discussing this problem with project committee, we decided that some villagers who had experience would use dynamite to dig the ditch and we would not hire the excavators.

Additionally, I work a little bit far away from the project site, so each time I needed to go and observe the project, I needed to take days off school. Also from my working place to project, the transportation was very inconvenient and every time I needed to ask for some of my colleagues to help me get there by motorcycle by paying a little for the motorcycle’s petrol.

After we loaded all the materials in the truck in Lanzhou, it was already dark. But to save money, we didn’t stay in Lanzhou that night and we asked the truck driver to go directly back to Jiantsa County. While we arrived Jiantsa County it was almost four o’clock in the morning and the weather was not so good, but we went directly to the project site even though we were very hungry. But it rained heavily after one hour so the truck couldn’t go to the project site and we had to stop at a nearby village. However, all the villagers were still sleeping, and our cell phones were out off service. The driver pressured us to unload the materials and it was impossible for both of us to unload all the materials, and it was really hard for us to contact the villagers. Finally it was ok to leave the materials in the truck. So we just slept in the truck and waited until morning. After the dawn, the village leader spent one and half hours to go on foot to the project site, and I went to a small household to ask for some bread for driver and me to eat. Finally, all the villagers came and unloaded all the materials. Villagers carried all the materials on their tricycles. Spending a whole night in the truck was really hard especially in such a bad weather, so from that day I was really sick and stay in bed for four days.

Lessons learned
During implementing this project, one thing that I learned is that to have a relevant knowledge and experience is the most important thing. Once we had adequate knowledge and experience, we could easily determine the success of the project. Because when we actually implement the project, , new events or unexpected things occurred. If you cannot manage well when there are many unexpected things or new changes come, one of the most important things is that you should get more suggestions or help from others with experience.

In fact, local people had low expectation toward women while I was doing the project; even my grandmother told me that young girls could not do this kind of

project. I never felt disappointed about how people talk about me and I just try my best to implement the project. I think if we keep going, there are always different ways to solve the problems and nothing is impossible for us to deal with in our life. Especially, when we encounter difficulties, the most important thing is that we shouldn’t feel upset or give up.

Variations and changes occurred (budget, activities and time frame)

One of the changes that occurred to the original budget was because the water experts and we (project committee) checked the distance from the local village to the spring source, and it was seven and half kilometers away. But once we completed the project and tested water, the water didn’t come, so we found that the water designer had made a mistake; the water spring where we dug was quite low, and also it was one and half kilometers farther away than we thought. Thus, we needed to dig the ditch again through a small hill, plus we needed to buy more pipes. However, the first installment of the grants was already used up, and the second installment surely would not be enough, so we (the project committee) decided that we should collect more money from locals to buy the rest of the plastic pipes. It was still not enough and I needed to find more money, which was very hard for me to do, especially because people would not lend money to girls, because they thought girls do not have the ability to make money and couldn’t pay back the loan. Even if we could borrow money from others we would also need to pay it back with interest. Therefore, I asked the village leader to find some money and he borrowed 24,000 RMB from one of his friends and he said that the villagers will have to pay back this money with interest after this autumn.

The second variation from the original plan was that the time frame was totally changed. My original plan was that the project would take two months to finish, but it took more than two months because of the bad weather. When we built distribution water box, the winter came and all the things froze and we couldn’t cover the distribution water box. So I called Shem Women’s Group and explained to this problem to them, so they told me that it would be ok if we finish the project next year on May 5th,2010.　 Also, there was some changes in the price of materials; the price of most materials had increased and we also need to pay more money to get real receipts. We checked several factories and figured out which quality is good and which is not good and finally we chosen the best quality plastic pipes (which would have a longer guarantee in the future) in the factory.

Interviews

Tso Mao is ten years old and she is the youngest of four sisters in her family. She is attending a primary school now. Her two older sisters are also studying in Middle School, and the other two sisters are staying at home and helping her parents and grandparents to do house chores and fetch water. The old man who is standing behind Tso Mao is her 75-year-old grandfather. He has with a problem with his leg and he can’t move as well as other people. While we were interviewing him about the benefit of the water system, he said, “We have never dreamed that we could drink such clean water in our lives. Before we had reliable running water, TsoMao’s mother and her two old sisters need to spend two hours to fetch water from the river, which is about two kilometers away, also the road is very steep and dangerous. So after we had this running water, they needn’t spend many hours to fetch water for both our family members and our livestock. We can wash our clothes and pour the clean water on the vegetables and trees that we planted in our yard. From now on, even if my family members and grandchildren are out side, I can fetch water in my family’s yard. I really appreciate the donor’s help and wish you would have long life!” Tso Mao also very happily said, “Since my family has running water, I needn’t carry water for my grandparents when my parents and sisters go outside and make money. Instead, I can use the time to do my homework and play with other children. Thanks for your help!”

This woman is 65 years old, named Li Guo, and there are six people in her family. When we entered her house, she was full of smiles and pouring the water on her family’s vegetables. She informed us, “This running water saved a lot of women’s lives in our community and from today I needn’t go on foot to the river and carry water on my back, because before when I carried the water on my back, it gave me a backache and sore feet and I couldn’t finish my other house chore. Also this running water helps us to plant many vegetables and trees in my family’s yard. So I really want to say thanks for your greatest help and I will pray for you as much as I can in my life!”

The old man who is standing near the running water is called Dorma Ben. He is 48 years old and has a serious illness and can’t work. Also he has a hunched back as you saw on the picture. There are five people in his family and his family condition is much poorer than other households, because his wife couldn’t afford his two daughters’ (who are university students) tuition and the family’s daily expenses. So while we interviewed him about the benefit of the running water, he said, “When my wife goes outside to work, it is very difficult for me to fetch water and have a little time to do house chore, and I planned to keep my little son at home and ask him to help. But now that my family has running water, I needn’t keep my son at home and should send him to school, because now I can easily get water by myself with buckets in my family’s yard. Without your donor’s help, it would be impossible for us to drink such clean water in my whole life and I wish you a great life in the future! Thanks a lot!”

There are four children in this family and their older brother is a senior student, their sister is also in middle school. The little girl’s name is Xie Ri Dorma, she is 13 years old and is the youngest child in her family. The boy who is sitting on the Kang is Xie Ri Dorma’s elder brother, his name is Gongbao La dan, he is 16 years old. He was both mentally and physically disabled since he was born, without his mother and eldest brother’s help, he couldn’t eat or dress by himself. When his family members are out, he can’t go outside and pee, so every day he sits on the kang and pees there. When we entered his family home, there was only his younger sister and him, and the little girl informed us that her mother went to collect fuel in the forest. As her brother saw us, he was full of smiles and greeted us with his gestures. Besides his mother there is no other supporters in his family. His father never cares about the family and children. Once his father gets some money, he goes to the city or county town and sometimes he never come back home. While we interviewed this little girl about the benefit of the running water, she said, “Since my family has running water, I needn’t go to the river and fetch water after class. Also I needn’t stay up all night to do my homework. I am especially happy that I needn’t carry water on my back during the harvest time (which is the busiest and hottest time); instead, I can help my mother to do house chores and collect fuel for my family during my vacation, and this is first time that trees and vegetables will be grown in my family’s yard. My last hope is that I beg you to help my disabled brother if there is more chance in the future.”

This woman’s name is La Jian Tso, and she is 63 years old. Her eldest son was studying in Bei Jing University and her second son is also a senior school student. Besides her, there are no any other family members to help, because her husband Dorma Jia is about 65 years old and has an incurable illness. So both outside and inside ‘s work must be done by her; for example: weeding the field, collecting fuel, fetching water and caring for her sick husband. Therefore, once we interviewed her, she said, “Thanks for your greatest help. Since my family has running water, I can easily finish my house chores early, also my children needn’t fetch water for us in their holidays, instead, they can use the time to review their lessons. So I am really happy and inspired by your kind warm heart! Thank you very much!

This boy is called Yong Dna Ra jie; he is 13 years old and a primary school student. Since his parents went to dig caterpillar fungus, he is responsible for watering the trees that had been planted in his family. When we interviewed him, he said, “From this year, I needn’t rush to my family and fetch water for both my grandparents and livestock after my class. Now we have running water in our yard, and I can help my grandparents to cook food and finish my homework earlier than before. I am really happy to say thanks a lot for your donation!”

Mr. Jiatso is one member of the project committee. He is 45 years old, and there are six people in his family. His youngest son is junior school student, his wife and his daughter went to dig caterpillar fungus, so Mr. Jiatso needs to stay at home and take care of his 75-year-old parents. As we interviewed him, he said, “With your great help, at last we can drink clean water, which will help our sanitation and we can grow green vegetables or trees in our yard. Also from today, how happy that we needn’t worry about water for both our family members and livestock, and this running saved a lot of time for me to do other house chores. Thanks for your help and I will pray for you!”

Thank you letter

Translation of the thank you letter

Dear Church Development Service and Shem Women’s Group,

With your enthusiastic help and support, you have greatly helped both Lower Mairi villagers and livestock’s lives by providing clean water. I want to say thanks a lot for your kind heart and greatest help. Originally both villagers and livestock had to drink water from Small River about two kilometers away through a very steep road. To deal with this problem, with Church Development Service and Shem Women’s Group’s greatest support, we built a clean running water system for each household from seven kilometers away.

Actually in our history, this is our first time to get such compassion and support from the donors. This running water especially helped many young school aged girls being kept at home to help their families fetch the water through a steep and dangerous road. Therefore, from your donation, many women’s heavy burden has been ended as we had never been expected or dreamed before. All the young and old villagers from Lower Mairi Village were inspired by your great donation and want to say thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts and we will appreciate your help forever.

All the villagers from Lower Mairi Village of Jiantsa County in Qing Hai Province,

May 5th, 2010.

List of receipts

Receipts 1

These receipts are for purchasing plastic pipes and connections and total cost 130,518.99 RMB

Receipt 2

These two receipts are for purchasing 3 ton of steel, which cost 17,850 RMB

Receipt 3

These receipts are for purchasing 20 tons of cement and the cost is 9,000RMB

Receipt 4

This is for the water designer’s fee and it cost 3,000 RMB

Receipt5

This receipt is for purchasing bricks with 7,000 RMB

Receipt 6

These are for the transportation fees for project management, a total of 947.9 RMB

Receipt 7

These are for purchasing extra pipes for 23,120 RMB.

Original Proposal

Project location
Lower Mairi village is located in the north of Cuozhou Township, Jiantsa County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. It is about 180 kilometers away from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province. Mairi is an agricultural village with 51 households, which are situated in the middle of a mountain. All the people in this village are Tibetans. Lower Mairi village is adjacent to Upper Mairi village and both villages currently rely on the same water source.
Population
There are approximately 353 people within 51 households in Lower Mairi village. There are 150 women, 143 men and 60 children in this lower village.

Education
Almost none of the adults or elders of Mairi village have received formal education. Most of those with no education were unable to attend school due to accessibility or funding difficulties. However, about five percent of the people in Mairi village are older men who can read and write Tibetan, as they learned from the monastery during 1966-1977. In 1993, nearly all village parents began to send one child to the local primary school. Students could only attend grades one through four and lacked a real classroom, teachers, and good materials. In recent times, a new understanding of the importance of education for success in modern society has increased school attendance. In Mairi village, out of 45 school-aged children there are 33 children are attending school. There are 2 university students (one girl and one boy), 4 boy senior students, 7 junior school students (three girls and four boys) and 20 primary school students (eight girls and twelve boys). On average, one child from each family currently attends primary school, although there is usually more than one child in each household. Some families do not send their children to school because they cannot afford the school tuition. Moreover, some families don’t send any children to school because they need them to stay at home to help work in the fields and fetch water to provide for both family and livestock.

Cash Income
All of the people in Mairi village are farmers. A major source of income outside of agriculture is digging caterpillar fungus, (cordyceps sinensis; Dongchun Xia Cao in Chinese) a medicinal herb that grows in nomadic areas. Caterpillar fungus is sold for five yuan per fungus. However, gathering caterpillar fungus is very difficult. People have to dig for the fungus in the forest or in the high altitude grassland where each person must pay 2,500 rmb to dig on other people’s land, unsure whether the land actually has any caterpillar fungus. People usually dig the fungus from the beginning of May until the end of June. When they go to dig fungus, villagers must also pay for the bus fare to take them to the nomadic places. Each person needs to pay nearly 350 rmb for a ticket. Sometimes people have no money to bring home from digging because of difficulties and the high landlord’s fee.After paying the landlord’s fee, most people bring 800-900 rmb home in profit. This amount of money is not even sufficient for family expenses, such as buying clothes, salt, tea, medicine, paying for electricity and buying fertilizer, which costs about 400-500 rmb alone. The total of these essential expenses comes to 1,000 rmb per year, but on average people can only earn 900 rmb in the whole year. Usually one person from each family goes to dig caterpillar fungus to support the family. If a family has both middle school and university students, they generally have to borrow 3500 rmb from others or a local bank to pay their children’s tuition. Usually after a family member digs caterpillar fungus, the earnings must be spent on paying back the loans and interest. Another expense for about 40 households in Mairi village is 400 rmb for 250 kilograms of grain for food every year because of poor harvest due to a lack of irrigation system.

Agriculture
Mairi villagers usually plant wheat, barley, potatoes, and beans on their small fields once a year. The richest families in Mairi village have 10 mu of fields to plant these crops. This is just enough for a year’s worth of food for both people and livestock (such as pigs and mules), with no surplus. Each year, a family can produce 250 kilograms of barley, wheat, or potatoes per mu. The poor families in the village have only 7 mu of fields without irrigation, from which they must try to supply food for all members of the family and livestock. The farmers rely on the rainfall, with no other irrigation system. If one year has very little rain, these poor families are in danger of starving because they cannot produce and do not have money to buy grain for food. On average, thirty five households from Mairi village do not produce enough for a year’s worth of food. Occasionally the local government might give one or two sacks of flour to the poorest families, but this is still not sufficient for supporting both people and livestock.

Herding
Each family in Mairi village has an average of three animals: one mule and two donkeys. The exception is three households which have almost 50 sheep and goats each. The animals in Mairi village are needed for plowing in the spring and carrying the straw during the harvest.

Project Goals
The immediate goal of this project is to build a running water system for 51 households in Lower Mairi village. This project will also benefit five villages of about 600 local people, which rely on the same source of water in the Cuozhou Township of Jiantsa County. This project will help more children from Lower Mairi village the possibility to attend school. And the overchanging goal is to improve people’s life condition and to have a healthy life by using this water system.

Problems
Water shortage: The water piping currently used by lower Mairi villagers doesn’t belong to the village, but to the two adjacent villages (Upper Mairi village located at the top of the mountain, and the Lower Mairi village is in the middle of the mountain). This piping was built by the local government of these two villages three years ago. Previously the government thought that this water system would be enough for both villages. Unfortunately, upper Mairi village has about 350 people as well as livestock, which rely on this water, leaving inadequate water for Lower Mairi village. Originally Lower Mairi villagers had obtained water from a small river, about two and half kilometers from the village, at the bottom of a steep mountain. This road for fetching water is very steep and treacherous. Fetching water is traditionally a task of women and young girls, so the women of lower Mairi must carry water barrels along the steep path to collect their water. Unable to individually carry enough water, women must also use their donkeys or mules to fetch water with metal barrels. This water fetching process takes women at least two hours to complete, and then they must begin the other housework chores.

Health problems: To fetch water, villagers must travel on a steep mountain path down to the river, a difficult and dangerous undertaking. During the summer when people cannot predict when it will rain, this task is especially dangerous as a sudden storm may appear when people are fetching water, making the ground slippery and the river rough. Many villagers have suffered broken bones from falling on the steep mountain road while fetching water, and several children have drowned in the dangerous river. As a result, people use their water sparingly which negatively impacts the level of health and hygiene in the village. To spare water, families don’t wash their clothes often and usually irrigate their crops with dirty water instead of clean water. This polluted water makes the vegetables that the villagers eat unhealthy. Many women and girls suffer from hunched backs and backaches from fetching water in water barrels on their backs

Time consuming: Without enough water provided by the pipe, villagers must spend lots of time collecting water. Students must spend their vacation periods helping their families to fetch water from the river. This not only uses up their leisure time, but also cuts into their study time. While other village’s students may go to the county town and participate in training programs or tutoring during holidays, lower Mairi’s students must fetch water. Fetching water three times per day does not leave time for women to work outside the home as men do.

Dangerous frozen ground: When the villagers fetch water in winter, they have to cross over the frozen river, which has turned to thick, slippery ice. This can be very dangerous, especially for young children and elders, who sometimes fall on the ice and hurt themselves. The ice is also difficult for the donkeys and mules, often causing them to slip and fall. Additionally, the river is located at the bottom of the mountain and remains in the shadow of the mountain until noon. Thus, people can easily get cold and ill, which forces them to pay for medical attention and to buy warm clothes that can be very expensive.

Pollution: Villagers use the river for washing their clothes and village animals use and pollute the river. This pollution not only affects lower Mairi village, but also the five other villages that the river flows through.

Increased women’s labor: The river is at the bottom of a mountain that is about two and half kilometers from the Mairi village. Women usually get up at half past six to get water with water barrels on their backs, and do not return until nine o’clock. On their return, women must cook for their families, do the house chores, and work on the farm. Sometimes women will not finish their work until well into the night, leaving no time to relax and do work outside the home for wages

Increased illiteracy rate: As the summer approaches, men from this village must go outside the village and earn money. Women have to work in the fields weeding and doing other tasks. Parents need their children to stay at home to collect water from the river and to cook for elders. Usually these tasks are given to daughters, forcing the girls to drop out of school. With more children needing to work instead of receiving an education, illiteracy rates are rising.

Lack of reliable water supply: During the harvest and planting times potable water is extremely necessary for each household, as this is the busiest and most tiring work period for both people and mules or donkeys. In these periods, the water carrier must fetch water four or five times the usual amount. Thus, each family must choose one person to spend all day getting water, or they will not have enough water for people to drink. At this busy time, even one small child is very helpful. The lack of reliable and conveniently located water impedes villagers from finishing their tasks efficiently.

Benefits
If we build a running water system for every household in lower Mairi village, then there will be enough water for all the villagers and several problems will be resolved.

1. Women in the village will not need to walk long distances to fetch water and they will have more leisure time to relax and spend on their other tasks, like weeding and irrigating the fields. This will also free up the donkeys and mules to do work that is not related to carrying water. This project will reduce both women and animal’s burdens.

2. The health problems related to water collection will be eliminated by a local water supply. Children and elders will no longer be exposed to the cold and slippery ice of the river in winter.

3. During the vacation students will not need to spend their rest time fetching water, but can instead do other activities such as reviewing their lessons or helping their parents to farm.

4. The threats of drowning and falling on the slippery path by the river in the summer will be eliminated if villagers do not have to fetch water. Everyone in the village will have safe life in the summer, reducing the threats especially for women, children and elders.

5. Villagers will have improved hygiene and health, using clean water for washing clothes and irrigating the crops.

6. With running water women’s hunchback and backache caused by carrying water from the river on their backs will be greatly reduced. Also, more girls can attend school as they do not need to stay home to collect water.

7. A reliable water source will reduce river pollution, helping to keep the environment clean. People usually wash their clothes in the river, polluting the water. This polluted river is not only bad for lower Mairi villagers and livestock, but also harms the other five villages who drink the river water. A clean river will benefit all five villages the river flows through.

8. Everyone in the family can fully participate in harvesting and planting crops, as no one must spend this time collecting water. With the help of all the family members these tasks will be finished earlier and more easily.

Beneficiaries
This running water project will directly benefit 353 people in 51 households, especially reducing the burden of women and girls. Also, five villages downstream of lower Mairi will be benefited indirectly with unpolluted water.

Gender equality
This water project presents excellent opportunities to contribute to gender equality in my community. Usually women have a lower position than men in society, and women are thought to be less capable then men. Generally, only men have the opportunity to attend village activities such as village meetings, learning news and ideas from the outside world. Most of the time, women must stay at home to do most of the housework, including fetching water. With easily available water women will have as much time as men do, giving them the opportunity to participate in other activities and tasks. In addition, implementing this project will show the villagers that women also can be involved in wonderful and helpful community projects. A running water system will empower women to meaningfully contribute in water management and enable them to increase their income with more time.
In addition, once there is a water system in my community it is certain that many girls will spend far less time collecting water. As a result, many girls will have the time to be able to attend school and gain an education, allowing them to gain the skills to do their own projects in the future.

Government Approval
The local government aided both upper and lower Mairi village to build a running water system about three years ago, but the lower Mairi village doesn’t have enough water to drink. There is no available money within the village or the government to build a new water system. On May 4, 2007, I (Pagmotso) and the village leader, Dun Zhi Cai Dan, talked to the government leader , Lha Jyi Jia, who said that he would agree donor funding of this project

The steps of the project
1. Discuss the problems of water access with the villagers and decide how and what could be done to alleviate these problems. (Done)

2. Talk to the villager leader, Dunzhi Caidan, about the basic needs and how the water problem could be solved. (Done)

3. Hold the first meeting with the family leaders (both men and women) to collect information for the project. (Done)

4. Ask official permission from the local government leader. (Done)

5. Go to an adjacent village to talk to other project managers and workers who completed a similar project last year. Discuss with them what kind of materials are needed and how and where the cheapest, best quality materials may be bought (Done)

6. Go to Jiantsa County and determine the price of each material that is needed for this project. (Done)

7. Invite two skilled workers from the county town to Mairi village and have them determine the best location for the project. (Done)

8. Hold a second meeting with both men and women from lower Mairi. Choose three women and three men who will be responsible for this project. One woman will take care of the materials, while the other two women and one man will be in charge of the spring. Another man will be responsible for the money that will be spent and will keep all receipts. The third man will be responsible for the water ditch. (Done)

9. Take pictures of the current local conditions. (Done)

10. Write project proposal. (Done)
11. Find a donor to fund this project.12. Hold the third meeting with the villagers to discuss the start date for this project.

13. Meet the contractors and ask them when and how to arrange materials for this project. Organize transportation of project materials.

14. Purchase materials such as cement, bricks and steel from Jiantsa County. Ask the five responsible managers to begin overseeing the project construction.

15. Supervise the participation of villagers until the project is completed.

16. Interview the villagers on the success of this project.

17. Take pictures of the completed project.

18. Complete the final report.

19. Send the final report with all pictures, receipts and thank you letters to the donor.
Time frame
(if funded, this project will need one month and twenty days to fin

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Note:* this is the transportation fee from Xininig to Jiantsa County. From Jianzha county town to Lower Mairi Village, the villagers will take those materials by the small trucks since the village is located on the mountain and the big tracks cannot go through there.
Donor Contribution; 171,840 RMB (25,190.5 US dollars)
Shem Women’s group; 500RMB

Sustainability
There will be 353 people in 51 households participating in this project. The project will be sustainable with an organized community (from the village) for taking care of this project after it is completed All the villagers will have confidence in the long term success of this project because they will use the best quality materials and their own labor. Also, the suppliers for this project have a guaranteed return policy good on parts for ten years.

Past experiences
In 2004, Pagmotso successfully completed two small scale development projects: one Solar Cooker project that distributed cookers to 60 households in KousaTang village in Jiantsa (funded by the Canada Fund), and a second-hand clothing project for Kousa Tang village (funded by Sue Bishop at the British Consulate in Shanghai).
Photos

This is one area that people have to cross when fetching water. The river is situated at the bottom of a steep mountain, which is about two and half kilometers away from the village.

Pama tso who is a thirteen year old school girl. Her parents have already left the village to make money, leaving her with no option but to stay home from school to work.

These are women from Lower Mairi village carrying water to their homes. After fetching water, these women must work in the fields and do other housework. The water carried on the womens’ backs is not enough for both their livestock and people in their families, so donkeys and mules are needed to transport water. Although this picture is taken in summer, without money for buying trees or equipment for modern agriculture, the land remains dusty all year.

This little girl was also needed to go down to the river and get water with her sister because her parents were very busy planting crops in the fields.

Niang Mo gyi is pouring water from the river to the metal barrel for her donkey to transport back to the village for drinking water.

Tashi is a middle school boy (fourteen years old), but during his weekend he has to come home and help his seventy year old grandmother do housework, including carrying water.

Map of the project site

This project is to build a running water system for Rilangda Village, in order to supply clean water for Rilangda villagers to reduce the villager’s burden, and decrease the six households’ workload so they have more time to relax like the other 18 households in Rilangda Village and improve their living condition.

Youth Group from Vienna funded this project

Lo Sang Bal Dron is from Luhuo County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. She is currently studying for an Associate’s degree at the English Training Program in Qinghai Nationalities Teacher’s College, Qinghai Normal University.

What? Build a running water system for Rilangda Village in Zhuwo Township, Luhuo County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province in order to decrease the six households’ workload, and reduce sickness.

Who? The six households in Rilangda village, Zhuwo Township, Luhuo County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

Photos during the project

These two women are digging the ditches for their water pipes in front of their own houses.

The skilled worker puts all the materials together and begins to install the water pipes and taps.

Two of the unskilled workers are mixing cement and sand for building cement water boxes.

The skilled worker is putting the #45 pipes into the ditches.

The skilled worker is building the cement water box and the unskilled workers are helping him by providing stone and cement.

The skilled worker and unskilled worker are building the cement water box with timber.

A small cement water box is built for each family.

The #25 pipes are put into the ditches for two families.

The #45 pipes and the plastic pipes are about to connect in the ditches.

The skilled worker and two unskilled workers are putting the #45 pipes into the diesel oil to connect with the #25 pipes.

The unskilled workers are covering the ditches after the pipes are connected.

The six families are fetching water through the water box and taps from their kitchen and near doors.

The project manager Blobzang dpal sgron and her assistant Xinagyong give 5,400 RMB to the village leader, so the six families can use the main village water supply. Initially, the project manager was told that they needed to give 5,400, however later the village leader stated that they needed to give 5,940 RMB. The project manager had to collect 90 RMB from each family to pay the extra 540 RMB.

After finishing this project the six households’ members came to the project manager say thanks and offer a Kha dha – a piece of white silk used as a greeting gift in Tibetan areas.

Project summery:

Project title: Running Water Project for Six Households in Rilangda Village
Project goals: To build a running water system for six households in Rilangda Village to provide safe and clean water, decreasing the six households’ workload so they have more time to relax like the other 18 households in Rilangda Village.
Project Location
This project is located in Rilangda Village, Zhuwo Township, Luhuo County; Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. Rilangda Village is about 50 km away from Luhuo County (called Zhanggo in Tibetan); Luhuo County is located in the southeast of Ganzi Prefecture and Luhuo County is 650 km away from Chengdu City, the capital of Sichuan.

Total beneficiaries: This running water project directly benefits six households with a total of 39 people: 14 men, 14 women and 11 children under the age of 16 (including 3 new babies).
Implementation organization/individual: Blobzang dpalsgron (Madge), project main manager; Xiang gyangs,the project manager’s assistant, and Shem Women’s Group.

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funding ⎯ source, amount, and date received: Blobzang dpalsgron received 18,715.2 RMB from Shem Women’s Group in December 2009, and she will receive 4,678.8 RMB after implementing the project successfully.

Details of the project activities:
1. Asked the village leader about the needs for the project.
2. Asked the village leader whether the six households can use the same water system as the 18 households.
3. Received government permission to do this project.
4. Contacted a skilled worker.
5. Found out the transportation fee.
6. Asked the price of materials in Luhuo County.
7. Wrote project proposal.
8. Collected information from Rig ‘dzinm Thar phyin, who implemented a running water project in a nearby village.
9. Took pictures.
10. March 5th- March 10th 2010: Received funds, helped the two co- managers (mKh’gYang and Jiang shi) prepare local materials, and transport sand and stone to their home.
11. .March 11th -March 14th 2010: Purchased the materials and cement bags from Luhuo County and transported them to the village to begin setting up the water taps
12. March 15th –March 24th 2010: The 12 unskilled workers began to dig ditches
13. March25th –April 1st 2010: The skilled workers began to place the pipes and the unskilled workers mixed sand and cement for the tap boxes for each family.
14. April 2nd_ April 4th 2010: The unskilled workers covered the ditches
15. Interviewed the six households members
16. Write the final report
17. Send the pictures and receipts with the final report.

Project Finance

Prices of materials are exact in Luhuo County in March 2008, but some prices increased in the year of 2010. The total cost is 32,947 RMB, the total donor contribution is 23,394 RMB, the local contribution is 9,053 RMB. In the original proposal the local contribution was 7,740 RMB, but because the price of materials had gone up, I asked the six households to contribute an extra 1,353 RMB.

Delays, difficulties, and lessons learned
Delays
The project manager Blo bzang dpal sgron planned to do this project in December and January, but because of the cold winter, it was delayed until March and April.
Difficulties
Project manager Blo bzang dpal sgron wrote the proposal in 2008 and in 2009 her proposal got funds; by then the prices had changed, and it became more expensive than before, thus the project manager had to go to Rilangda Village to ask for more money from the six households.
When the project manager Blo bzang dpal sgron asked the village leader how much money for using the village’s big water box, the village leader told her each family (6 families) would have to pay 900 RMB for it. But when she went to the village leader to give the 900RMB*6=5,400RMB for the six households to use the water box, the village leader and some other villagers changed their minds. The leader said the other 18 households (which already had running water taps) had a meeting, and decided the six households have to pay 5,940 RMB to use the water box, meaning each family had to pay 990 RMB. The project manager had only received 900 RMB for each family from the donor, and most of the beneficiary households said they had no money, so she went to the county town and asked for that money from some rich people to deal that problem.   

Lessons learned:
Brave: Before working on this project, the project manager Blo bzang dpal sgrn was a very timid girl, but after she did this project, she became much more brave. When she met with some difficulties and problems, she would try to deal them by herself. For example, when the village leader asked for more money for their water box, she went to the county town and asked for the extra money from rich people.
Change the traditional thoughts: In the past, the project manager thought women couldn’t make any kind of contribution except doing housework, but after she did this project she changed her mind, and began to think that women also can contribute to society. In her hometown mostly women do the hard work, not men, so during the project she chose both men and women to dig the ditches and cover them.

Interviews:
The project manager interviewed some of the six households’ members.
#1: Mkha’ gyang is 39 years old

Blobzang dpalsgron: I notice that in your village, most of the households have water taps, why don’t you use their water tap?
Mkha’gyang: There are 18 households that already have water taps, and we can get water from their taps. One time or two times it’s ok, but after that we are too shy to get water from them.
Blobzang dplasgron: So, you said you are too shy to get water from them, right? Now you have your own water tap, are you happy for this?
Mkha’ gyang: Yes, of course! I’m very happy for this water tap. Now I needn’t worry about rain or freezing weather. Also my old mother is now 78 years old, and before I was afraid that when she went to get water, because before A ma Zhala and lamo were injured seriously, but now she also can fetch water from our home.

#2: Sanggeng is 47 years old

Blobzang dpal sgron: Are you happy for your water tap?
Sanggeng: Surely, thanks very much for helping us. From today, my family members can wear clean clothes and eat clean vegetable. Before my wife always washed them in our village’s river, but you know that river is small and polluted, and after washed we can smell them.
Blobzang dbalsgron: What about your children?
Sangeng: Oh, before they always needed to come home earlier from school than other children, because they had to get water from other families or the river, otherwise after rain and snow, we couldn’t get clean water, but now we don’t need our children to get water, and they have more time to study and relax.

#3 Sgron dkar is 35 years old

Blobzang dpalsgron: Are you going to use this water tap often?
Sgron dkar: Of course! I will. I will always wash my family members’ clothes and water the vegetables and apple trees.
Blobzang dbalsgron: What else does the water help you?
Sgron dkar: it also helps us reduce health problems. I heard that our village’s river was polluted, and drinking polluted water causes many kinds of sickness, so now we can get away from this dirty water. I’m very happy for that.
Blobzang dpalsgron: In our village, I noticed that women are always doing the hard works, like collecting fuel, washing clothes, doing chores, and fetching water, so now does this help you to reduce your works?
Sgron dkar: Surely, it reduces my work lots. For example: I needn’t go to the river and get water, I can get it from my home. I can use that time to do other chores or relax. Next year I decided to send my second daughter to school for study. Now I needn’t her to fetch water any more. Thanks very much to help me and my family members.

Thanks letter from the beneficiaries:

Receipts
Receipt # 1

The fees for the six tractors of sand and six tractors of stone for the project, and the cost is 600 RMB.

Receipt #2

The fee for skilled worker (910 RMB)

Receipt # 3

This is the fee for the cement (1,710 RMB)

Receipt # 4

The fees for the plastic connection (550 RMB), plastic pipe #45(1,600 RMB), plastic pipe (8,000 RMB), and other materials (1,764 RMB) In total, it is 11,914 RMB.

Receipt #5

This fee is for project management assistant during the project. (400 RMB).

Receipts # 6

This fee is for the six households to use the Rilangda Village’s (18 households) big water box (5,940 RMB).

Receipt 7

Those vegetables are for the skilled workers and the two project managers during doing the project, the total cost is 501 RMB.

Receipts #8

Those receipts are for the food when the project management Blo bzang dbal sgron and the assistant bought the facts of the project.(together 150 RMB)

Receipts #9

The first 100 RMB is for the hotel fees when the project management and her assistant came to the county town to buy the project materials. The second 100 RMB is for the project management came to the county town for sending her final report and the receipts; she stayed there two days. Together it costs 200 RMB.

Receipts #10

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

Receipts # 11

This receipt is the project management sent the receipts to Shem members from post office, and it cost 22 RMB.

Receipts #12

The first money is the fare for the project management Blo bzang dpal sgron, her assistant Xiangyong and the skilled worker from Luhuo County to Rilangda Village. (960 RMB). The second money is the fee for transport the project materials from Luhuo county to Rilangda village (1,840 RMB). Together there are 2,800 RMB.

Original Proposal

Project Location
This project is located in Rilangda Village, Zhuwo Township, Luhuo County; Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. Rilangda Village is about 50 km away from Luhuo County (called Zhanggo in Tibetan); Luhuo County is located in the southeast of Ganzi Prefecture and Luhuo County is 650 km away from Chengdu City, the capital of Sichuan.
Population
There are 156 people of 24 households in Rilangda Village. There are 59 men, 62 women and 35 children (under the age of 18).
Education
There are 32 students (17 males and 15 females) in Rilangda village; this includes 5 college students (2 males and 3 females), 8 high school students (4 males and 4 females), 5 middle school students (4 males and 1 female), and 14 primary school students (9 males and 5 females). Also 7 people (4 males and 3 females) have official jobs. 50% of men and 2% of women are literate in Rilangda Village (not including students, monks, nuns and the functionaries). The rest of the villagers are illiterate. This is partially due to older generations’ belief that students are unable to get jobs after graduation.
Cash Income
All of Rilangda Villagers are farmers, so their lives depend on agriculture. They plant barley, wheat, potatoes, and peas in their fields. Some families with many members own 5-10 mu (1mu=0.0666 hectares); they can earn 2000-2500 RMB per year from selling their barley and wheat. Families with few people have only 1- 3 mu of land, so it’s impossible to sell their barley and wheat. Some of these families with fewer mu of land are unable to grow enough barley to live on, so they must purchase barley from others. Rilangda villagers depend on agriculture, but they also own at least 5-7 livestock such as bulls, cows, yaks and horses. Villagers can earn around 900 to 1000 RMB per year from selling livestock and 400 to 500 RMB per year from selling butter and cheese. Also, the young villagers who did not attend school earn money by doing outside jobs, such as construction jobs (30-40 RMB per day) or service jobs in restaurants and hotels (15-20 RMB per day). There is also another way to earn money for the village, which is to dig caterpillar fungus, a kind of medicinal herb. During the months of May and June the village adults go to dig fungus; each fungus can sell for 14 to 16 RMB, and the best fungus can sell for 20 to 25 RMB; each person usually can earn 3000 to 4000 RMB during the caterpillar fungus season. On average, each family can earn 4000 RMB per year. All of this money is used on food, clothes, festivities, children’s school fees, electricity, medicine and transportation.
Herding
Each family owns at least 6 or 7 livestock including bulls, cows, yaks, and horses. The animals are used to plough fields and for milking. Families can earn 900 to 1000 RMB from selling livestock. They also sell butter and cheese to earn about 400 to 500 RMB per year.
Agriculture
Rilangda villagers depend on agriculture. They plant barley, wheat, potatoes, and peas. Some families have 5-10 mu of land. Each mu of agricultural land can produce 500-600 jin of barley, wheat and peas per year. However some families have only own 1-3 mu of land, which makes their lives very difficult. These families must purchase or borrow barley from richer families.
Weather
The village is located in a high altitude region (about 4,834 m). During the summer and spring there are heavy rains, and the river becomes muddy. During winter time the river becomes covered with thick ice, so it is dangerous for villagers to fetch water. In the wintertime it is common for people to get injured from fetching water, especially older people, children and pregnant women. In 2002 there was a woman called Zhogga who was 5 months pregnant. One winter morning she went to fetch water from the river, she slipped on the ice and was injured so badly that she miscarried.
The project goals
The immediate goal of this project is to build a running water system for six households in Rilangda Village. The other 18 households already have access to running water. The overarching goal of this project is to provide safe and clean water for six families in Rilangda Village, decrease the six households’ workload so they have more time to relax like the other 18 households in Rilangda Village.
Problems
1. Heavy workloads for women and children
Fetching water and washing clothes are usually done by village women and children. Women and children must fetch water for drinking, washing clothes, and watering their gardens. The closest water source is a river, but access to river water is unreliable (see below). Families must sometimes spend time to walk 1.5 km to a spring or ask neighboring households for water. This reduces the time women have to complete other chores or have leisure time. This also reduces the time children can spend doing school work or playing games.
2. Health problems from drinking unsafe river water
Some health problems such as parasites, bacterial infections and diarrhea have been traced to drinking water from the river. In May 2004, the local doctor, Yang Xiang Pin, found that these kinds of diseases must be caused by the water. In June 2004 the village leader invited a health care official from Luhuo County to check the river that villagers were drinking. He found that the village river was polluted with bacteria from human waste and dirty things (clothes, mopes, rags…..) that villagers washed in the river. So the river water that six families now use is not safe to drink.
3. Unreliable access to water from the river
During the rainy season the six households always worry about water. After the rains the river becomes muddy for two or three days, and it is impossible to drink it during that time. The six households need to call the others (who already have the running water) to fetch water from their taps. They said: “To go to these families two or three times for fetching water is ok, but we feel shamed to fetch water from them everyday.” Sometimes families must walk 1.5 km to a spring to fetch water. During the winter time the river becomes frozen, so it becomes difficult and dangerous to fetch water.
4. Unequal distribution of running water
In January 2007, a man called Rin ‘dzin mthar Phyin from a neighboring village implemented a running water project in his village. After he finished the project he still had a little money left, so he decided to help Rilangda village. However, he did not have enough money to run taps to all of the households in Rilangda. He only had enough money to help 18 households. The villagers drew lots to determine who would receive running water. Six households were left without running water.
Benefits
1. Reduced burden of women and children
Women and children will not have to spend as much time and energy to fetch water for their families. It will be more efficient to wash clothes and water vegetables. Women will have more time to relax than before. Also, children will have more time to spend on studying and playing games.
2. Safe drinking water, reduced health problems
Health problems from drinking contaminated water will be eliminated. These six households will not need spend money to treat water-related illnesses.
3. Consistent, safe access to clean water
These six households will not need to worry about the changeable weather during spring and winter times. They will no longer need to worry about not being able to use water during the spring or winter time. Also if this project is funded then the villagers, especially old people and children, will not have to risk injury from fetching water from the river.
4. Equal distribution of water to all villagers
All households in the village will have access to water. This will reduce inequalities related to health problems, labor burdens, leisure time, and watering vegetables. The children of the six households will no longer need to spend valuable study time on fetching water.
Gender Equality
In this village most labor tasks are done by women and female children. Washing clothes and fetching water are especially seen as the duty of women. If this project is approved, it would be very helpful for those women and children. In addition, this project contributes to gender equality by including women in the planning and project implementation. Furthermore, as a woman project manager I will serve as a role model for the women and children of the village. If this project is successful it will challenge the traditionally held idea that women cannot accomplish heroic deeds.
Government Approval
The government knew that the 18 households already had the running water, and they tried several times to help the rest of the village. The problem is that they have no enough money to provide running water to the remaining households. This project would be well received by the local government, because last year a male student from Qinghai Normal University, Rin ‘dzin mThar Phyin, implemented a running water project in his nearby village. The local government, which also oversees Rilangda village, gave him full support. I asked some members of the local government, lha ‘Dzam and rDor rJe, and they gave me full permission to implement the project. I also received permission from the township leader, Chos ‘dzam, who cleared the project with the government clerk.
The steps of project
1. Ask the village leader whether the six households can use the same water system as the 18 households.(done)
2. Ask the village leader about the needs for the project.(done)
3. Receive government permission to do this project.(done)
4. Talk to the skilled workers (Yon Tan and Don ‘grum) about the payment for their work.
5. Talk to the six households about this project, and let them choose two people to be the project’s co-managers.
6. Hold a meeting with all the villagers, and ask the 18 households whether they agree to share the water system. (done)
7. Ask the price of materials in Luhuo county.(done)
8. Collect information from Rig ‘dzin mThar phyin, who implemented a running water project in a nearby village. (done)
9. Take pictures of the six families’ conditions.
10. Receive funds.
11. Ask the two co-managers when should the six families prepare tools and materials for the project.
12. Purchase materials from Luhuo county.
13. Implement the project.
14. Interview the six families’ members (both men and women).
15. Write project proposal.

Time Frame
This project will take a total of 45 days to complete. 5days, receive funds, and let the two co- managers (mKh’gYang and Jiang shi) to prepare local materials (sand and stone). 7days purchase the materials and cement bags from Luhuo County and transport them to the village; choose the family to set the water tap. 21days, the 12 unskilled workers begin to dig ditches. 6days, the skilled workers begin to place the pipes and the others will mix sand and cement for the tap boxes for each family. 3days, twelve unskilled workers are hired people from this village to cover the ditches. After the 3days, skilled and unskilled workers complete building taps for each family. Finally, take pictures of the implemented project and interview the beneficiaries.
Project Budget

Prices of materials are exact in Luhuo County in March 2008, but are subject to change. Total donor contribution in RMB =23,394 RMB
1) Fee for using water box: For taking the water from the system that 18 households are using, they said that if the 6 households took water from their water system, then each household must pay 900 RMB for them (18 households), they meaning that 5400 RMB is for their energy to dig the water system and ditch from water system to their village and the cost of things (sand, stone, metals) and the payment for the skilled and unskilled workers. I figure out it is very difficult to building a water system to only for 6 households, so I agreed with their idea. However, these six villagers are in difficult condition. In those 6 households, 2 families (Sanggen and Conggobo) are poorer than other 4 families, both families’ children were only attending primary school and now stopped, I asked the reason why they let their children stop study and they told me that they can’t pay the school fees. Now some of their children are working in restaurant and hotel to earn money for their families. The two families have no livestock and the parents are also earning money from hard works, such as structure work, caterpillar fungus and the small farm land. The other 4 families’ all children are attending school and they earn money from livestock, agriculture, and structure works. But 900rmb is a very big amount for them and they couldn’t pay 900RMB for the running water system.
Sustainability
The six households are very eager to have safe water, so I, the project manager, am sure that they will protect the water system very well. I asked a member of the water company, called Zhanhzhong, whether they would exchange parts if the system has any problems in two years. Zhangzhong said the company offers a four year guarantee for the water system. If the system has problems after the guarantee date the village leader will be responsible to find a person who can repair it, and the six households will pay the cost of repairs. During the winter time if the six households will prepare insulation to protect the taps from freezing.
Past Experience
During the 2007 winter holiday Madge volunteered as an English and Chinese teacher in Rilangda village. She taught 30 children four hours a day. In 2008 she wrote a book review called “The Mystery Monasteries in Lhasa”.
Map of the project location

This project is to hold short health training for the village women, plant trees in the wasted water reservoir, building running water system and small greenhouses for 28 households in Waku Rama Village.   Waku Rama Village, Wenduo Township, Xunhua County, Haidong Region, Qignhai Province.

The Canada Fund funded this project

Lhamotso is from Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. She graduated with an associated degree in English at Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department English Training Program in 2005. Currently she works in Shem Women’s Group and she is one of the program directors and general financial officer of Shem Women’s Group.

What? to hold short health training for the village women, plant trees in the wasted water reservoir, building running water system and small greenhouses for 28 households in Waku Rama Village.

Where? Waku Rama Village, Wenduo Township, Xunhua County, Haidong Region, Qignhai Province.

1.BENEFICIARIES

Identify the direct and indirect beneficiaries of this project. Please include numbers of each sex (male/female) and an explanation of how each type of beneficiary has benefited.

Please explain any variation (+/-) for the number of beneficiaries and include details on how many were members of minority groups.

2. LOCAL CONTRIBUTION AND PARTICIPATION

a) How were local people been involved in the design, planning, implementation and monitoring of the project? In particular, describe how women beneficiaries were involved. Describe any suggestions or feedback they made during the project that were different from the original project plan or different from the ideas of the implementing agency.

As the project beneficiaries, the local villagers fully participate in the design, planting , implementation and monitoring of the project like providing the project related information, being interviewed, attending meetings, giving ideas and thoughts, planting trees, carrying water for irrigating trees, the project committee have supervised the process of implementing the project, etc. In Waku Rarma village, they can not get very enough harvest from very poor and limited fields, so most village men go out for earning money to support their families, and only women, elders, children and some men stayed at home. In this case, all the women have fully participated from the beginning the project until now included making suggestions, attending meetings, working and etc.

b) What specific skills did they acquire from their involvement?

Since the villagers already have certain experiences with planting trees and building running water system in other villages, so they did not learn any specific skills so far but their knowledge towards planting trees are surely improved. For the village women, they should get very good ideas about what they should do and should not during pregnancy and so on.

c) Did local government made any contribution?

So far, the local government has not made any contribution financially but they gave full permission to proceed the project and assisted the local villagers and the project manager to get the formal receipts (Fapiao) because some sellers required a local government stamp in order to give formal receipts (Fapiao).

d) How has the project helped to develop the local community’s problem solving capacity? I.e. how are they more able to solve the community’s problems?

As I mentioned several times, this village did not have community sense before this project at all, everybody just tries their best to improve their own living condition; people did not come to the village meeting and participate in any village’s affairs. By involving and participating in this project, most people do get some community sense, they all come together to solve the problems which they have met during in the process of implementing the project; the villagers attend all the meetings, share their ideas and give suggestions and make comments.

3. UNEXPECTED EVENTS/CHALLENGES OVERCOME/LESSONS LEARNED

Outline any positive or negative events that have had an impact upon the project; e.g. delays, increased number of beneficiaries, matching funds form government, etc.; challenges and how they were addressed, and lessons learned in the process. This is relatively a big integrated project which contains four different activities like health training, planting trees, build running water system and greenhouses for almost one year. As the project manager, Lhamotso has not encountered any serious or big challenges but small problems can not be inevitable and unexpected. Firstly, Not familiar with the project location and the villagers lead to no trust between the project manager and the project beneficiaries: since the project manager, Lhamotso me, I am not from the project location and very new to the village which made me difficult to handle the unexpected problems like the villagers did not believe me as a outsider and stranger to help them to get drinkable and clean water, health training, plant trees and build greenhouses for them. Even I tried to explain many times they still did not trust me totally until the funds arrived and we actually started to do the different activities. At the same time, it is very tough to explain to the positive impacts of being implemented this project because this is the first project that this village ever have so the villagers did not have any ideas about the project and so on. Secondly, Lack of experiences with the big integrated project: planting trees and buying mental fence would be the main challenges during implementation of the entire project. It was bit late to plant trees because the period for planting trees is almost over but we could not find a seedling nursery to buy saplings for a reasonable price; and also it was much more difficult to purchase metal fence around Xining City. All these kinds of problems occurred but I could not deal with it either the villagers. So I asked my father to help me with buying saplings and mental fence because he has many experiences with those work, finally all the problems solved one by one and we bought a very good quality of mental fence in Huangyuan County and relatively cheap saplings in Huzhu County. This is the first time I have implemented a planting tree project, and I don’t have any ideas that planting trees have some conditions like when is the appropriate season to plant, which kind of trees can grow in certain place and if the saplings have leaves then they will not grow. For the mental fence, again I do not know which mental fence is better for settling around the village forest in order to protect from animals. All those information really stuck me at some point, but all these unknown information are mostly provided by my father, the villagers and the people who are working in their own respective companies. Thirdly, Lack of solidarity of the whole village makes the project bit difficult to carry on smoothly; there were different opinions and ideas while we needed to make decision. People preferred to receive everything from the donor and they seemed did not like to work for their own welfare and for the whole village. Fourthly, the project manager could not get the funds from Qinghai Minority Charitable Foundation on time, and they only gave the funds (70%) partially to the project manager. Because of the postponed funds, the project had to delay for some period of time which did not cause huge negative impact on the project, but due to delayed funds, we could not start the project especially plant trees since plant trees need to depend on the right season, as a result we almost did not get the saplings to plant in the village as we planned in the original project proposal. At last, the villagers did not have the sense of community and unit. At the beginning, the villagers did not participate in the village meetings which were about the project. Some villagers did not participate in public working like attending women’s health training, planting trees, carrying water to irrigate the trees and digging ditches for running water system. Later one of the project committee Pama Dorjie, who is from Waku Rarma village, very often spoke about the community sense, the project and work together to accomplish very successful project and so on. Gradually the villagers seem get some ideas and the villagers have fully participated in any kinds of community work especially the village women.

4. MONITORING & EVALUATION

a) Indicate what milestones have been reached (if not all have been reached explain)

1. i. three days short training on women’s health to the village women in Waku Rarma village
2. ii. plant trees in the unused and waste water reservoir nearby Waku Rarma village
3. iii. build a running water system for Waku Rarma village
4. iv. build 26 greenhouses for 26 households in Waku Rarma villages

b) What data were tracked during project implementation and what will be tracked in future?

During the project implementation, the project manger did not tracked with any specific data, after discussing with some local villagers, we will track with some numbers like the times of washing clothes after they have sufficient water in their yards and wash and clean their hair; the local women’s working hours and also we can observe people’s living condition like having vegetables.

c) What measures were taken to ensure quality control? E.g. pre- and post-training exams, materials testing, follow up interviews, etc.

Up to date, the intermediary organization has not monitored the progress of the project but they strongly has requested every single formal receipt (Fapiao) which was used to purchase any project related materials. However they have not monitored the process of the project, the project manager, Lhamotso provided the photos and project data during their annual board meeting.

d) What evidence suggests that the project has been successful and has achieved its purposes?

A female Tibetan doctor was invited and gave basic women’s health training for three days, in total 15 hours; the villagers purchased 30,000 saplings and planted them in the village’s unused water reservoir; the villagers have very reliable and clean water to drink after building running water system in the village and 26 households built small greenhouses next to their houses for planting some green vegetables.

e) Describe what methods were used to monitor and evaluate the project results (include relevant dates, names etc. to explain monitoring process). Describe how the project results were identified and documented.

1) On April 4^th to 6^th 2009, the project manager (Lhamotso) and co-project manager (Pama Dorjie) have visited the project site village and supervised and monitored the whole process of the heath training, for instance, Lhamotso and Pama Dorjie participated in the training, made suggestions about the training and encouraged the village women to participate actively in the training. 2) On April 13^th 2009, Lhamotso bought mental fence, transported to Waku Rarma village and kept in the village Mani Temple. 3) On May 2^nd 2009, Lhamotso and Pama Dorjie bought water pipes. Pama Dorjie was responsible to supervise the transportation of the materials and at the same time he took photos and asked the villagers about the panting trees. 4) On June 3^rd 2009, Pama Dorjie visited the project site to supervise the process of the building running water system to the village. 5) On July 25^th 2009, Lhamotso and Pama Dorjie went to project site to monitor the process of building running water system. 6) On October 20^th 2009, Lhamotso and Pama Dorjie purchased cinder blocks, cement and red bricks and transported to the village. 7) On November 7^th 2009, Lhamotso and Pama Dorjie purchased plastic sheet for covering the roof of the greenhouses. 8) On December 5^th 2009, Lhamotso went to the project site to monitor the progress of building greenhouses as the last activity of the project. 9) On December 19^th, Lhamotso and Pama Dorjie visited the project site for final evaluation of the project. 10）On March 18^th 2010, received partial fund from Qinghai Minority Charity Fund as the intermediate organization. 11）On March 19^th 2010, the project manager, Lhamotso and a village man went to see the saplings in Huzhu Shuangshu Tree Nursery to check the saplings and the price. 12）On March 26^th 2010, the project manager, Lhamotso and the village leader and one of village man went to the same Tree Nursery to book the amount of saplings and decide the price for each sapling and transportation fee for transporting the saplings to the project location. 13）On April 2^nd –4^th 2010, the samplings were loaded on the two trucks and transported to the project location and the villagers unloaded all the saplings for the almost entire night. 14）From April 6^th 2010, the villagers started to plant saplings. 15）On April 8^th 2010, the project manager, Lhamotso visited the project village supervised how was planting saplings going on, interviewed the project beneficiary and took photos for the report. 16）On April 17^th 2010, the villagers completed to plant the trees. 16) At the beginning of January 2011, Shem Women’s Group as a managing group will go to the project site to evaluate the project by asking prepared questions.

f) What monitoring was performed by the Intermediary? E.g. site visits, telephone calls, document reviews, etc.

The intermediary organization has not visited the project site, but we frequently reported the process of the project by providing photos, receipts, document reviews and oral report to the responsible person in the intermediary organization.

5. WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION & IMPACT

a) Describe how women have been involved in the project so far and what impact the project is having on them.

The women especially the women who are in the project management committee are very much involved in planning, designing, managing and implementing the project. At same time other village women have participated all the activities like health training, planting and watering saplings and digging ditches for burying water pipes. Regarding to the health training for the village women, it is very effective and has very positive impact on them. For example, they understand that this project is largely benefited women in terms of reducing heavy workload by building running water system, planting trees and build greenhouses; and this leads to the women is fully participating in every single activity of the project. On the other hand, the women can share and exchange openly what they have encountered being a village woman.

b) What targets were reached for women’s involvement? E.g. number on committee, beneficiary numbers, skills acquisition, etc.

There are two women are on the project management committee and those two members of the committee have very positive impact on the other village women and set the role models for the rest of the village women in Waku Rarma village by fully get involved the every process of the project. Moreover, around 58 village women can get befits from this project especially the women’s health training and building running water system to install water tap in each household. As a female project manager, I really do get very valuable experiences and skills like communication, bargaining with the sellers and lots of knowledge of planting tress and constructing running water system.

c) How did women respond to this level of involvement?

By implementing this project, the women has involved in the whole process of this project, especially labour work like planting trees, carrying water for irrigating the planted trees, digging ditches for burying water pipe for building running water system and building greenhouse. And also they actively participated three days training every day. For instance, those two female project committee members strongly encouraged other village women to attend the training punctually. At this level, they are very much enthusiastic about their involvement in this project. When the male project committee members presented at the same time, they were passive and constantly stated that the men knew better than them. They always tried to push their rights for making decisions, giving suggestions and comments to the men, and mostly agreed the men’s decision. At this level, the women were passive and they had no self-confidence make big decisions or say something since this is probably the first time the women really got involved in such a big village’s affair like implementing the project for almost entire year.

d) Identify measures that will be taken to ensure female beneficiaries’ continued enjoyment of the benefits of the project.

It is not necessary to take any measures to ensure female beneficiaries’ involvement in all aspects of the project because all the village women are fully and very actively engaging, involving and participating in every single activity of the project and they will surely get involve in the continued activity of the project since most of the village men are doing work outside of the village in order to earn family cash income.

6. ENVIRONMENT

a) What effect upon the natural environment, both positive and negative (if any) has the project had so far?

There are not any negative effect upon the natural environment, but planting saplings really bring positive impact upon the natural environment like beautify the village surroundings and because of planting trees, more plants can be grown in the unused water reservoir.

b) How any negative impacts have been addressed? By implementing this project, there is no any negative effect upon the natural environment.

c) What future impacts are expected? In the future, there would be positive impact upon the village environment, like trees can be a huge resource to beautify the village surrounding, and different plants and grass can be grown well because water can be sufficient to irrigate the trees and grass more often.

7. AGREEMENT POSTING

a) Describe how the Agreement, including detailed budget was posted publicly (i.e. location), how long it was posted for, and how it was explained/translated into local languages, (if this was required)

In Waku Rarma village, the most villagers can only read Tibetan but do not understand the content, so Pama Dorjie translated the contract into Tibetan and we posted the contract and detailed breakdown actual cost in the Mani temple on July 12^th 2009. Later Pama Dorjie explained all the content of contract one by one as well as the detailed actual cost during the meeting.

b) How did local people respond to the public posting of the Agreement and detailed budget?

Local people are very satisfied with posting the contract in Tibetan and detailed actual cost and most of them expressed this was the good way to maintain the villagers’ active participation in the project and trust between the project manager, the project management committee and the villagers.

8. KEY PROJECT RESULTS AND OUTCOMES

a) Was the project a success? Why?

The project was a success because all the activities are accomplished, all the village women attended the training, 90% of the saplings are grown well, the villagers have sufficient water to drink and the greenhouses are completely finished to implement.

b) What did the project accomplish? (Note: this relates to results, not simply activities or outputs.) The project accomplished the following four things:

1) By the village women’s active participation in the health training, the village women are very much inspired and really get involved in the process of implementing the project. At the same time, the village women eagerly like to share their ideas and thoughts regarding to gender and women’s health. 2) Most of the saplings are grown very well and it would be the village forest for the villagers can use the tree branches for fuel in the future and also the village forest would be a nice place to hold village picnic and other village activities. 3) After building running water system, the villagers have clean water to drink and the women do not need spend any time on carrying water, in this case the women’s workload is greatly reduced. The villagers can also water the trees and the greenhouses. 4) The villagers can plant some green vegetables in the greenhouses and can feed themselves.

c) What changes resulted? Discuss how the project has affected the community.

As I mentioned several times, this village did not have community sense before this project at all, everybody just tries their best to improve their own living condition; people did not come to the village meeting and participate in any village’s affairs. By involving and participating in this project, most people do get some community sense, they all come together to solve the problems which they have met during in the process of implementing the project; the villagers attend all the meetings, share their ideas and give suggestions and make comments. Therefore, this could be a very positive change within the village because of implementing this project. If the whole community has formed a firm solidarity then it would be good for the village’s future development and the villagers might concern about the problems of the village.

d) How the change has been measured (surveys?)

This change has been measured by randomly talked to some villagers and observed the behaviours of the villages, especially many conversations with the co-project manager Pama Dorjie since he is from Waku Rarma village, the project site.

e) What future results are expected as a result of the project?

As stated in the original project proposal, It is expected that the project will have wide-ranging and a profoundly positive impact upon the local community: economically, household income is expected to rise somewhat as a result of the time saved collecting water being reinvested in agriculture, animal care and potentially paid labour activities. Health is also expected to improve as people will be able to drink and bathe using safe water throughout the year. Similarly, households will be able to wash clothes, dishes and provide water to animals, vegetable gardens and trees. Currently clothes are only washed every few months in winter and bathing in winter usually only occurs sporadically. The elderly in the village will also benefit from easy access to fresh water for tea and cooking, even when family members are away from the village. Water combined with small greenhouses will allow villagers to improve their diets with vegetables such as cabbages, leek, carrot, garlic, peppers and the like, thus strengthening their health though provision of vitamins and micronutrients. Villagers will be able to conserve time and energy while reducing deforestation and erosion through the maintenance of the village forest, thereby providing them with a valuable source of fuel and timber.

9. EXAMPLES/CASE STUDIES

Please provide some typical examples or case studies of the impact of the project on beneficiaries; i.e. how has the project changed their lives in some way? Include photos of interviewees if possible.

She is one of the project beneficiaries and her name is Lhalungyi. In this photo, she was participating in planting trees. She is thirty-seven year old village woman and there are seven people in her family. Her family is mainly depended on working in the fields, digging caterpillar fungus and working as migrant worker like building roads and houses. On April 13^th 2010, the project manager, Lhamotso briefly interviewed her about the impacts of this project. She mentioned several times that she was so happy that they can plant trees in this wasted land and even her generation may not get much benefits from those trees but she was pretty sure that her next generation will get benefits from those trees like collect branches of the trees as fuel. She said that she as a woman had very heavy workload like collecting fuel, carrying water, doing all the housework, taking care of children and so on, so the woman in this village shouldered very heavy work, especially about carrying water, she stated that during busy period like harvest time, the women needed to carry water from valley for more than three times in per day, in this case carrying water was a big task for them. However, because of this project, they did not need to carry water any more and they could wash their clothes whenever they were free from working, and she said jokingly that she became lazy because she did not need to carry water any more.

10. PROJECT MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

a) How was the project management committee selected?

Two years ago, the project manager, I had a meeting with the villagers, talked about the urgent problem and consent to propose a running water project for their village. During the meeting some village men and women talked very actively and passionately and also during interviewing and talking to them individually, I realized those people are very suitable to be the project committee at the same time the rest villagers agreed that those people can help the rest of the villagers to complete the project very well. In this way, the project management committee was selected without any objections.

b) How were major decisions made?

People have different ideas and disputes towards a very small things as well as it takes time therefore the major decisions in this project are mostly made by the project manager and the project management committee. One more reason is that the project management committee members are from this village so they can more or less represent the villagers’ thoughts and opinions.

The process of making decision:

1. Meeting with the villagers and talked about the issue.
2. Talked about the positive and negative aspect of making certain decisions
3. Analyze the feasibility of the decision, the villagers’ thoughts, ideas, suggestions and comments.
4. Make the most reasonable decision with the project manager and the project management committee.

c) How were women, not only organizational leaders but also local women such as farmers, included in the project management process and encouraged to participate and provide their input?

In Waku Rarma village, they can not get very enough harvest from very poor and limited fields, so most village men go out for earning money to support their families, and only women, elders, children and some men stayed at home. In this case, all the women have fully participated from the beginning the project until now included making suggestions, attending meetings, working and etc.

KEY PROJECT IMPLEMENTERS

List the key project implementers’ names, positions and sex.

11. PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY

a) Describe what measures have been taken to continue the project’s activities and/or outputs in the future.

The villagers as the project beneficiaries themselves collected 50rbm from each household to purchase the necessary material if the running water system is broken in the future. At the same time, the villagers will take turn to look after the village forest to protect the trees from stealing by the nearby villagers. Since each family has their own small greenhouse and they will be responsible for their own greenhouse.

b) Identify potential challenges to sustainability such as recurrent and maintenance costs, personnel change or other potential risks.

As the villagers mentioned that there may have some potential challenges to sustainability such as natural disaster flood which may destroy the parts of the running water system. If the flood happens then the villagers will repay the running water system by themselves. Regarding the trees, as I mentioned in the last section, the local villagers concern that the trees most likely will be stolen by other villagers so three families as a group take turn to take care the forest in each month. If the trees or the mental fence are stolen or broken then those families need to repay them without any excuses. The project committee will responsible fro making some rules for that.

c) How will the program continue after Canadian support ceases?

Since this is the first development project in Waku Rarma Village and they have not implemented any government projects either. However if there is a chance then the villager will organize to have a very local and simple health training if the financial condition is positive and also they strongly eager to collect some money from each family and buy more trees to plant in the forest trees in order to expand the village forest.

d) What arrangements have been made for the training of community members to be responsible for the control and maintenance of the program, if applicable? (E.g. does the community possess the technical skills for maintenance and repair of equipment and who will be responsible for follow-up and/or maintenance?

Actually the villagers themselves are very capable with repairing the running water system, greenhouses and take care of the village trees. Therefore it is not necessary to have training for the villagers in order to learn skills of maintain the project outputs.

12. PROJECT FINANCE

Notes: after all the activities of the project are completely done, there still 3,053.68rmb left from the funds, and the donor requests to send back to them.

13. PUBLIC AWARENESS & CANADIAN IDENTITY

a) What measures were taken to inform the beneficiaries and the general public of the contribution of the Canada Fund and the commitment made by the implementing agency?

1) having meeting with the project beneficiaries and introducing the donor and the project 2) explain the contract 3) randomly talk to the villagers while mentoring the project 4) displaying the plaque which is written about the project name and the donor

b) How has the contribution been recognized at the project site?

1) The representatives from Canada Fund have visited the project site and talked to the project beneficiaries twice. 2) The project manager made clearly announcement to the villagers about the Canada Fund’s contribution to this project. 3) Randomly talked to the villagers about the donor. 4) Paste the contract on the wall of the public place, the village Mani Hall.

c) List all media coverage of the project. Provide copies of any print media.

1) Posted on the managing group, Shem Women’s Group’s website (www.shemgroup.org)

Appendix: some photos of the project

All the village women, who have participated the women’s health training, are in the photo with the project manager and doctor, Wuxiuji; and they are very happy to receive all kinds of hygiene related stuff like the period paper, tooth brush, washing powder and etc.

The both village women and men are carrying water to irrigate the saplings before building running water system.

The workers are uploading the metal fence in the truck in Huangyuan County.

The cement for building water box is stored in the village’s public house, Mani Hall.

Some of the water pipes are kept in the Mani Hall. The saplings are become green tress in water reservoir. The villagers have sufficient water to drink and also do some constructions work. The villagers are removing the cinder blocks from the truck. The project manager is comparing the quality of the plastic sheet which is used to cover the roof of the greenhouse. This is well-built a greenhouse in one of the project beneficiaries’ yard. This is the plaque with three languages in it.

Original Project Proposal

Project location
This project will be located on a mountain, Waku Rarma Village, Wen Duo Tibetan Township, Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Haidong Region, Qinghai Province. Waku Rarma Village is the southwestern part of the Xunhua County and is approximately 217 km from the provincial capital, Xining.

Background
All families in Waku Rarma Village historically moved from a neighboring village called Waku Village, both of which are located at the bottom of the same mountain.. There were lots of families in Waku Village with very insufficient farmlands, so the local people did not have enough land. This meant they did not have enough food. Therefore, in 1973, all the new families in Waku Village were sent to a new place, which was on the top of the mountain. Those new families composed a new village called Waku Rarma Village. As a result Waku Rarma is economically and materially very poor which is sated in the following sections.

Population
In Waku Rarma Village, all the villagers are Tibetan. There are 30 households consisting of 140 residents in the target village. There are 58 women, 55 men and 27 children.

Education
The majority people in Waku Rarma Village are illiterate. Currently there is only one college student, a girl, and one middle school student who is a boy. Also, there are two girls and eleven boys attending Jieku primary school in neighboring Waku Village. In total, there are only 15 children attending school.

There are several reasons for such inadequate education conditions. Firstly, college school tuition is about 3,000 rmb to 5,000 rmb per semester. For a high school student, the school expense is over 1,000 rmb. In this case the local people cannot afford to send their children to continue further studies in high school or college. That is why there are very few students who have education higher than the middle school level. Secondly, the neighboring primary school is 5 km away from Waku Rarma Village, which means that the little children are unable to go to school without being accompanied by adults. In addition, there is a river with no bridge between the neighboring school and Waku Rarma Village. When there are heavy rains the river becomes very strong and the students need to walk in the river with their bare feet no matter if it is summer or winter. An additional reason for the poor education conditions is that the children have lots of housework to do such as carrying water, clean houses, feed pigs, and work on the fields and herd livestock. All of these factors cause the overall education level in Waku Rarma Village to be very low.

Cash income
People who live in Waku Rarma Village really have very difficult economic conditions.

Traditionally, Waku Rarma Village is an agricultural village. They seldom make money from the livestock. Therefore, the villagers earn money by the following two ways: as a migrant construction workers and digging caterpillar fungus every April and May in other places, some as far as 500 kilometers to 700 kilometers. Caterpillar fungus is a kind of medicinal herb, which mostly grows on high mountains. Several years ago the local villagers could make a fair amount of money from digging caterpillar fungus. Specifically, most villagers could earn over 1,500 rmb within two months of digging caterpillar fungus after they paid about 100 rmb to 200 rmb tax for use the pastureland. But recently, to protect the ecological balance, a new law was passed that forbids people from digging for caterpillar fungus.

As a result, people do not want to take a risk to go to such far places to dig caterpillar fungus without knowing whether it will be worthwhile. Because of this fact, more and more local people are working as migrant construction workers in Xunhua County or Xining City. Basically the villagers build roads because they do not have any skills to do other work that could be a good source of making money. By building roads, they can make around 500 rmb to 600 rmb each month, and usually they are able to work about three months. In total they can make about 1,800 rmb.

Villagers spend on average between 600-700 rmb on purchasing tea, salt, other daily necessities, fertilizer and clothes. People spend about 300-400 rmb per year buying fertilizer in the form of urea and amino acids. Each 100g bag of urea is 95 rmb and each 100 g bag of amino acid is 150 rmb. In addition, few families need to pay averagely 500 rmb for school tuition fee. Most families need to spend about 800 rmb on buying food because their lands cannot produce enough food. According to the villagers, 95% of families have to take out loans because they need to buy food and support their children. It is often very difficult for people to take out loans from the local banks because they are poor and the banks do not trust that they can pay back their loans when the time of the loans are due.

Agriculture
Waku Rarma Village is the smallest village within a bigger village, Waku. Without access to irrigation, the villagers are dependent on nature for good harvests. If there is a lot of rain that means they will have a prosperous harvest. However, the fact is that in recent years, there have been fewer rains, which has made the people’s lives even harder. Another reason for getting bad harvests from is that many villagers do not have money to afford fertilizer in the form of urea and amino acids. People grow barely, wheat, rapeseed, beans and potatoes on their fields; usually, 1 mu of land can only produce between 300 and 400 jin of wheat. Even though Waku Rarma Village is an agricultural village, villagers still have to buy a portion of food every year.

Herding
Waku Rarma Village is not a nomadic village therefore, on average, each household has 2 donkeys, 1 cow and 20 sheep. Even though the local villagers can not make money from livestock they usually use donkeys to transport grass and grain during the harvest time. Cows and sheep are used for milking and meat for themselves. As a result, the local people have no way to make any money from livestock.

Project Objectives
The project aims to address several of the major causes of illness and environmental damage in the village, namely the lack of potable water, limited supply of local wood for heating and cooking, lack of vegetables and resulting nutritional deficiencies, and limited local knowledge of health and hygiene related concepts. The lack of local potable water and fuel supply particularly affect local women and children’s lives as they are typically responsible for the regular collection of water and fuel for household needs from distant sources.

2. Beneficiaries:
Direct:
• 140 villagers including 58 women, 55 men and 27 children will benefit from four-season access to potable water, improved hygiene and better nutrition
• Provision of greenhouse materials will allow villagers to grow vegetables and saplings for their own use and for sale
• Establishment of a village forest will provide villagers with a long-term solution to their current reliance on dung and unsustainable forest practices; the forest will directly and indirectly reduce erosion and provide a long-term source of renewable energy, fruit, and building materials, benefiting affected households and the local environment more generally

Indirect:
While the entire population of Waka Rarma Village will benefit directly from core activities, villagers in the surrounding area will also indirectly benefit from knowledge and skills shared and possibly from products produced by direct beneficiaries.

3. Expected Results (Outputs):
• A reliable fully functioning water system that delivers water to villagers’ homes throughout the year
• Basic health training, including hygiene and women’s reproductive health, provided to villagers to complement access to water
• Greenhouses constructed to allow villagers to develop kitchen gardens, thereby extending the short growing season
• Fast growing and fruit producing trees planted to supplement fuel supply, reduce erosion and provide fruit for food and income

Expected Results (Outcomes):
It is expected that the project will have wide-ranging and a profoundly positive impact upon the local community: economically, household income is expected to rise somewhat as a result of the time saved collecting water being reinvested in agriculture, animal care and potentially paid labour activities. Health is also expected to improve as people will be able to drink and bathe using safe water throughout the year. Similarly, households will be able to wash clothes, dishes and provide water to animals, vegetable gardens and trees. Currently clothes are only washed every few months in winter and bathing in winter usually only occurs sporadically. Educationally, the burden on children, notably girls, will be reduced, so it is possible that school attendance rates might increase, as they will no longer be obliged to stay home to collect water for their families’ needs. The elderly in the village will also benefit from easy access to fresh water for tea and cooking, even when family members are away from the village.
Water combined with small greenhouses will allow villagers to improve their diets with vegetables such as cabbages, leek, carrot, garlic, peppers and the like, thus strengthening their health though provision of vitamins and micronutrients.
Villagers will be able to conserve time and energy while reducing deforestation and erosion through the maintenance of the village forest, thereby providing them with a valuable source of fuel and timber.

4. Implications for Women:
The economic benefits that will be appreciated by women are perhaps the most substantial; as the many hours formerly spent collecting water can be put to other, more profitable uses. Moreover, the project could increase the likelihood that girls will be able to attend school and ultimately find better jobs. Women will also benefit directly from a women’s health training to be provided by a female Tibetan doctor from the Qinghai Tibetan Hospital. Training topics will include women’s reproductive health, basic hygiene and disease prevention.
That the project is designed by a woman and will be managed and implemented by village women is also quite progressive, by local standards. The role of the project manager also sends an important message to local women and young girls: that woman and girls can accomplish very useful and important projects and play an important role in their communities.
In parallel, the project managers will acquire valuable new skills and experience dealing with local government and suppliers, and will be able to use these skills to implement projects in the future.

Implications for the Environment:
While initially digging the trenches for pipes and constructing the water reservoir will slightly alter the environment, this will be temporary and will be mitigated by using the least damaging methods (e.g. conserving and replacing topsoil, turf and ground cover). Villagers will plant trees to further improve the local microclimate and encourage water filtration (increase surface permeability and decrease erosion). Villagers will also establish a village forest and will plant trees in their village providing an additional source of leaf litter (fodder) for animals, thus reducing the need to allow animals to roam the village grazing on vegetation.
Currently villagers must spend a great deal of time collecting wood in the winter, usually after dark since wood collection has been banned by the government (without providing alternate means) and the forests are guarded. Cow dung is also collected, which requires time, energy and denies the land of the nutrient value of the manure. The establishment of the village forest will provide a long-term solution to this problem and will have additional benefits as villagers will no longer need to rely on burning manure, an inefficient and unhealthy practice due to the smoke and hygiene issues.
Access to a modest amount of water coupled with greenhouses will allow the villagers to continue to grow trees for local planting (using the greenhouses as nurseries following training), with individual households responsible for their own section of trees within the forest. The village forestry component will contribute to a reduction of the amount of trees currently harvested elsewhere and represents the best, most viable long-term strategy for carbon-neutral energy self-sufficiency.

Implementation Plan and Method

Detailed Budget

Monitoring
Throughout project implementation the project manager (PM) will monitor the quality and progress of the project work; the PM will be supported by other Shem staff and by the five member project committee. Following project completion, the PM and Shem staff will inspect project outputs and interview beneficiaries to determine the effectiveness of the project and obtain lessons learned for future projects.In terms of impact level assessment, the evaluation (to take place several months after completion of the core project activities), will focus on the impact of the project on villagers; e.g. changes in work load and time use for women and children, changes in hygiene-related habits such as hand-washing, changes in diet, income and fuel use. Oral interviews will be corroborated by in situ observation.

Sustainability
Project sustainability will be assured by the direct involvement of villagers – notably women – in the design and implementation of the project and their later role as managers of all project outputs. The use of high quality building materials (pre-tested on other projects) and active monitoring during construction will ensure that construction adheres to the highest standards. Provision of basic tools and training will allow villagers to conduct annual maintenance and make repairs as needed. The collection of a modest annual water maintenance fee to be managed by the water committee will provide the necessary financial means for any repairs that may be required.

Greenhouses and forest sections will be maintained by individual households, and thus will be looked after by family members and protected from damage (from weather, livestock, children, etc.) It is hoped that some revenue will be earned through the sale of fruit and vegetables, some of which will be devoted to upkeep of the greenhouses.

Here are some photos of the villagers who will benefit from this project

Villagers join in a meeting to discuss problems.

This is one of the beneficiaries (with a piece of red cloth in left hand) who has two children, one is standing beside her and other one is a middle school student. She told us that one of her elder son’s was almost blinded because she carried water when she was pregnan. Therefore, her son cannot see very well now and she truly wishes for a running water system.

Her name is Lhamojyi (b.1967) and there are five people in her family. She has three children and one of the children is attending primary school, which is 5 km away. She mentioned that water is their most urgent and serious problem in Waku Rarma Village. In the village, if you borrow one bucket of water from another family, afterwards you have to give back one bucket of water. It seems very strange to pay water back but their water condition is really poor. She said a common saying in her village about how precious water is: “You can ask for oil, but not for water.”

Nyimatashixi (b.1971,) who is wearing a yellow jacket, is another beneficiary of this project. Originally there were four people in his family but unfortunately his elder daughter was very sick in the spring 2007and they did not have money to take her to see the doctor. As a result, his elder daughter died and now his wife is sick. He told us that his family is in a very bad condition now. He hopes that this water project will really bring lot of extra time for all the villagers and solve water problem, and they will have enough water everyday.

Additional information

Past experience of doing development projects

Lhamotso (Lily), the project manager, has already successfully completed five small-scale development projects.

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

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

Moreover, Lhamotso completed a greenhouse project last October, funded by the Australian Embassy. Now the project is completely and successfully finished. The whole project cost about 60,000 rmb, not including the local contribution.

In addition, Lhamotso completed a solar cooker project in December of 2006, funded by The Shambala Connection. The whole project cost about 14,300 rmb, not including the local contribution. In 2007, Lhamotso also completed a village clinic project proposal for Huoluoshi Gongma village.

The map of the project location

To build a running water system for Walo Village and Yajiong Village, in order to supply clean water for Walo and Yajiong Villages to reduce the villager’s burden, and increase enrollment of school children and improve their living condition.

Youth Group from Vienna funded this project

Tashi Hlamo is from Jialaxi Township, Xinlong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. She graduated from Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department English Training Program in January of 2008, and currently she is working for Shem Women’s Group in Xining City, Qinghai Province.

What? Build a running water system for Walo Village, Yajiong Village and Nuri Village to supply clean water for the villagers, to reduce their burden, increase enrollment of school children and improve their living conditions.

Where? Walo, Yajiong and Nuri villages are located in Jialaxi Township, Xinlong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province

Photos of project implementation

The villagers are loading the water pipes into the tractor; the villagers transported five full tractors of water pipes to the villages.

In this picture, the village men are carrying cement bags on their backs to one of the families for keeping and the women are using wooden baskets to carry the cement. During the daytime, all the villagers dig ditches and during nighttime they transport materials such as cement. They work hard and fast because the winter is coming soon.

This is a part of a ditch the villagers dug.

The project manager is visiting the ditches with the villagers. This picture shows the bags of bread and tea the villagers carry on their backs to save time when they dig ditches. They work hard, and only return home at night.

The village women dug the water box for storing water for Walo Village while the village men transported the water pipes. In this photo, the project committee Chele is measuring the hole with a stick and telling the villagers that they still need to make it much bigger and deeper.

Each household in Walo and Yajiong villages has water taps in their yard. The woman in the picture is from Walo village and she is fetching water.

The woman in the picture is from Yajiong Village and she is happily washing clothes under the convenient water tap in winter. The villagers use pieces of warm cloth to cover the spigots to keeping it warm to prevent it from freezing at night.

Project summary

Project title: Water Project for Walo,Yajiong and Nuri villages

Project goals: The immediate goal of the project is to build a running water system for Walo, Yajiong and Nuri villages, in Jialaxi Township, Xinlong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The overarching goal of the project is to supply clean water for Walo and Yajiong villages to reduce the villagers’ burdens, increase enrollment of school children and improve their living conditions.

Project location: The project is located in Walo and Yajiong and Nuri Villages. Walo Village is about 1 km away from Yajiong Village on the same mountain slope, and the three villages are in Jialaxi Township, Xinlong (Nyarong) County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The villages are about 18 km from Xinlong county town; this is about 700 km from Chengdu City, the capital of Sichuan Province.

Total project beneficiaries: This project directly benefits 56 people from Walo Village, 13 people from Yajiong Village and 31 people from Nuri Village. In total, about 100 people benefit from the project.

Implementing organization/individual: Tashi Hlamo (project manager), Chele and Duoke (the village leaders for this year in Walo and Yajiong villages), A qu (from Nuri village), and Shem Women’s Group.

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funding ¾ source, amount, and date received:

Tashi Hlamo received 51,244.40 RMB from Shem Women’s Group on October 21^st, 2009, and will receive 12,811.10 RMB after the project manager implements the project successfully.

Details of project activities

1.      Discussed with the villagers why the village needs water and collected information for the project.

2.      Visited the water spring to see whether it is big enough for all the villages.

3.      Discussed the project’s needs with Sangjia (who is more knowledgeable about the water project than other people in the villages) and determined what kinds of materials we need.

4.      Contacted the firm’s leader to get specifications and prices for the water pipe.

5.      Asked the local government leader, Banggeng Duoji, to get permission for the project.

6.      Decided what labor the villagers could complete, i.e. digging ditches and burying pipes.

7.      Took pictures for the project.

8.      Wrote proposal.

9.      Received funds.

10.  Met with the villagers to decide the starting date of the project.

11.  Invited a skilled worker from the hydroelectric board in the county town to measure the distances from the villages to the springs and designed it     again.

12.  Bought the water pipes, cement, sand and gravel and transported them to the village.

13.  Dug the ditches and buried the pipes in the ditch.

14.  The neighbor five families of Walo and Yajiong villages had a meeting and started the water project.

15.  Purchased the water pipes and dug ditches together.

16.  Had meeting with the villagers and interviewed the village men, women and children about the project and took photos.

17.  Completed the final report with all pictures and receipts for implementing the project.

Project finance

*: Explanation: 8,848.75 RMB was left from the donor contribution of the project. We originally planned to build water boxes for each household besides the water taps in Walo and Yajiong villages for winter time, but the skilled worker from the hydroelectric board said it is not necessary to build water boxes for the villages because the water is from a steep mountain, in addition, the villages and the spring are located on the sunny side. Ultimately, the villagers did not need to build water boxes for each family, so we saved 8,848.75 RMB.

Helped another five households with the rest money from the project:Originally we planned to do a water project for only Walo and Yajiong village but as we mentioned above, we had 8,848.75 RMB left from the project. Therefore the project manager decided to add five more families to the project. The five households are also living on the same mountain slope as Walo and Yajiong and their life style and living condition are exactly the same as Walo and Yajiong’s. The five households are in Nuri Village and they also had the same water problem as the two villages. Six bags of cement were left from the project of Walo and Yajoing. So the project manager used the rest of the money and also collected 1,650 RMB from the local people to buy water pipes for the five households and also used the six bags of cement for building a water box. You can see the implementation of project for the five households follow:

Two women and one old man are cooking food for the villagers who are digging the ditch.

The five families finished digging the ditch and they are putting the water pipe in the ditch.

Water was brought into the middle of the village from a spring above them. At the moment, the villagers are using two big gas cans like in the picture instead of the water box till this spring.

The project manager is checking the water. Behind her is the water box which was built in middle of the village with the six bags of cement which were left from the project of Walo and Yajiong villages. The villagers did not take wooden boards yet because winter was coming soon when they finished building it and they are going to take wooden boards to use the water box starting this spring.

Delays, Difficulties and Lessons Learnt
Delays
After implementing the project, the project manager needed to see the project and interview the local beneficiaries. However, the project manager decided to delay that phase for about a month so she could use one stone to kill two birds and interview the villagers when she went home for the Tibetan New Year. Otherwise, the project site is very far from the where project manager works and it takes at least ten days to get there. Also, the project manager would need to take days off work. Therefore, the project manager delayed the project for about one month. 

Difficulties
During the process of implementing the project, the project manager encountered a few little problems, but no serious problems. One small problem was that first all the villagers( except very old people and very small children) dug the ditches together for two days, but the villagers soon discovered that it was impossible for them to finish digging the ditches within warm whether (in autumn) without the other villagers’ help. Therefore, the villagers got together to discuss how to dig it faster, and finally agreed to divide the ditch length to dig and divide it up between the families. Then each family called their relatives to dig the ditches from dawn to dark.

Another small problem was that the villagers needed to dig very long and deep ditches for burying the water pipes from the spring to the village, so at that time the villagers had to divide the labor to work hard and fast because the winter was coming soon. Unfortunately, one family got a hard and difficult place to dig, then that family refused to dig it and asked the project manager to divide the labors again. It was really hard for the project manager, but finally she convinced the family and they all agreed and the project continued successfully.

Lessons learnt
Through implementing the water project, the project manager Tashi Hlamo had learnt two important things that were different from other projects that she has done so far. One is that she realized that making the community have a harmonious relationship is very important to making the project go successfully and it is also the first step for doing a project. For instance, during digging the long and hard ditch the villagers worked very hard from dawn to dark and they took everything very seriously. That made it easier for the project manager complete the project and she was impressed by the villagers’ endeavors and the harmonious cooperation for the project.

The project manager had done several projects but not water project. So during implementing this water project, she learnt what materials are needed for a water project and also the prices of water pipes. She also discovered that there are many kinds of water pipes (small, big, thin and thick) with different prices. She got experience in buying water pipes; for instance, she now knows which type of water pipes are needed if she wants to do a water project for ten households. Thus the project manager got good experiences and more confidence for doing water projects.

Interviews

A Duo: The project manager Tashi Hlamo interviewed the girl in the picture during the Tibetan New Year. A Duo is 25 years old and she is from Nuri Village. There are ten people in her family: her parents, four younger sisters, two younger brothers, an uncle and herself. During the interview, she said before the project the villagers needed to fetch water from down valley, which is more than one kilometer from the village. One of her sisters was in charge of fetching water for her family, and if her family asked some monks to chant then she needed to spend the whole day carrying water for her family. Also, before the project their livestock could only drink water in the pastures, not the village. However, with our help, they now have water; since her sister doesn’t need to fetch water anymore, she went to a nunnery to become a nun. She said what a great help it is for the people and the livestock, and she thanked the project manager and donor very much.

A Nuo: He is the old man who is wearing red hat in the picture. He is from Walo Village. The project manager also interviewed A Nuo during their Tibetan New Year, so each person has a bottle of sweet drink and a plate of seeds in front of them in the picture. A Nuo is 67 years old and there are eight people in his family: his wife, two sons, sister-in-law and three grandchildren. He says: “The project incredibly helps us and I have no words to describe the thankfulness to you and the donor who gave the money for the project.” Before the water arrived in the village, his sister-in-law was the only one who could fetch water for them because one son is a monk in the monastery, another is not always at home, and he became disabled when he was 12 years ago. So fetching water is very hard task for his sister-in-law. When his sister needed to go somewhere, then she stored water for them before she goes. However, with the project manager and donor’s’ help every family has water taps in their yard. Even though he is disabled, he can still fetch water for his family when other members are busy now. He said they reached the happy days and he thanks and wishes to thank the project helpers and donor cordially again.

Thank you letter

Translation of thank you letter

Thank you letter

Dear kind and generous donor, Shem women’s Group and the project manager,

This year some incredible thing happened to us, and that is your generous and kind help which solved our serious water problem. From the time of our ancestors until this year, we could not do the project even though we always faced the same water problem for years and years. Before the project, the water was a very serious problem for both our livestock and us. There is a saying: “If girls don’t obey their parents then send the girls to Jiara Township (our villages is included in this Township)” This means if the girls go to to Jiara Township, then they need to fetch water and it is a very heavy work. Since fetching water was a very heavy burden for the villagers, it also made it hard to get wives from other villages and townships.

However, with all of your kind help, we have water taps in each family’s yard and there is enough for both our livestock and us. From now on, we are released from the burdens of fetching water by your compassion and we really appreciate your great help. Your generosity and kindness has erased our hellish history and led us into heaven. Therefore on behalf of all three villages – Walo, Yajiong and Nuri – I would like to say thank you so much for your kind support from the bottom of my heart.

From all of us, we send the best wishes for your following days and future work.

From Walo villager Tsering

December 10^th2009

The list of receiptsReceipt #1

It is 510 RMB for sand, 510 RMB for gravel and 600 RMB for the skilled worker. So it is 1,620 RMB in total.

Receipt #2

It is 58,695 RMB in total for cement, different types of water pipes and collections:

Cement: 100bags×40=4,000 RMB Plastic pipe#30: 3250m×9.5=30,875 RMB

Plastic pipe#25: 2900m×7.5=21,750 RMB （ 1,650 RMB is local contribution for the five households’ project. Connections (metal wire, screw spigots, nails and valves): 2,070 RMB 

Receipt #3: The project management expenses:

It is 10 RMB for taxi fee from Shem office to Xining train station.

It is179 RMB for the train ticket from Xining to Chengdu

It is 20 RMB for taxi fee from Chengdu train station to Wuhouci bus station.

It is 10×3=30 RMB for the hotel fee for one night in Chengdu.

It is 300 RMB for each person from Chengdu City to Xinlong county town by small car.

It is 10×3=30 RMB for the hotel fee for one night in Kangding.

It is 100 RMB for phone call fee for during the implementing the project.

Detailed explanation: As shown above, the expenses are for a one-way trip from Xining (Qinghai) to the project site (Sichuan), totaling 569 RMB, including transportation and hotel costs. The project manager went to see the project two times so then 569 RMB×4=2,276 RMB plus phone call fee100 RMB. In total it is 2,376 RMB for the project management expenses.

Original Proposal
Project Location
The project is located in Walo Village and Yajiong Village. Walo village is about1 km away from Yajiong Village and they are on the same mountain slope, and both villages are in Jialaxi Township, Xinlong (Nyarong) County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. These two villages are about 18 km from Xinlong county town, this is about 700 km from Chengdu City, the capital of Sichuan Province.

Back ground
The project is located in a very rural township which is called Jialaxi Township. There are about 35 villages in Jialaxi Township; about 7 villages are located at foot of the mountains and other 28 villages are perched seperately on high mountain slopes. There is no road, even for motorcycles, for the villages on the mountain slope. There is a hand tractor road for only Walo Village and another village called Gere and the other villages on the mountain slopes don’t have traffic road. Therefore, the villagers have to carry every thing on their backs to transport goods (e.g. crops, water, supplies) to their homes.

Also the land on the mountain slopes is not arable to grow barley and wheat well. The villagers can not grow vegetables on their unfertilized field lands without water. The villagers have difficulties with water and electricity. In the Jialaxi Township, the biggest village has 17 households and the smallest village only has three to four households. According the education level of Jialaxi Township, there were only six people who received government jobs in the whole township. Only about 40 children are going to school among 480 children in the Township. Most parents keep their children at home so they can help do works such as herding and fetching water. Some villages are very far away from the school and their children can not get to school on time and they can not return home before dark.

Population
Nine households made up Walo Village and two households made up Yajiong Village. There are 69 people in the Walo Village and Yajiong Village, and among these people there are 25 men, 21 women and 23 children.

Education
Among the 69 people in Walo Village and Yajiong Village 57 people are illiterate and only 12 people are can read and write. These 12 literate people in the village are 11 monks and 1 college graduate. There are 16 school-aged children in Walo Village and Yajiong Village, but only 4 children are going to Yinlong Primary school and the other 12 children stay at their home to help their parents herding livestock and fetching water. No one in either village has an official job. Some parents of the villages also say that nowadays it is difficult for the children to get an official job and to send their children to school it just wastes their children’s lives and family’s money. Some parents cannot deal with outside and indoor works such as fetching water, herding livestock and chores at their homes, without their children’s help. Therefore the children have no time to go to school and they have to help their parents to fetch water and herd livestock.

Cash Income
Walo Village and Yajiong Village are farming villages. Both villages are perched on a slope of a mountain separately. On average each household has 10 acres of land.
The other 7 villages who are living at foot of the mountains (in valley), where the land is very good and each acre of land can produces about 200-300 jin (1jin=o.5kg) of barley. But Walo Village and Yajiong Village are very different from the villages at mountain foot and each acre of land can only produce about 80 jin of crop. Because Walo Village and Yajiong Village are perched on a mountain slope, the land is not as arable as the land in the valley. The villagers can not grow vegetables on their unfertilized land without water. In the villages each household can produce about 500 jin of barley, 300jin of wheat,150 jin potatoes and 100 jins of beans for per year from their land and that is not enough for them to survive for a whole year. So they have to buy barley from Ganzi county town for every year and l00 jin of barley cost 130 rmb in Ganzi county town.

Four years ago, the villagers had three ways to get cash income; one way was to sell lumber to other cities, another way was to dig caterpillar fungus and sell them out and the third was that the villagers went out to do construction work to earn money. At that time, the villagers survived well by those three ways.

However, two years ago, Xinlong government enacted a policy “No cutting trees” and the villagers no longer can cut trees for earning cash. Therefore now the villagers have only two ways to earn cash income.

One way is that the villagers dig caterpillar fungus (medicinal herb) and each caterpillar fungus costs about 12 rmb. In total each family can earn about 3,000 rmb from digging caterpillar fungus. Another way to earn cash income is that villagers go out to do construction work in summer and spring. A man can earn 35 rmb and a woman can earn 30 rmb per day from construction work. On average each household can earn about 1,500 rmb per year from construction work. On average, each family can earn about 4,500 rmb in one year. Each family spends at least 6,000 rmb for their clothes, food,, medicine, and the celebrations such as New Year. Sometimes the villagers have no money to celebrate New Year and they have to borrow some money from other people for the New Year’s celebration and could not pay the debt back until they earn cash from digging caterpillar fungus.

Agriculture
Both Walo Village and Yajiong are agricultural villages, and the villagers grow barley, wheat and potatoes. Each household average has about 10 acres of field land. The fields are on the mountain slope and they are terrace fields. They can not grow vegetables without water in their fields, and the fields can not produce the barley well in that village on the mountain slope because of dried land.

Herding
Walo Village and Yajiong Village are farming village and they also have some live stock. On average each household has 5 cows, 2 female yaks and 1 bull. Each household can produce about 30 to 40 jin butter from their milk cows and milk yaks. People in the village just keep the butter for themselves to eat and they don’t sell it out.

Weather
In the villages the altitude is about 3080 meters above the sea level and the climate is very changeable there. Especially in recent years there were few rains in the summer, thus their barley and wheat can not grow well. The villagers can never grow vegetables in their field.

In the winter it is very cold. Sometimes it snows heavily and the road which the villagers use for fetching water is covered by snow. Therefore it is very dangerous for the village women and children to fetch water and they sometimes slip on the snow with their water buckets. Instead of risking the dangerous snow-covered roads village women and children collect snow and melt them into pots for cooking and washing..

Project goals
The immediate goal of the project is to build a running water system for Walo Village and Yajiong Village, in Jialaxi Township, Xinlong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province.

The overarching goal of the project is to supply clean water for Walo and Yajiong Villages to reduce the villager’s burden, increase enrollment of school children and improve their living condition.

Beneficiaries
This project will directly benefit 56 people from Walo Village and 13 people from Yajiong Village. In total 69 people will get benefit from the project.
Problems
1. No water to drink
In May and June, the villages’ young people and children go far places to dig caterpillar fungus and they can not return homes until 7 or 8 days from the mountain or high altitude grassland where they dig caterpillar fungus. So they have to stay on the mountains. At that time, only older people and small children stay at home for those 4 or 5 months. They can not fetch water and drink water without the young people’s help. So every two and three days the young people who go to dig caterpillar fungus have to come back home to save water for the older people. The digging caterpillar fungus is their main income and time for digging caterpillar fungus is very important. .

2. Time consuming
The distance between the villages and the water source is about 1.5 kilometers. Fetching water is customarily women and children’s work in the whole Jialaxi Township. Therefore, when the women and children of the village go to fetch water it takes at least one and half hour for one time. If a family invites some monks to chat in its home then one of the family members has to spend her or his whole day to fetch water. Some times one person can not catch up fetching water for the monks’ and the family members’ drinking and two people should fetch water for the family. The children have no time to go to school and the women have no time to do other works like weaving and spinning.

3. Dangerous path for fetching water
The path which the villagers use for fetching water is located on a mountain slope. Its sharp zigzag turns makes it very hard to fetch water. (You can see the picture on the last page) Especially in winter, the path becomes covered with thick snow and it fetching water becomes a more difficult task for the village children and women. Sometimes they cannot see the path clearly and they lose their way. Sometimes they slip on the snowy road with their water buckets and the water buckets break. Two years ago, Songlong Qingcuo fell on the fetching water path and her water bucket rolled down to a valley. At that time some other village people were herding in the valley and they thought a tree log was rolling down to them and they ran once when they heard the sound and it scared them badly; luckily no one got hurt.

4. Health problems
The distance from Walo and Yajiong Village to the water source is very long as I mentioned above. Therefore the village women always have to carry water buckets on their backs for long time, which leads to back problems. . The location of the water source is a windy and cold valley. The women and children often get colds again and again from fetching water in winter. They think that medicines can cure their colds and they always eat medicines, but the medicines can not help them a lot because they always have to go to the windy place. Last year in winter, one woman from Yajiong Village went to fetch water two weeks after she gave birth to a child. Then her breasts got swollen from the fetching water and she could not nurse her child well. Finally she went to see a doctor and the doctor said that she must not fetch water in cold, windy conditions.

5 Increased deaths of baby cows
At end of winter and spring, two- year -old calves can not get water to drink. Because the water is at least 1.5 km far from the villages and the calves are not able to go far from the pastures to drink water as other livestock go. Fetching water for the livestock is a hard task. Therefore two- year- old baby cows slowly died from thirst. Sometimes in spring, the villages ask the neighbor villages that have water in their yard to raise their calves until they get old enough.

6 No vegetables
The villagers can not grow vegetables in their field land without water even in summer because the land is not fertilized and it is dry. The villagers buy vegetables from Xinlong county town and they seldom can eat vegetables. Sometimes the villagers are even not able to get enough water for themselves to drink, so getting water for vegetables is just an impossible thing.

7 Poor hygiene
The villagers are not able to get water for washing their clothes and bodies because of the long distance from the villages to the water. In their minds, they are grateful to get enough water for people to drink; to get water for washing clothes is just kind of dream because it is really so hard for them to get water from the far-away water source. Some villagers don’t wash their heads and clothes for more than one month, and some older people don’t wash their bodies for years. Therefore sometimes their clothes have bad odors and they are very dirty. When they want to wash their clothes then they have to carry their clothes to the water source in the valley to wash them. Sometimes in winter time, women and children wash their heads in the valley even though the water is for the villagers to drink.

8 Poor living conditions
The village women have to do house chores like fetch water and also field work. Especially fetching water takes most of their time. The works which I mentioned above always hold the women back from doing other outside works and they don’t have time to go out of the village to look for extra work to earn money. They also don’t have time to do spinning and weaving at their homes to earn cash. In winter time, the children and women get colds again and again from the fetching water in windy places, as I mentioned before. Therefore they need to take medicine and each family might spend at least150 rmb during winter just for medicine.

9 Few children go to school
Fetching water is women’s and children’s work in Jialaxi Township. The children’s parents keep them at home and let them fetch water and herd the livestock. Therefore some children have no time to go to school.

Benefits

1. If there is water in Walo Village and Yajiong Villages, then the villagers will not need to travel the long distance to fetch water and they can use water as much as they want. Especially during the time of digging caterpillar fungus, the older people and the small children can drink water without young people’s help.
2. Fetching water is the villagers’ most difficult work and they spend most of their time fetching water. If the villagers have water in their yards, then the village women and children can save their time to do other things such as weaving and spinning, and they also will have leisure time to rest instead of fetching water.
3. The village women and children will not need to go through the dangerous road to fetch water. They will not need to think about the dangerous road any more.
4. The children will not get colds again and again as before and they will not need to take as much medicine. The village women will not get backaches, because the water will be near them and they don’t need to carry water buckets on their backs.
5. The calves can drink water whenever they want to and they will not die from thirst in the spring. The villagers will have more livestock to produce milk and butter.
6. Generally the other villages on the mountain slopes have water, so they can water their vegetables in their yards and they can grow vegetables to eat. If Yajiong Village and Walo villagers also have water, then they cloud grow vegetables in their yards. The villagers will be able to eat vegetables that they grow by themselves.
7. The people will be able to wash themselves and their clothes each week. They don’t need to carry their clothes to far places to wash and they can wash their clothes at their homes whenever they want. The people will not get illness from bad hygiene.
8. If there is water in front of their houses, the women will not need to spend time fetching water. They can go out to earn money from construction work and they also can do weaving and spinning at their homes. The children and women of the village will no longer need to go to the windy valley to fetch water in winter and they get less colds. Overall the villagers’ living conditions will be improved.
9. The parents will not need help from their children to fetch water. Therefore the children will have a chance to go to school.

Gender equality
In Walo Village and Yajiong Village house chores like fetching water and other field works are mainly done by the women; women become very tired from those works.. Therefore if there is water in the village then the women will have less work to do and they can have time for leisure activities or earning extra income.

Formerly in Jialaxi Township, people used to believe that women were powerless and they could not do meaningful things as men did. They also believed that sending girls to school was useless.

However last year in 2007, I did a barrier wall project and a solar panel project for two villages in Jialaxi Township. After that many people changed their ideas toward women and they believed that women could do as men can do and they respected women .Before I did these projects, nobody asked me to do projects such as solar power and water for them. But now many people believe that women also can do important things and they ask me to help write proposals for them. Some people tell my father to ask me to write proposals for them while I am not with my family.

If this project is funded, then in my hometown more and more people will believe that if women get education, men and women have the same ability to do meaningful things. More parents will send their girls to school and they will have high expectations for girls. The girls will also have higher expectations to accomplish more meaningful things.

Project steps

1. Discussed with the villagers why the village needs water and collect information for the project. (Done.)
2. Visited the water spring and see whether it is big enough. (Done.)
3. Discussed the project’s needs with Sangjia (who is more knowledgeable about water project than other people in the villages) and see what kinds of materials we need.( Done)
4. Contact the firm’s leader to get specifications and prices for the water pipe. (Done.)
5. Asked the local government leader, Banggeng Duoji to get permission to do the project. (Done.)
6. Decided what labor the villagers could complete, i.e. digging ditches and burying pipes. (Done.)
7. Take pictures for the project.
8. Write proposal (Done.)
9. Receive funds.
10. Have a meeting with the villagers to decide the starting date of the project.
11. Buy the water pipe and cement and transport them to the village.
12. Dig the ditch and bury the pipe in the ditch.
13. Interview the village men, women and children about the project and take photos.
14. Write final report.
15. Send final report with photos and receipts.

Time frame
(The villagers need 68 days to carry out the project with 30 people for each day)

1 day. Hold a meeting with the villagers to assign them tasks.

7 days: Go to buy the materials in Chengdu and Xinlong county town and transport them to the village.

41 days: to dig ditches.

11 days: to bury the water pipe in the ditches.

7 days: to build three cement boxes.

1 day: hold a meeting with the villagers, interview them, and take pictures of them.

Detailed budget

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TheTotal contribution is 114,015.5rmb

The donor contribution is 64,055.5rmb

The local contribution is 49,460 rmb

Shem contribution is 500rmb

Project Sustainability
The quality of the water pipe which the villagers are going to use for the water systems is very good. Yajiong’s neighboring village, Gere village, used the same type of pipe to build a water system for their villagers and it has been five years now and the water system still does not have any problems. The spring which the villagers planned to drive to their village is very big and it is enough to supply water for the whole village. Every body knows that fetching water is hard for them in that village and they will take responsibility for the water system well. If it breaks the villagers will be responsible for it and they will ask other skilled people to repair it.

Government support for the project
The project manager called the local government leader Banggeng Duoji on May 3^rd, 2008. He was very happy about the project and he said that several villages have difficulties with water in the Jialaxi Township. But the local government doesn’t have enough money to do water projects for them and if the manager can implement the water project for a village that would be great. The local government leader is very happy to give permission to complete the project.

Additional Information
The project manager Tashi Hlamo successfully implemented two small scale development projects in 2007. One was a barrier wall project for Yatong village, which was funded by the German Embassy. Another project was a solar electricity panel project for Yinlong village, which was funded by the British Embassy. The two projects are located in Jialaxi Township, Xinlong County, Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province. These two projects are mainly to improve the impoverished local people’s living conditions, reduce their workload and improve enrollment of school children.

The Water project for Walo and Yajiong Villages is her third project. Now she is working in Shem Women’s group in Xining City, Qinghai province.

Pictures

This is the water source where the villagers fetch water. The child and the woman in the picture are a son and his mother. Villagers always come to this spring to fetch water and it is located in a valley. In winter times, other villagers cut trees from the top of the valley to build houses and for fuel. Then they roll the tree logs from mountain top to this valley, making the water dirty. Sometimes the water is covered by logs like the situation in the picture, and it is very hard for the villagers to get water.

In the picture, the villagers are taking rest on the way with buckets full of water on their backs. The distance from the village to the water source is about 1.5 kilometers and they have to take a rest five or six times each time they go to fetch water.

The steep path in the picture is used by the villagers to fetch water. Especially in winter, the path is covered by heavy snow and the villagers can not see the path well. Sometimes they slip on the road with their water buckets. It is very dangerous for the villagers.

The child is carrying water on his back. His name is Garong Tashi and he is eleven years old now. He is not going to school, because he has no time to go to school and he has to fetch water and herd livestock for his family. He always fetches water on his back like this.

The man on the left is the child’s grandfather and they are in their kitchen. The family’s life is really hard and they have no water or electricity.

Diagram

Map of the project Location

The immediate goal of this project is to build a running water system for 75 households in upper Mengzong village in Jiegu Township.The overarching aim of this project is to improve the lives of the villagers in Mengzong village.

The Asia Foundation and The Jesuitenmission funded this project

Basamdorlma is from Jiegu Township, Yushu County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. She is currently working towards an associated degree in English at the Qinghai Normal University Nationalities Department English Training Program.
What: build a running water system for 64 households in an impoverished Tibetan village.
Who: 40 households in Upper Mengzong Village and 24 households in Xihang Village, Jiegu Township, Yushu County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.

Photos of Project implementation

Photo of the mountain slope where the ditch was dug.

The villagers are digging the ditch.

Villagers are tapping water to the reservoir from a spring located nearby.

Water inspection boxes.

Running water is tapped into Yongga’s yard.

Summary of the project

Project goals: The overarching aim of this project is to improve the lives of the villagers in Mengzong village. The immediate goal of this project is to build a running water system for 64 households in upper Mengzong Village in Jiegu Township.

Location of the project: Mangzi (called Mengzong in Chinese) Village is located in the northern part of Jiegu Township, Yushu County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, which is about 896 km from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai province. The name, Mengzong Village, specifically refers to one of the two small villages that together make up a larger village. In common speech, we usually call the upper part of the village upper Mengzong and the lower part lower Mengzong. This project aims to provide water for the upper Mengzong village.

Total beneficiaries: This project directly benefits 64 households with 520 people in upper Mengzong village.

Implementation organization/individual:Basam Drolma(project manager), Mr Jiangyong and Mr Xiga (villager leaders), Suonam bacuo, Zhaxicaireng, Zhouzhang (members of upper Mengzong village’s project committee) and Shem Women’s Group.

Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date received
The Asia Foundation and the Jesuitenmission funded this project with a total amount of 118, 600 RMB. To ensure the on going success of the project implementation, the grant was split into two installments, the first installment covers 60%(71,160 RMB) of the total grant and was given to project manager at the starting date of the project on May 29th, 2008, and the second installment was given to the project manager when 50% of the project was completed successfully. As the project reached its half way point, Shem gave 40% of the total grant, which is 47,740 RMB, to Basam Dorlma on August 6th, 2008.

Delays, difficulties, and lesson learned
Delay of the activities
The project could not be started soon after the funds were received due to the reasons below:
The stream which we had originally planned to carry the water had dried up, and we had to search for another source to water into the village. The main reasons for delay are related to the difficulties of finding and securing access to an alternative water source.
The village leaders were disappointed and told me that they had no ideas except for changing the project into another project or give up the project as the last resort. My family members were also disappointed and suggested that I give up the project as they saw I was very sad, depressed and exhausted. However, my younger brother, Shem members, and my great mentors suggested that I look for another potential water source to complete the project rather than giving up.
After two more days of searching and discussing with my younger brother, we found another source where we could tap water into the village, but it is very far from the village. The Animal Husbandry Bureau (农牧局) had implemented a water project using this water source for a nomadic community nearby Mengzong Village. The only way to tap water into Mengzong village was to negotiate with this nomadic community so that both villages could use the same water source. My brother and I went to ask the leader of the nomadic village and reported the situation. However, they told us that we needed to go and ask the Animal Husbandry Bureau, so we spent an afternoon waiting for the leader at the Animal Husbandry Bureau. When I finally met them they even didn’t listen to me well and they were not very willing to listen to my words either. The next day, I went to my village leader’s home and asked him to go with me and he agreed. That day I met the Animal Husbandry Bureau leader with the village leader accompanying me, but he told us to ask the nomadic village leader as they have legal ownership of the water source.
We tried to contact all those possible people to negotiate with the nomadic village leader, fortunately one of our village leaders told us that he received permission from the most powerful leader of the nomadic community, (not the one I have spoken to). Therefore, there was no need for us to delay the project.
We negotiated with the nomadic village leader and decided to tap water from their pre-existing pipe to the Animal Husbandry Bureau reservoir. This place is 2.8 km from Menzong village.
However, this posed another problem for us: one water pipe could not provide enough water for two villages, especially during the winter time. The water design experts suggested that we build two additional water reservoirs to solve this problem. According to the original budget, building two water reservoirs was not feasible. Villagers were also unable to cover these costs. Instead of building two water reservoirs we tapped water from two nearby springs.
In addition to the delays associated with securing an additional water source, another delay was caused by the fact that it was caterpillar fungus season and many able laborers were out of the village. When the project manager received funds all young villagers were away collecting caterpillar fungus and only older villagers were left at the village. The manager had a meeting with those remaining villagers explaining the details. Those remaining villagers were unable to dig the ditches, so we had to wait for those young villagers return to the village to dig the ditches. They arrived at the village on June 15th and began digging the ditches and completing the necessary project work.

Difficulties encountered when implementing the project
I needed the Menzong village leaders support to negotiate with the other village about using the same water source. However I had difficulties receiving timely support from the village leaders. They were always very passive and demanding and I had to constantly pressure them up to help me.
The village leaders asked me to hire an excavator to dig the ditch, because digging in the rocks would be difficult for the villagers. Renting an excavator to dig the whole ditch would have taken a huge portion of the first installment of the funds. The second installment would definitely not have been enough to complete the other tasks. After discussion with the project committee and some outside experts, we agreed to hire an excavator for the most rocky part of the ditch (about 1500 m) and hire the villagers to dig the rest of the ditch (1300 m).
I work far away from the project site. It takes eight days round trip to travel from my work to the project site. I also had to take around twenty days off to get the project started. My salary was deducted because of being off from work for too many days.
As this is my first time to implement a construction project, I lacked relevant knowledge and management skills, which caused lots of difficulties and challenges. I did not know that I should take photos of materials while I was purchasing them, loading them in to the truck, and after the materials were delivered to Yushu. My brother and Mengzong villagers went to take the materials, and they had no camera. They also had no idea they were supposed to take photos, so I did not get any good photos of the materials.
Also, the villagers were not very cooperative at the beginning of the project, but later as most of the younger villagers returned back to village the situation got better. They went to ask the village leaders to help with the situation and dug the ditch even during the night.

Lessons learned
From implementing this project, I have learned that having experience implementing relevant projects is very important. Relevant experience can determine the success of subsequent projects. When you actually implement the project, your original plans should be more flexible when there are new events or unexpected changes.
If you cannot manage well when there are too many new events or changes, you should get suggestions or help from others with more experience. Additionally, I have felt that the local people, particularly the old people do not have high expectations for women; they thought that I was not able to implement the project. However, if you keep on going, there are always different ways to solve problems, and nothing is impossible to deal with.
Changes and Variations from Original Project (Beneficiaries, Budget, Activities, Time frame)
The first change was that according to my original proposal only 40 families of the village would benefit from the running water, but during the implementation of the project, we found that 24 families located in Xihang Village, near upper Menzong village, did not have water. They hadn’t had water for more than twenty years; they begged us to tap water for them too. We agreed to carry water for them as well because all the villagers agreed on the plan and promised to collect money if the grant was not enough. So, the project provided water to 64 families rather than 40 families.
Also, there was some variation in the price of materials; the price of most materials had increased. We checked three factories and saw how to make pipes. We figured out which quality is good and which is not good and chose the best quality pipes in the factory. Another change is that we had to purchase some additional pipes and connectors for those 24 families.

The project steps
1. With participation from villagers, a project committee was formed. This group was composed of five villagers’ -two men, and three women (Jiangyonggelek, Xiga and Zhaxi Tereng, Suonam Bacuo, A nang).
2. Negotiated with another village to get the permission to share the same water source.
3. Discussed with the villagers and water experts to decide how and where to build the water reservoir.
4. Villagers and water expert decided on the needed materials and place to purchase the materials.
5. Contract signed with the water project committee.
6. Villagers started to dig ditch where it could be dug by the hand-tools.
7. Hired an excavator to dig from the rocky mountain slope to the road where there are fewer rocks.
8. Purchased plastic pipes, few pieces of connection, and covers for the water reservoirs from a plastic factory in Xining.
9. Thirteen skilled workers were hired to dig the ground to build water reservoirs with the villagers.
10. More pipes, valves, connectors, and steel bars were purchased from private water construction material shop in Yushu prefecture in July 2008.
11. We purchased cement from Yushu Three Rivers Construction Material Company in July 2008.
12. All purchased materials were transported to Mengzong village on Mr Zhaxicaireng’s (a member of project committee) truck in July 2008. Mr Zhaxicaireng has also devoted a lot toward the success of implementing this project. He contributed his truck to go to purchase and collect materials in Yushu prefecture, and undertook most of the responsibilities of overseeing the hired skilled workers constructing the water reservoir, placing the pipes, and building the water inspection boxes.
13. Pipes were placed in the ditches in July 2008.
14. The excavator was paid in July 2008.
15. Zhaxicaireng collected local contribution in July 2008.
16. Along with the villagers’ participation, a water design expert built the water reservoirs, the inspection boxes, and tapped water from two more springs nearby to the water reservoirs in September 2008.
17. Under the instruction of the water design experts, villagers placed pipes from the main pipe to each household in September 2008.
18. Water was brought to each household on September 10th.
19. Along with all villagers’ participation, the village project committee and the village leaders set up future management plan to sustain the project on September 11th. The villager leaders explained the importance of maintaining and caring for the water system. Two households were chosen to manage the system for two months and this system will rotate in order to involve all 64 households in monitoring the water system.
20. Villagers celebrated the success of water system in the village. Each household hung a Karta (ceremonial silk scarf) dedicating their many thanks to the great help of the donors.
21. Photos were taken and receipts were collected in September 2008.
22. Write final reports with receipts and photos.

Project finances

Notes
Note #1
Originally we planned to buy all these types (60#, 40#, 32#,25#)of PE pipes, but when the water experts were examining the ditch condition, through their careful examination they found it is better to purchase PPR pipe #40 (both PPR and PE are pipes to carry running water: PPR are cut smaller than PE pipes, PPR pipes are usually used for carrying water to and between households; PE pipes are mostly used for carrying water from big channels, like from water ditch to households, it is used as the main pipes in this water project) to carry water to those three subdivisions of the entire village. From this pipe each family can tap water to their home with smaller pipes, within this receipt I also purchased one thermofussion machine(it is called热融机in Chinese, and a machine makes the plastic pipes warm, so it becomes soft. Then we could easily connect two pipes together) that cost 135 RMB. The main reason I purchased PPR pipe was cost effectiveness (one meter 40#PPR is 10 RMB, and PE 40# is 16 RMB for one meter).  PPR pipe was cheaper than PE pipe, but has the same quality.  Therefore I bought less PE pipes compared to the original budget. However, according to the water experts’ suggestion, we needed to purchase more pipes due to the increased number of households.

Note #2
According to the original budget; I planned to buy materials in Lanzhou (the capital city of Gansu Province). However, through careful investigations and discussions with water designing experts, we found out all these materials are either available in Yushu or in Xining. Eventually I decided to purchase pipes in Xining rather than in Lanzhou, since Xining is much closer to Yushu than Lanzhou, thus the transportation fee is much less. However, besides pipes and few pieces of connection, all other materials were purchased in Yushu, and for that material we did not need to pay for the transportation.

Note #3
From Xining I only purchased these connections, which were not available in Yushu.
Note #4
In order to get the legal permission for the project implementation from the county government, I had to submit three copies of the proposal, to make those copies I spent14 RMB. Second, I paid 75 RMB in banking fees, because my bank account was opened in Yushu, so to transfer the grant from Xining to my account required banking fee of 75 RMB. We do not have this item in the original budget.

Note #5
Since the route where we had dug the ditch was very rocky, it was impossible for people to dig. Under water designer and experienced construction workers suggestions, we hired an excavator to dig the rocky part, which was 1500 m. Its digging fee for one meter is 26 RMB*1,500 m = 39,000 RMB. The other 1300 m of the ditch was dug by Mengzong villagers: one day’s labor fee is 30 RMB and 80 villagers dug for 14 days: 30RMB*14/day * 80/people=33,600 RMB.

Note #6
We hired thirteen skilled workers including three water experts and ten construction workers. Along with 64 villagers, these ten skilled workers completed construction of  the water reservoirs and inspection boxes in 10 days. They charged 50 RMB per day, 50 RMB* 10/day*10/people=5,000, and we paid 1,000 to the water experts.

Note #7
As the villagers contributed four trucks of stone and three trucks of sand to build up the water reservoirs and water inspection boxes, we brought less cement than we originally planned because stones are available in the village. In addition, as we brought the
cement from a company that Mr Zhaxicairing know well, we purchased the cement with the lowest price compared to the cement price in all other cement shops in Yushu prefecture.

Note #8
We needed less iron wire than we originally planned because we did not need iron wires to connect PPR pipes, but the price of the iron wire had increased this year compared to last year.

Note #9
The donor contribution was not enough to pay for the total price of the steel bar, so we paid 2,886 RMB from donor contribution and the deficit 3,234 RMB was paid for by local contributions.

Note #10
Due to the increase number of the households; we purchased more pipes and connectors to tap water for these twenty-four families. These materials were purchased from local contributions.

Note #11
The project proposal was submitted when I was in Xining, which was before my graduation. However, this project was funded when I had moved to Chengdu where I work. In order to implement the project successfully I personally went to Yushu to implement it. Travel from Chengdu City to Yushu takes four days for a one-way trip. Consequently the project management fee was much higher than I originally budgeted. However, we had only requested for 200 RMB in the original budget, so the rest 498.6 RMB was paid by the local committee.

Total donor contribution for the project was 118,600 RMB. The first installment (60% of the total contribution) was received on May 29th, 2008, for the amount of 71,160 RMB. The second installment (40% of the total contribution) was received on August 6th.The first installment of the money was mainly used to purchase running water equipment such as pipes and connectors and paid for project management expenses; the second installment of the project was used to buy needed materials to build up water reservoirs and water inspection boxes. The water project was successfully implemented; all villagers in upper Mengzong village are provided with clean drinking water under donor’s great support！

 (##)According to the original project proposal, the villagers will dig all the ditches but later because some of part of place is very rocky and the villagers could not dig so we hired a excavator to dig as I have already explained in note 5. In this case the excavator saved a lot of the villagers’ time to dig the ditches at the same time the villagers saved labor equals 72,354 RMB. Therefore it shows that there is still 72,354 RMB left.

Thank you letter

Translation of the thanks letter

Dear Asia Foundation and the Jesuitenmission,

On behalf of all Mengzong villagers and beneficiaries from Xihang Village, I want to say thank you very much for your greatest help! Our village is a farming village located in the rural areas of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture where traffic is closed and income generation is poor. We’ve had no clean drinking water for almost twenty years, and we usually go to beg water from our neighboring villages that are far from our village. As it takes around two hours for fetching two buckets of water, fetching water becomes the most time consuming chore for every household in the village. This also resulted in many of the school aged children being kept at home to help families finish up the house works. We had asked the government to help us for many times over the years, but they are not able to help us. And we had never knew that we would have clean drinking water in our yards, but we are very lucky that we received the Asia Foundation’s and Jesuitenmission’s donation and completed running water project in our village. Water is tapped into 64 households. All of our beneficiaries were very happy to receive this hard-won help! We would never forget your help! Thank you very much for your help!

Jiangyonggelek, Mengzong village leader,

September 13th, 2008.

Interviews

Tse Rdo migrated to upper Menzong village in the year of 1995. He was originally from Nangchen County in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. He had become the poorest family in the community because all of his yaks died in the snow disaster that year. He migrated to Yushu with his two small sons and his wife. They had no way to live except being beggars in this huge town. Afterwards he was invited as a herder of the Mengzong village’s domestic livestock and Mengzong community gave him a piece of land as his salary. Mengzong villagers promised to give him some barley and food every month. So he settled in this village and his life has gotten better from receiving Mengzong village’s help. Tsedo sent both of his sons to attend elementary school two years ago, because the schools don’t charge for tuition. While we were interviewing him about the benefit of the water system, he said” We had no clean running for more than twenty years, this project saved our life, before we had this reliable running water, my wife would need to spend almost two hours to fetch two buckets, and it was difficult for her because she also needed to finish all other house chores at the same time. After we had this water system, my wife only needs to spend few minutes to fetch two buckets of water, and my wife could save much time to take rest. Thank you very much to our donor! I am sure they will have good results in their life”!

Zhaxi Dorlma and her second son are watching at their running water
Zhaxi Dorlma’s husband was killed during a land-conflict fight between two villages. She has three sons. Some gangsters also killed her oldest son two years after her husband’s death. After both her husband and her oldest son died, she got a serious illness in her leg. She could not move well for many years, and her life became exceptionally difficult. She could not plough the fields and plant barley, which was the only source of food for her family when her husband was alive. Some of her relatives adopted her second son and sent him to school. Now he is studying in Xining city; he is one of the few university students in the village. Her youngest son is a monk now, but he does not always go to monastery, because he needs to take care of his mother. When we interviewed Zhaxi Dorlma about the benefits of running water project, she said: “Before the water was tapped to each of the households in upper Mengzong village, children needed to walk for a long distance searching for clean water in the spring which now was dried up. Many families had to keep their children at home rather than sending them to school. I felt really bad every time I saw my son carrying two buckets early in the morning and returning back in the afternoon. He could not always go to study in the monastery. Thanks very much for the donors great help; now my son does not need to spend much time fetching water, and he could go to the monastery to study. Also my leg is getting better and  as it only takes a few minutes to fetch water; I can fetch water by myself. My son and I will always pray for the donors”

Nolhao Lhamo is fetching water from the running water piped into their house yard.

Her family belongs to Xihang village that is adjoined to Mengzong village. She is the only child in her family, her parents got divorced when she was five, and she lives with her mother now. She is attending middle school. Her mother is a street cleaner and has very little salary that is scarcely enough to buy life necessities for them. Her mother has to stay on the street for the whole day and leaves work very late at night, so Nolhao Lhamo has to finish up all the house chores when she comes back home from the school. She said, “The most anxious memory every time I return back from school is that I need to go to spend around two hours to fetch water, and I need to stay up very late to finish my home work. Thanks a lot for the donors help, this is the best help we Mengzong villagers would ever receive. I can spend more time on studying and cooking nice dinners for my mother because water is tapped in to our yard now “.

List of receipts

Receipt 1

 Receipt 2

Receipt 3

Receipt 4

 Receipt 5

Receipt 6

Receipt 7

Receipt 8(iron bar)

Receipt 9

From this receipt the donor only paid 2,886RMB and the local people paid 3,234 RMB.

Receipt 10

 The total management expense is  698.6 RMB. I only applied for 200RMB from the donor contribution, and the deficit was paid by the local committee.  

Original Proposal

Project Location
Mangzi (called “Mengzong” in Chinese) village is located in the northern part of Jiegu Township, Yushu Prefecture, about 896 kilometers from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai province. The name, “Mengzong village”, specifically refers to one of the two small villages that together make up a larger village, which is also called Mengzong. In common speech, we usually call the upper part of the village “upper Mengzong” and the lower part “lower Mengzong”. This project aims to provide water for the “upper Mengzong” village.

Population
There are approximately 75 households comprised of 500 people in upper Mengzong village. There are 165 women, 161 men, and 174 children.

Education
Thirty percent of the people in upper Mengzong village are literate in Tibetan. These people learned how to write and read Tibetan letters from their parents by reading epics, stories and by carving Mani-stones (carved scriptures on stone). In upper Mengzong village, there are 16 monks, 6 nuns, 28 primary school students, 17 high school students, 25 middle school students, and 6 university students. The students learn both Tibetan and Chinese in school. The remaining 98 school-aged children, 50 females and 48 males, do not attend school.
Due to the local government policy created two years ago that makes primary education free, there are more primary school-aged children attending school than in the past. However, families still must pay around 200-250 rmb for middle school and 300-400 rmb for high school students. It is difficult for families to send their children to school because they don’t have enough money to pay the tuition, especially when families have to come up with tuition for university students. To send a child to university, a family must borrow money and put down their property deeds as collateral at the bank’s insistence. A family with a university student must usually borrow 4000- 5000 rmb in a year, forcing them to pay the money back by selling crops or land at the end of the year.

Cash Income
Most of the villagers in upper Mengzong village are farmers. They grow barley exclusively because the high elevation of 3700 meters does not allow for cultivation of any other crops. Most households in this village own only 2-3 mu of land, which produces barely enough barley for those families’ survival. Families who own 8-9 mu (1 mu = 0.666 hectares) of land can often sell their excess barley to potentially earn about 900 rmb annually. However, this potential income is vulnerable to changes in the weather, so that often no excess is produced after a hot, dry growing season.
The villagers also earn money by digging caterpillar fungus. They travel to mountainous areas where the fungus grows, and live as nomads from the beginning of May until July. A single caterpillar fungu can sell for around 15-20 rmb, but people have to pay a tax of 400-600 rmb to the local village leader to be allowed to dig in a specific area. A single person from Mengzong village can earn approximately 2,000-2,500 rmb annually by digging this fungus. Each year, people in Mengzong village spend around 1,500-2,000 rmb for foods like potatoes, vegetables and meat, and 400-500 rmb on clothes. Villagers must also spend money on school tuition.
As there are many nomads moving to the county town, villagers have the chance to sell their land in town to nomads who need a place to build their house. Villagers can receive approximately 1500-2000 rmb for one mu of land. Those farmers who sell their land, typically try to use that income to make some changes to their life condition. However, selling one’s land does not always succeed as expected. After selling their land, people sometimes do not have enough food to eat because they no longer have land on which to grow barley in sustainable amounts. In addition, many people are illiterate and/or innumerate and almost all lack the skills or background to do good business. For example, when they come to sell caterpillar- fungus, they don’t know where the best place to gain a high price is because they have a very limited understanding of the outside world. Unfortunately, these people will often sell their caterpillar-fungus to the business men in town for a low price about 15-20rmb per caterpillar-fungus, but the business men can sell for around 50rmb to the cities.

Herding
Most of the villagers in upper Mengzong village are farmers, though a few households have sold their land. On average, each household owns one cow, two sheep and two goats. The location of the village at the foot of a mountain makes it possible to herd livestock on the mountain. These animals are only used to produce milk, butter, cheese and yogurt in the summer period. Almost all villagers produce only enough of these products for their own consumption.

Problems

No Water System in the Village in upper Mengzong
Not one of the 75 households in upper Mengzong village owns a water tap in their own family courtyard. Every day the villagers, usually the women, have to hike down to lower Mengzong village, 3 kilometers below with two iron buckets. In lower Mengzong village, the households have water taps in their own yards, or the villagers can easily get water nearby, from neighbors who have their own water source. The residents in upper Mengzong are comparably poor, since many of them have emigrated from other places such as Gaizei prefecture, Changdou city. Their living conditions are lower, and they do not own their own land or houses, instead renting from the native residents. Further, any drilling project and/or pumping system will be more expensive in upper Mengzong compared to lower Mengzong because these villagers live at a higher elevation. The people of upper Mengzong cannot afford this expense. Previously, the upper Mengzong villagers acquired water from a stream located beside the village, about 1 kilometer away. This stream originates from Jiajie nomadic village, running deep in the mountain valley above Mengzong village. Recently, this stream has dwindled, so that when it arrives in the village it is very small. Since livestock and nomadic villagers obtain water upstream of upper Mengzong, the water reaching the village is usually too dirty to be of any use, filled with lots of shrimp and other water insects. The village leader and some other villagers have noted that there is an available spring 3.5 kilometers above the village, showing the possibility for building a water reservoir.

Lack of Reliable Water
Each year, the water company cuts off water two or three times, due to a dwindling availability of water in underground sources and in the Zhaxi River, the main water source for the area. During these times, the villagers must find a well to obtain water. While the few comparably richer households have personal wells in their courtyards, all the villagers cannot get enough water. Generally, the stream mentioned above is totally dry during these periods. The families who own wells live beside the streets and markets, so the villagers have to travel around 5-6 kilometers to fetch water from these sources. As a villager is able to fetch a limited amount of water at one time, many trips must be made.

Dangers of Fetching Water from Wells
Usually, begging water from a family who owns a well is a difficult task. Some wells are very deep and poorly constructed. There have been several incidents of people falling into wells and dying.

Increased Women’s Labor
With the stream dried up during both winter and autumn, most of the time the villagers have to ask for water from the lower village, which is about 5-6 kilometers from the upper village. Almost exclusively, it is the women who must fetch the water. Typically, women collect water twice a day, at sunset and in the morning, in addition to doing all the other household chores. Usually, women in upper Mengzong do not have time to participate in any other activities besides these labors, from which they get little time to rest.

Health Problems
Day in and day out, the women of upper Mengzong village carry heavy yokes weighted on each end with iron buckets for water. Commonly, women of upper Mengzong become noticeably hunched over the years. Many fall ill with diseases, obviously caused by exhaustion to their immune systems. In addition, since fetching water is such a difficult task, most people of upper Mengzong do not often wash their hands or clothes. This supports lots of disease, and stomachaches are exceedingly common in the village.

Few Opportunities for Women
Women’s household chores, especially fetching water, are essential to the basic functioning of life in upper Mengzong village. Therefore, many parents decide they should keep their daughters at home to do this necessary labor, rather than sending them to school. For this reason, village girls have little chance to attend school, receive education or become independent. Without education, the girls in upper Mengzong village don’t have the chance to work for the owners of shops on the streets as they do not understand Chinese. Therefore, girls in upper Mengzong village usually become the unskilled laborers for the tractor drivers who carry sand and stone.

Benefits
Providing a running water system that will set a tap in every household will provide everyone in the village with enough water and solve upper Mengzong’s water-related problems.

1. The villagers will not have to beg for water, instead having easy access to water provided by their personal water tap.

2. With their own water supply, upper Mengzong will no longer be susceptible to losing their water supply when water is turned off by the government. In the current system, several villages must take turns receiving water, and thus have their water supply shut off in certain months.

3. The villagers will no longer have to worry about falling into the wells or being injured by the well derrick.

4. Women in the village will not have to walk long distances with heavy buckets to fetch water, allowing them more time for leisure and participation in other activities. Also, the potential of contracting diseases and becoming hunchbacked will decrease because women will not need to expend such hard physical work on fetching water. Also, with more water available, village hygiene will improve.

5. With a reduced need for water collection, parents are more likely to send their daughters to school. Parents will realize that girls can do things other than housework. Villagers will be able to recognize the importance of getting an education as means of helping one’s own community.

Beneficiaries
This project will directly benefit a total of 75 households and 500 people in upper Mengzong village.

Gender equality
Firstly, this project will have very immediate and direct benefits for women in the village, as the improved water supply will decrease the amount of labor that women need to do. Secondly, an improved water supply will allow women to participate in more activities, such as running small businesses, which will improve the family living condition. Moreover, the rate of female children attending school will increase, as collecting water will not be a big concern that causes parents to force their daughters to stay at home. Also, parents will realize the importance of education as their educated daughters will have improved futures.

Project Goals
The overarching aim of this project is to improve the lives of the villagers in Mengzong village.
The immediate goal of this project is to build a running water system for 75 households in upper Mengzong village in Jiegu Township.

The steps of the project

1. Discuss with villagers the possibility of proposing to donors a running water system for upper Mengzong village. (Done)

2. Talk with the village leader about the specifics of building the reservoir. (Done)

3. Receive official permission to carry out the project from local government. (Done)

4. Receive official permission to carry out the project from our Township leader. Collect information about and for the project. (Done)

5. Talk to the village leader and other project managers and workers who have experience working on this type of project. Talk with them about the necessary materials. (Done)

6. Find out the price of materials in Jiegu Township. (Done)

7. Hold a meeting with the village leaders and choose some households to be responsible for the materials and supervising the condition of the water reservoir and the ditch system. Primarily, the village leader’s family will be responsible for overseeing the project. Two young women from the village will be responsible to watch the water reservoir.(Done)

8. Mr Xiga who has done this kind of project studies the ground to find out the best place where the new water source should be built.(Done)

9. Write project proposal. (Done)

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

11. Meet with the contractors Mr Jiangyong and Mr Xiga to arrange when and how the villagers will prepare the sand and stones, and the ditch where the pipe will go. Purchase plastic pipes from the Lanzhou City Plastic Factory . The other materials like valves, spigots, connectors and bricks were bought from Jiegu factory.

12. Build the water reservoir.

13. Villagers dig the ditch.

14. Water is piped to 75 household’s courtyards.

15. Choose two households to manage the system for a set period of time (the monitoring households will rotate).

16. Interview the villagers and take photos

17. Write final report

18. Send the final report to donors with photos and receipts.

Budget

Total Donor Contribution Requested: 118,600 rmb (15, 965 US dollars)

Total Project Cost: 236,650rmb (31,856US dollars)

Governmental support
The government tried to implement a running water project for upper Mengzong village five years ago, but they found out the plan was not viable because of the village’s location. This location, which is higher than the surrounding villages, prevented the water from going to upper Mengzong village. Therefore, this government project failed, although it did establish an empty water box. After the project is failed, the villagers requested a pumping system to pump water to the village, but the costs were more expensive than the system for lower Mengzong village. The people living in upper Mengzong village could not afford this expense. Three years later, after villagers consistently asked for a running water system from the village and township leaders, the leaders found that there is an old spring available 3.5 km away from the village. The existence of this spring showed that there was a possibility to carry out a running water project in the village. The government is very willing to support this project because they want and see the need for a running water system for upper Mengzong village.

Sustainability
The village leader will primarily be in charge of supervising the maintenance of the water project and all of the village households will take turns being responsible for upkeep of the drinking water system. All people in the village and the village committee will be responsible to repair any damages that occur to the system over time.

Past experiences
Basam dorlma is from lower Mengzong village and she has managed several projects in Qinghai Province. In 2003, Basam dorlma implemented and monitored (on a volunteer basis) a 4,500 rmb solar cooker project for lower Mengzong village, which was sponsored by the Canada Fund. In 2004, Basam dorlma did a second-hand clothing project for Xihang village in Jiegu Township, distributing clothes to the poorest families in the village. In 2005, Basam dorlma worked for Bridge Fund, teaching English in Kangsar village, Jiuzhi County, Golok Prefecture for six months. In 2007, Basam dorlma implemented and managed a 5,880 rmb solar electricity generating panel project for a nomadic village called Yejinema in Xia Raxi Township. In 2007, she worked as a member of Canada fund 2006-2007 solar cooker projects. These projects involved traveling to Tibetan villages with two other students to perform interviews.

Time frame

1 day: Hold meeting with the project committee and choose the local workers.

10 days: Villagers prepare sand and stones for the water box.

2 days: Purchase cement, taps and iron bars in Jiegu town, Yushu.

7 days: Purchase plastic pipes (from Lanzhou city in Gansu province).

15 days: Villagers dig the ditches to bury the pipe.

15 days: Running water pipeline is buried in the ditches.

10 days: Water is piped to the households’ courtyard.

5 days: Water taps are adjusted.

1 day: Hold meeting with the village committee.

Total Time: 66 days

Map of the project location

This project is to supply clean and potable drinking water for 60 households in Daiqian Village in order to improve the living conditions in Daiqian Village.

TheCouncil On International Education Exchange Ping Grant and Shem’s private donors funded this project

Danmajyid is from Daiqian Village, Zhaxixiulong Township, Tian zhu County, Wu wei Region, Gansu Province, China. She is currently working towards an Associate’s degree in English at the Qinghai Normal University, Nationalities Department, English Training Program.

What? Supply clean and potable drinking water for 60 households in Daiqian Village.

Who? Daiqian Village, Zhaxixiulong township, Tianzhu County, Wu wei Region, Gansu Province, PR China.

Photos of purchasing PE pipes

 
Workers are loading purchased pipes on the truck. 

These two pictures above show the moment when the villagers are unloading pipes in the village.

Villagers are holding a meeting to discuss the start date of the project.

Villagers and water experts are examining the water source.

Villagers are offering tsang [this is a kind of religious offering made of a mixture of roasted barley, butter, candies, and fruits] to a mountain god to pray for the success of the project.

These people were carrying stones to cover the ditch.

Villagers are participating to dig the ditch.

A machine is digging near the spring.

These two photos show hired laborers building water boxes.

Villagers digging theditch.

Interview photos

Wamaduojie is seventeen years old. He was washing vegetables with running water. He said, “Before we never used clean water to wash vegetables.” He also said that now he didn’t need to worry about having to wear dirty clothes to go to school.

Danchun is sixty two years old. He was so pleased to drink clean water anytime. He said he can now help himself to fetch water when his son and daughter- in-law leave to earn money.

Droma is seventy -seven years old. She gave thanks to CIEE for helping them and she doesn’t need to fetch water from the spring anymore. She said she never dreamed of this in her life. She has more time to chant and collect yak dung for fuel.

Project Summary

Project title: Running Water Project for Daiqian Village

Project goals: The overall goal of the project is to improve the living conditions in Daiqian Village; the immediate goal of the project is to supply clean and potable drinking water for 60 households in Daiqian Village.

Location of project: This project is located in Daiqian Village, Zhaxixiulong Township, Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, Gansu Province, and PR China. Daiqian is in the west of Lanzhou, and 63 km from Tianzhu County Town. Tianzhu County is 220 km from Xining. Daiqian Village is one of the small villages in Zhaxixiulong Township, which includes Daiqian, Shi Lun, and Zai Ku villages.

Total beneficiaries: There are approximately 357 people in Daiqian Village and they can directly benefit from this project. About 13 households will receive indirect benefits, and the villagers will no longer need to carry water from the water source.

Implementation organization/individual: Danmajyid (Carol), Huachen (The village leader), Shado Tsering, Dandrin Jyid, Nadrub Tso, and Taxi (Daiqian Village’s project committee members) and Shem Women’s Group.

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received
The Council on International Education Exchange Ping Grant and Shem’s private donors funded this project for a total of $20,018 (153,525 rmb), which was to be given in two installments: 50% of the funds was received at the beginning of the project and the other 50% was received after the middle of project. On December 18^th, 2007 the first installment for the amount of US $9,850 (69,415.6 rmb) was received; the second installment for the amount of US $9,850 (67,003 rmb) was received on August 19^th, 2008. Shem contributed 5000 rmb for this water project. The total amount received was 141,418.6 rmb.

Details of project activities

1. Funds were received on December 18th, 2007.

2. Water project committee was established with the participation of villagers. This committee was composed of five people – two men (Tashi, Shado Tsering) two women (Dandrin Jyid, and Nadrub Tso) and Danmajyid (Carol)

3. Held meeting to discuss how and where to purchase materials.

4. Contracts signed with the water project committee.

5. Collected local contribution for digging from the villagers.

6. Purchased iron bars and valves from County Town.

7. Hired machine to start to dig ditch; villagers also participated to cover the ditch.

8. Purchased plastic pipes from the Lhanzhou Plastic Factory. Other materials like valves, spigots, connectors, cement and bricks were bought from the Yongden Factory. It takes half an hour to travel from Tianzhu County to Yongden.

9. The running water pipe line was set up along the ditch

12. We hired 9 people to build water boxes.

13. Established a sustainable management plan that involved choosing five members who would be responsible and have good reputations within the village. These members will manage the system for a set period of time, and will then choose a new committee for the upcoming years.

14. Took photos during the project implementation and after project was completed.

15. Held meeting to reiterate future responsibility and sustainability.

16. Interviewed villagers, men, women and children about their opinions of the project results.

17. Write final report.

18. Send the final report with photos and receipts

Project Finances

Notes:
Total donor contribution for the project is 136,418.6 rmb. The first installment (50% of the total contribution) was received on December 18th, 2007 for the amount of US $9,850 (69,415.6) rmb. Total first grant 69,415.6 minus used money 60617.5 is 8798.1 which was only enough to buy cement and an iron bar. It was not enough for the payments of the water boxes workers and for hiring a machine to dig around the spring. So I owed 16, 000 rmb (for two water boxes) to the workers and they agreed to wait until the end of the project to receive payment. The second installment of money was spent on digging, water boxes, cement, plastic connectors and a redactor.

(1)Shem contributed 5,000 rmb for the project.

(2)The local people paid 19,250 rmb for hiring a machine to dig ditch.

(3)This amount of money was paid by Water Conservancy Department in Tianzhu County.

(4) Water Conservancy Department contributed three tons of plastic pipe in this project.

Delays, difficulties, and lesson learned
Delay of activities

There were several factors that delayed the implementation date of the project.

Firstly, it’s very hard to implement the project due to the current political situation.

Secondly, it was first time for me to implement a running water project and I did not have much experience in doing this kind of project. I went to buy the pipes while the villagers were digging the ditch. While the project committee and I were in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province, we had difficulties finding a large enough and cheap enough truck for transporting the materials. The best price was 2,500 rmb to transport the pipes to the project site. Therefore we called one of the men in Daiqian Village, who only need 900 rmb, to come to Lanzhou to transport the materials. So,we had to wait for him for almost one day.

Also, the villagers had little spare time to dig the ditch during time of year. This is because the government divided grazing areas again and the villagers had to rebuild their fences. During this time, they also had to cut yak hair and sheep wool and also dig for caterpillar fungus (a kind of herb). The villagers were planning to dig the ditch first, but the government needed them to divide the grazing areas first. So they had no time to dig the ditch. I collected money from the villagers to pay for the digging fee. We hired a digging machine and paid 8 rmb per meter. Villagers covered the ditch after it was finished.

Difficulties encountered when implementing the project
The weather caused many difficulties and delays. It was very hard to dig during rainy days. Also, rainy weather caused problems transporting materials.

The weather was very unpredictable so we had to finish digging as soon as possible; otherwise it could have been dangerous for both people and livestock. Digging the ditch was also inconvenient for transportation, because the main pipe ran beside the road.

Also when I asked for local contributions to pay for digging a few people complained and were unwilling to give money for digging. I explained that I didn’t request money for digging from the donor and also most of the people had no time to dig the ditch. If I had waited for all the people to have time to dig the ditch it would have delayed the project. They had a lot of arguments with village leader. I wanted to solve problems between them, but no one listened to me it made me feel really bad.

Luckily, people realized my burden and that it’s not very easy to implement a project, so they had to cherish the opportunity.  Finally all the villagers were willing to give money to dig the ditch and they were also pleased to cover the ditch. The village leader and I divided the project committee into groups so they could take charge of different areas.  I also asked one person to take photos of all the processes of project implementation.

Another difficulty was the fact that only 50% of the funds were available for the project, so after I purchased pipe, there were little money left, and it was only enough to purchase the cement and a metal iron bar. There was no money to buy spigots connections, valves, metal wire, screws and bricks (we paid half of the metal iron bar fee) and to clear the payments for the water boxes workers and workers who worked around the spring. In this area it is very hard to owe and borrow money from others and especially difficult to ask workers to wait for their payments.

After the workers finished digging around spring and built water boxes, I had no money to pay them.. These people complained that I was not trustworthy. They asked my parents everyday to pay them. So I asked to borrow 47000 rmb from Shem and 10000 rmb from one of my relatives to get things done quickly.

Lessons learned

Throughout the implementation of the project, I acquired experience on how to deal with different people. I also had to convince others and try to make them come to terms; for instance, I had to try to make village leaders, factory and workers to agree to wait for the payments for a while. After all this, I felt more confident to negotiate with others and come to agreements. I also learned how to manage the project process. I experienced that when you meet difficulties you have to search for more ways to come up with solutions, and you should not think there is no hope. We should challenge our life with different situations. Everything has a good result in the end, and it depends on your attitude and how you take responsibility. So our main point is trying best to reach our goal. Don’t give up easily when we face problems. Also, I learned some strategies of how to make decisions.

I realized confidence is the most important thing for a project manager, especially a female manager. Don’t be afraid that there is no result when you face problems. Actually, women have a low position in my village; most people have negative stereotypes towards women and think that we are unable to accomplish important things. You have to show your ability and let them see women can also do something important, but we need confidence in order to keep pursing our goal even when others doubt about us. Now, some people’s opinions toward women have changed during project implementations.

Changes and Variations from Original Project (Beneficiaries, Budget, Activities, Time frame)
One thing that is different from the original proposal was that during my visit to the project site, I found that two families had migrated to Xinjiang. So there are now 58 households in the village (as opposed to 60 households, stated in the original proposal). Therefore, changes were made to the original plan. Also, there was some variation in the price of materials; the price of materials had increased since my first estimate. We checked four factories and finally figured out which quality was best with a suitable price. We chose the best quality in the factory. Also we needed to buy more pipes than before, because we decided to have longer drain pipes in order to prevent the water from damaging the villager’s fields. This is one of the reasons why the original budget changed.

The time frame was a little different because the machine broke down several times during the project, so the project was delayed by many days.

Also it’s rained a lot while people were the digging ditch.

List of recipient

The name list of all the villagers in Daiqian Village

Receipts 1

Receipt 2

Receipt 2

Receipts2

Receipts2

Receipts 2

Receipts 2

Receipts 2 are all project management expenses. Donor paid 500 rmb and I paid the rest5 .5rmb.

Receipts 3

Receipts 4

Receipts 5

Receipts 6

Receipts 7

Receipts 8

Donor paid 55.6 rmb and local people paid the rest of the money.

Receipts 9

Receipts 10

Receipts 11

Receipts 12

Receipts 13

Original Proposal

 Population
There are approximately 357 people in Dai Qian Village. There are 124 women, 159 men and 74 school aged children.

Education
Ten percent of villagers are not currently students and they are illiterate. There are 3 university students (two boys and one girl), 6 high school students (four boys and two girls), 7 middle school students (four girls and three boys) and 9 primary school students (six boys and three girls). Total there are 25 students out of 74 school-aged children in the village. Most of the villagers are not able to pay for high school tuition and expenses, around 2,000rmb for per students, per semester or university school tuition and expenses, around 6,000rmb for per student, per semester.

Agriculture
Dai Qian Village is a nomadic area. The main mode of subsistence is nomadic. There is no agriculture due to the harsh climate and lack of water.

Herding/ Cash income
About ten years ago, each family owned two or three hundred sheep and about one hundred yaks. Their income was very good. They produced butter and cheese and sold these products for cash, they also sold some livestock.

However, the herds have shrunk in recent years due to a combination of factors:

• Grassland destruction, due to mining and overgrazing.
• Limited water resources additionally exacerbated by mining in recent years.
• Disease.

Currently, some families do not have any yaks while those that still have are down to 30 to 50 yaks. The families have about 50 to 70 sheep to day and the all over result is a general decline in the income.

Villagers sell most of their butter and cheese, earning 300-500 RMB per year per family. They can make about 25 to 30 jinn of butter and 30 jinn of cheese each year.

Another way to earn some money villagers is to leave the village in search of work and adults who are able to work do this. They often go to dig caterpillar fungus, a kind of plant, which is very difficult to find and is prized for its medicinal qualities. One stick of caterpillar fungus can be sold for between five and seven RMB. People usually go to dig caterpillar fungus at the beginning of May and go back home in the middle of June. Each person can earn about 600-800 RMB. This money is largely spent on children who go to school and on family costs, such as the New Year celebration.

Families spend about 1000 RMB on food and about 500 RMB on clothes and other family needs. In summer families spend about 400 to 500 RMB on fertilizer for the grassland. Monthly expenses run about 100 RMB per month, which covers electricity, salt, medicine, and other family needs.

Project Goal

The overarching goal of this project is to improve the lives of the villagers in Daiqian Village.

The immediate goal of this project is to build a running water system for 60 household in Daiqian Village.

The problem the villagers face today can be summarized as follows

• The villagers take three or four hours to fetch water everyday. It wastes a lot of time, which could be spent doing something else to improve the living conditions.
• In Daiqian village mostly girls and women do the arduous task of fetching water once or twice every day. In winter they melt ice which is not clean for water. This causes many health problems; however it is extremely difficult to get fresh water in the winter. The unskilled labor wastes a lot of time, the girls cannot enter schools, and the women don’t have time to do housework.
• Villagers currently fetch water to drink from streams which are 1~1.5 km away from where they live. It takes three hours to walk there and walk back.
• Fetching water is also linked to issues of status for village women. When guests arrive unexpectedly and water is not available for customary tea, the women of the household are looked down upon and even ridiculed as unfit mothers, daughters or wives. Often water availability is out of a woman or girl’s control. A running water system will eliminate this issue.
• There was a 21-meter deep well dug in Daiqian village, but it was salty and dried out after one month.
• When younger villagers leave the village to pursue paid labor opportunities. In some cases this leaves elderly villagers and young children with the task of fetching water. Since they cannot carry the large buckets, they must make many trips using just teapots.

Benefits of the project
As discussed above, girls and women currently fetch most of the water for the village. A running water system that carries clean water to each household will relieve girls and women of a time consuming chore. As a result of this project, girls and women may use their freed up time to acquire more highly valued skills and thus reduce their inequality. In particular, girls can use the time saved on more productive activities such as studying and training for other skilled jobs without being over burdened. Women can use the time to relax or work on other household activities. Also, status issues for women will be avoided. Some particular problems a running water system will address:

• After a difficult day of herding, women and girls will not have to spend time and energy fetching water
• Villagers will not have to drink dirty water from melted snow
• More girls can go to school and women will have more time to do other things.
• Women will feel less stress about issues related to water, such as always having tea ready for guests.
• A running water project will solve the drinking water problems for villagers and livestock
• A steady water supply will encourage better hygienic practices, such as washing hands and clothes.
• Some villagers may use the water to grow vegetables.

Gender equality
The project will be implemented and managed by the villagers in Daiqian Village. We chose three women and three men in the project committee and they all have equal power to make the decision and manage the project. Also the project will most directly benefit women, because women do most of the housework, including fetching water. Fetching water problems directly related to women have been discussed above.

Governmental Support
On January16, 2007 the project manager ( Danmajyid) talked to Ma Gongbao and he is a County government leader. He said this is a good project and try your best to do this project and he gave the permission to do this project.

Interviews
1)Lama is thirty-five years old. She has one son and one daughter. The son is a middle school student. The daughter has never gone to school. She must stay at home and help her mother. Lama gets up very early every day. Then she goes far away to fetch water. That can take three or four hours, so she doesn’t have much time to do other things. Almost all her time is spent fetching water. They don’t let the girl go to school because she must help her mother fetch water, herd livestock, etc. Once a week they drive the strong livestock to the river for water. Most other times, the family collects dirty water from cooking and washing to give to the livestock.

2)Caijyid is an old woman. She is seventy years old and she is blind. She can’t go far away to fetch water. She has no children and no husband. She has lived a long life and water is a problem for her. She asks friends to fetch water for her or she goes to a neighbor’s house to drink tea because she has no water to make tea. A neighbor brought a lot of ice to her that she could melt for water, but she left it in the yard and it was covered with dust. She’s worried it’s not good for her health.

3)Zhaxi is a herdsman. He has two sons, but they went to other places to earn money. His wife has bad arthritis. She can’t go far away to fetch water and their livestock does not get enough water. Zhaxi can’t fetch water because he is afraid of rumors starting in the village. In this village men never fetch water from the river, it is a woman’s task. Therefore, they melt snow or ice for water. In the summer, they use plastic to catch water or ladle water from holes in the ground

The steps of the project

Completed tasks of the project

1)During the 2006 and 2007 winter holidays, I spoke with people in my village asking what kinds of projects might improve their lives. They said that a running water system is the most needed project and would greatly improve local people’s lives.

2) I spoke with the village leader about the necessity of the project. Also interviewed some households about the water situation.

3) Got permission from the Tianzhu County leader, Ma Gongbo.

4)Learned from someone who already did several water projects about materials, prices and implementation.

5)Priced the materials, decided on purchasing from a factory in Lanzhou.

6)Held a meeting with villagers and asked three women and three men to be responsible for purchasing the materials, the project committee.

7) Chose the water source

8)Took photographs, conducted interviews, and made a detailed map of the water system (see below)

Implementation Plan

9)Funds received.

10)Hold meeting with the villagers.

11) Villagers dig the ditch.

12)Purchase Materials.

13)Villagers place the tubes underground.

14) Monitor the project.

15) Interview the villagers, men, women and children about their opinion of the result.

16) Take the photos.

17)Send the final report with the photos and receipts.

Timeframe of the project

The project will be completed within one month and a half after receiving the funds.

Detailed Budget of the project

Notes:

Exchange rate to US$ 7,6RMB
Total amount of donation requested in Renmingbi 153,525 =$20,018

Sustainability of the project
This water project is sustainable, because at first villagers ask the project manager (Danmajyid) to do it and second all the villagers will benefit from the project. Also villagers will be responsible for doing the works like digging and building, because they are the user of the water. They will be responsible for the water spring and that the materials are purchased from the good company which is the company where some of Daiqian villagers usually purchase materials from there and we can ask them to change it if the materials have problems. Besides these, there are three women and three men to take care the water spring after the implementation of the project.

The village project committee, as well as local villagers and Danmajyid will be responsible for maintaining the project after it has been implemented. If there will be any unexpected costs or expenses for repairing, the villagers and villager leader agreed to pay for that.

The donors are expected to reserve the right to visit and inspect projects at any time.

In addition, the source of this water is spring and it is very clean because there aren’t any factories in Daiqian village or near to the Daiqian village, so it is not polluted. Also from generation to generation the people and the livestock in Daiqian village drink this water and no one has got sick from the water. This project is using 7,880meters pipe to carry water from spring to every household. The spring is available. All the households and livestock have enough water to drink. The water has no changing during the different seasons and even in winter it still follows.

Photos from Daiqian Village

The Daiqian Village Project Committee. Danmajyid is to the right and front, in the orange jacket. From left to right, back to front, the other members are Tsepdan, Tashi, Shado Tsering, Dandrin Jyid, and Nadrub Tso.

Yaks lick the ice on the frozen valley stream. Watering animals is particularly difficult during the winter. You can see Danmajyid’s section of Daiqian Village in the background.

Cheji Gyamtsen, Danmajyid’s uncle and a monk from Kumbum Monastery (near Xining), collects water from the spring. The plan is to tap this spring, which has abundant water.

Another section of households that will benefit from a water project in Daiqian Village.

Additional Information
This project must be implemented through summer when it is easy to dig and weather is good. It is impossible to do this project in the winter since the soil is frozen and hard to deal with. Also it is better if this project can happen from May to July because after July to September the villagers are busy at herding livestock and digging medical herbs.
Additional information for the manager, Dan ma jyid (Carol)
In 2006 I did a second-hand cloth project for Zhai xi xiu long village and it was supported by The British Consulate in Shanghai.

Diagram of the project

Map of the project location

This project is to build a running water system for 146 households in Qurang Village, in Gonghe County .

The Shambala Connection funded this project

Sangyi Drolma is from Guomang Village, Guomang Township, Guinan County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. She has studied English for four years. She has graduated from  Qinghai Normal University, Nationality Department’s English Training Program in 2008. Currently she is working in The Shambala Connection.

Photos of project implementation

Project manager and village leader went to see how the workers get sand for water tank.

The governments send pipes to Qurang village.

One of skilled worker carry out the sand from tank, it is 4.5meters deep

This is one of the inspect wells that skilled workers built, it was built by 500 bricks, cement and sand.

The running water system for animals in Qurang Village

Project summary

Project title: Running Water for Qurang Village

Project goal The goal of this project is to build a running water system for 146 households in Qurang Village, in Gonghe County

Location of project: Qurang Village (曲让), Tanggamu Township, Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai
Province.

Total beneficiaries: The Running water system totally benefited 146 households of 584 villagers

Implementation organization/individual Sangyi Drolma ( Justina), Rangzhuo and Banguo (Qurang Village leaders), and Shem Women’s group.

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received
Shem Women’s Group gave 75,000 RMB to the project manager (Sangyi Drolma) on 17^th April 2008.

Details of project activities

1. The project was funded by The Shambala Connection in 2008 January.
2. Sangyi Drolma (the project manager) visited the project site again decided which source we should use and also she went to local government asked their helps.
3. After that donor helped project manager to rewrite the budget because what she plan and what we need it very different.
4. On 5^th April 2008 hold a meeting with township leaders and village leader decided how to build running water and discussed when the project could start.
5. Sangyi Drolma (the project manager) received 75,000 RMB from Shem Women’s Group on17th April.
6. On April 15^th 2008, Sangyi Drolma went to the village again and the machine started digging ditch. Also the next day the project manager hired thirty people to dig ditch because the machine was very slow
7. On April 22^nd, Sangyi Drolma went to the county with village leaders’ to purchase the project materials and transport bricks and cement to Qurang
   village.
8. On April 24th, Sangyi Drolma held a meeting with the project committee, and told them to take responsibilities for the materials and solve any problems that could happen during the project implementation.
9. On April 29^th, government sent a water expert helped the villagers to connect the pipes, and check the inspect wells.
10. On May 5^th, other materials such as pipes, connections, and valves were transported to Qurang Village.
11. On May 15^th, we finished digging ditches and the project manager took some pictures for the project.
12. On May 20^th, we finished the built ditch and start to build the tank.
13. On May 28^th, the project is totally done and the government leaders inspect the project.

Project finance
The original budget presented for donor indicated a total project cost of 176.057 RMB. Later investigation showed that this was unrealistic especially due to the 2 meter deep and 6 kilometers long ditch that needed to be dug. A new budget was prepared showing a total project cost 201.930 RMB.

At this time the local government had also announced their willingness to pay parts of the project and also cooperate closely during implementation.

Despite several complications, especially the villagers failing do deliver their part of the voluntary labor; we managed to stay within the cash budget by 5.6% The following table shows the final budget compared to final financial result:

Notes
Note #1
In the proposal I applied  83,057rmb=$11,185 for donor, but when the project started it is a little bit change because the government also gave 20% money for the project, so the donor just gave 75,000RMB.

Note #2
Before we planed villagers to dig the ditches, but Qurang villagers are nomads, they don’t know how to dig. And then I asked government to help, so we used digging machine and government paid 20,000RMB and we paid 52,000RMB.

Note #3
all the pipes that Gonghe County and Tanggemu Government bought for us, they paid 52,360RMB.So we spent our money to dig the ditches.

Note #4
We spent local contribution on the skilled workers, the project manager used the money left from digging ditches, and we bought more connections than we planned as needed.

Note #5
we build a big tank for save extra water, that paid 4500RMB for skilled works and local people paid sand for 3600RMB. Also we bought 5ton cement for build tank, it paid 2500RMB.

Note #6
We didn’t put the steels in the budget, so we spent 1500RMB to bought Steels for big tank.

Note#7
Because of villagers didn’t do anything for the project, the project manager asked village to pay 3600RMB for sand, except that money that everything paid by donor in the project, also government helped pipes and 20,000RMB for digging ditch.

Delays, Difficulties, and lessons learned
Delays
There is one reason for delaying the implementation date of the project. In the original project I didn’t apply for build a big tank. After finished the ditch works, villages asked me to build a big tank to store water inside because they all afraid that the water source will be freeze in the winter or there is no enough water for animals,  so we spent fifteen days to build the tank about 40ton(round one,6meters deep) Therefore the whole project took fifteen days longer than what I planned in the original project.

Difficulties
Before writing my proposal I visited Qurang village. First I met the village leader Niang tai jia, I told my idea to him and he didn’t believe in my ability because he told me that I can’t do anything in his village. At that time, I really wanted to give up the project because this is the first time that people don’t believe me. During the implementation, the most serious problem which I encountered was before my project started I asked villagers to dig the ditch, but it is a nomadic area and villagers don’t know how to use the shovel because they never used it before. Actually, digging ditch was local contribution in my original plan. So we hired digging machine to dig ditches, and we need more money. I talked to my donor and he asked me to visit the project site again find solution for that, so I told the problem to local government and asked them for help. The government leaders were very kind; they helped us to buy all the pipes and paid 20,000rbm for digging. Also one difficulty was that I am not from Qurang village, people treat me as an outsider. When I bought bricks and cement and transport it to the village, none of them helped me because they don’t want to listen to me. It made me very angry and disappointment. Another problem was that it was very hard to find workers work for the project. It was nomadic area, villagers don’t know how to use shovels and also the Chinese workers are afraid that Tibetan foods are not fit for them. So they don’t want to come to Tibetan area.

Lessons learned
Throughout the implementation of the project, I felt it is really hard to make someone believe in you first. You should do something to improve you, no matter how difficult or easy it is. One thing very important is never and ever give up on what you want to do. Also I learned one thing that you should have strong self-confidence before you do something. In local area people have different perspectives on men and women. Most people have negative stereotypes toward women and think that we are unable to do something important like men do. Actually, women can also do something important if you have confidence in order  to keep pursuing our goal. In Qurang village, some people’s opinions toward women have changed since I implemented the project.  People think that doing this project was a great improvement for every woman in the village. One important thing that I learned from the project is cooperation. Not only among the village people, whose teamwork was so important for the project, but also between the village, donor, government and I, whose cooperation and involvement has been determinant for the success of the project. For example, when donor gives me money and villagers don’t want to do the project, then everything will be crashed. In my project, the local government cooperated very well, because the leaders helped things what we need.

Interviews

Songnan said “I am twenty-seven years old, and I am a herdsman. We don’t have water so that we always drink dirty water from a hole; also we need to walk very long distances to get water for livestock whole year. Now we have water here. I am really happy we can use it for animals and people.”

Rangzhuo and Banguo—– Two village leaders and they said “people are very happy that they got water. Before there is no water around here so it benefits all people and animals from Qurang Village. We don’t need spend so much money and time to get water from now on, thanks to your great help.”

Zhejia said “I grow up here, I am never free in the winter because we don’t have water, but now it is really easy to get water, I just drive my hand tractor to water tap here. Also after the project, woman became a little bit free in my family. They don’t need carry water as they always have done. We are deeply
grateful for this help.”

 Letter of appreciation 

Translation of the Thanks Letter 

Dear The Shambala Connection,

We are all from Qurang Village, Tanggemu Township, Gonghe County. We did not have water here and have been suffering for decades. Last year, there was good chance when Sangyi Drolma visited our village and realized how difficult our situation was. Then she helps us to do the running water project, it spent one year to get funds for the project. Also our local government helped with pipes and also sent some water experts to help with the project. Our villagers are very happy and deeply thankful that we have water now, and our dream comes true. People no longer need to endure the hard works. All the people from our village say thanks to you. Hopefully all the nomads who are living here will have a much easier life after this.

Kind Regards!!!

All villagers from Qurang

Receipts 

Receipt #1

The receipt contains some parts of receipt #2, #3 and #5.

Receipt #2

The brick fee from receipt #1 and receipt in above is receipt #1&2 in budget.

 Receipt#3

Receipt 3 and the cement fee from receipt #1

 Receipt #4

 Receipt #5

The receipt#5 and the rest parts of lime and steel bar fee from receipt #1

 Receipt #6

 Receipt #7

Missed receipt for 790rmb which is project expenses from donor contribution

 Receipt #8

Receipt #9

Donor paid 2000RMB for water expert because we hired three people to connect the pipes and build inspect wells. However, this receipt is missing.

Original Proposal

Project location
This project is located in Qurang Village (曲让), Tanggemu Township, Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Qurang Village is located on the west of Xining City and is about 82 kilometers away from Qiabuqia Township. It takes five hours by bus to get from Qurang Village to Xining; it is approximately 142 kilometers from Qiabuqia to Xining. Hence, the total distance between Qurang Village and Xining is 224 kilometers. Qurang Village is a small Village in Tanggemu Township. All the people in the Village are Amdo Tibetan.

Population
There are approximately 584 people in Qurang Village, of which 246 women, 183 men, and 155 children make up the Village population. There are 103 children who are attending school, of which 62 are boys and 41 are girls.Education
In this village between 60 %-70% of the school-aged children are currently receiving education, among them there are only 7 university students (6 boys and 1girl) There are14 middle school(10 boys and 4 girls) and 6 high school students(4 boys and 2 girls) 76 primary school students（29girls and47 boys） On average, for every two families currently only one child is sent to school, however still the poorest families cannot afford tuition at all. There is a primary school in the village; however the closest middle school and high school are at about 60 km away from the village. Students must stay at school and pay for tuition and food, which costs that most families cannot afford.

Recently, most primary school children are receiving education as the government provides all children of this age with free education. However, as the children get older and move to middle and high school many of them will withdraw from school. As the children get older and are able to help in the house, some families force them to take on house task such as herding or fetching water, in other words, they become a very important labor source for the family. Also, many families do not see the value of getting education, as the parents themselves have never been educated. They do not understand the importance of education in the live of their children.

For all these reasons, there are very few students who are attending college. In this village, only 7 are college students. It is also difficult for most nomadic families to pay the 6000 rmb fee for college tuition each year. However, even after students attend college, job placement is not guarantee. Currently, this is a major problem that college students face. In most cases they will wait to get government jobs for which anyone should pass an exam, but this could take them about three or four years and by that time most of them have forgotten many of the things they learned at school. Therefore, passing this exam and finding a good job becomes the pursuit of a dream. Until students can find a job that allows them to support themselves, they continue to depend on their parents, which make it difficult for the families. This situation discourages families to send their children to college, as there is no guarantee that they will have a job in the future. Instead they think it is better to keep children at home so they can help their family earn money by herding livestock or contributing to household chores.

At the same time, it is especially difficult for girls to continue their education. People in the Village tend to think that sending girls to school is useless, traditionally, girls when they get marry they leave out the house and they will no longer help their original families.

Cash Income
In Qurang Village, all the people are nomads. About 584 people live on animal husbandry, earning around 700-1200 rmb each year. In recent years, the villagers only earn around 500-700 rmb because the desertification caused very little grass for livestock. Also no enough water for livestock to drink, so that livestock become weaker and weaker. When people sold livestock to county town they only got 300rmb for a sheep. Consequently, living conditions are becoming worse. The only ways for villagers to earn money is from selling yaks, sheep, and wool. Before, each family usually owned more than 30 yaks, so from the yak’s milk they could produce butter and cheese to generate extra income. Now families lose a few livestock animals each year from due to lack of water. Some of poorest families have no income because all of their money is spent on food, clothes, and other essentials.The average family makes 1,000 rmb in cash income per year. However, the expenses of living can be around 2,000 rmb per year. If the family has a University student they need to borrow money from others or take out loans from the bank to afford their tuition. People who cannot pay back the government or banks lose their borrowing privileges and are no longer able to take out loans. So the villager’s lives become very difficult.

Herding
Qurang Village is a nomadic area, so every family raises livestock. Now the government has divided the big pasture area into pieces for each family. Each family has an average of three or four kinds of animals. For example, each family owns 186 sheep, 15 yaks, one horse, and one donkey. Each year they moved three times to different places to herd livestock. Family members are separated over these different places so that each person can do their own work. If it is raining day, the villagers collect rainwater in buckets so they can afford to let their animals drink. Sometimes people just used rainwater to drink too.

During rainy days, people must heard and walk in the rain all the day. Sometimes herdsmen walk about 6 kilometers away from the village to herd animals because there is not enough grass for livestock. Around the middle of July the herds move to the place called “autumn place.” They spend 40 days there before coming back to Qurang Village.

I am applying for running water system for their winter place where people settled most of time. Also they built house in winter place where the most old people and children are living there.

Agriculture
There is no agriculture in Qurang Village. It is not a suitable environment for staple crops and vegetables because of climate and land conditions.

Project goals
The overarching aim of this project is to improve the living condition, increase cash income, improve education and reduce women’s task in Qurang village
The immediate goal of this project is to build a running water system for 146 households in Qurang Village, in Gonghe County.

Problems
No water system in Qurang Village Until 1995, Qurang Village had one small fountainhead that barely provided enough water for the people. Sometimes women had to get up at three o’clock to wait for water one by one in winter time. Sometimes the weather was so cold that water would freeze and there would be no other water resources until spring (March). Access to water for livestock was a big problem that villagers had to walk about 10 kilometers away to beg for water from nearby villages. Villagers often spent up two days just trying to provide water for livestock.

Increased women’s labor In the village, women have to do most chores in the family. At sunrise, they walk l0 kilometer to fetch water and when they come back they do all the housework and cook food for family members. The winter is especially difficult, because people have to wake up at 3:00 am and wait in line to get water. The women maintain a small fire in order to prevent the water resource from freezing. During the summer, women are so busy to move place to another area and men go outside to get water. So women should move place to carry stuff by themselves. It takes almost one week to transport everything they need, sometimes except moving things get water also women’s task so in the Village everybody described that women just worked as a donkey.

Low income and high price of water Usually men can’t leave the village to earn money because they must stay at home to help women get water for livestock and family members. In the village, people believe that getting water is the most important task because if there is no water, livestock can’t survive and without livestock the people cannot make a living. Getting water is especially difficult in the winter because all the families in Qurang Village have to go 10 kilometer away to get water by hand tractor. They spend an average of 1000 rmb, which is equivalent to their yearly income, to buy gas for the tractor. Also only men can drive hand tractors to get water, leaving women to do all the work in the household after that their life is so difficult that they borrow money from banks or from relatives to survive. If families have college students they will borrow money from a bank pay high interests and after the student graduates from school they should earn money and pay back to the bank.

Health problems Fetching water is a difficult task. In Qurang Village, sometimes women must get up three or four o’clock to carry water during the winter. During the summer when people cannot predict when it will rain, this task is especially dangerous, as a sudden storm may appear when people are fetching water, making the ground slippery and the river rough. Many Villagers have suffered broken bones from falling on the steep mountain road while fetching water. Also people’s hands touch in the water when they fetch water in bucket use scoop without wear plastic gloves and also water will pour on their body it is easy to get cold. When women get older some of them can’t walk due to back problems from fetching water and wash clothes in the water. Some people end up with a kind of disease called rheumatism. Many women and girls also suffer from hunched backs and backaches from fetching water in water barrels on their backs

Benefits
If we build a running water system it will benefit 146 households and all of the livestock in Qurang Village, so many problems will be solved:

· Everyone will drink clean and reliable water that will improve his or her health. People will wash their clothes and faces everyday, ensuring that diseases spread less quickly among people.

· People don’t need to go far distances to get water because they will only have to walk about 150 meters to get water. Also they can have more free time to do other work and earn extra income to improve their living conditions.

· With this added time, more girls will be able to have time to attend school, do schoolwork and get education.

· Women will have more free time to participate village’s activities. Before they were just busy carrying water and taking care of children so that only men enjoyed outside activities.

· Villagers will be able to save 1,000 rmb. They won’t need to buy gas for tractors to carry water, so people will be able to afford tuition and send their children to school. Also students won’t need to spend their time at home fetching water; they can read more books and study harder to improve their education. So more and more students will be able to go to good university.

Beneficiaries
This running water project will benefit approximately 960 people and all the livestock, including the people in Qurang Village and nearby village called Yingde’er. Because Yingde’er Villagers also get drinking water from the dirty river, when this project is funded they will also be able to use the new water source. As all the difficulties discussed above, men and women currently fetch most of the water for the village. A running water system that carries clean water to the village will relieve men and women of a time consuming chore. As a result of this project, all the people may use their freed up time to acquire more highly valued skills and learn new things. In particular, children can use the time saved on more productive activities such as studying and training for other skilled jobs without being over burdened. Women can use the time to relax or work on other household activities.

Gender equality
If this project is accomplished it will mostly benefit women, but it will also benefit men too. Because in Qurang Village women’s position is lower than men, women do most difficult work such as carry water and take care of children and old parents. Also everybody thinks men are more capable than women Moreover, their involvement in this project can be a first step for women’s greater involvement in Village affairs and it will raise women’s position in the village. All the people will understand women also can do things the same as men. This project will train women to be more active because without carrying water they can have free time to participate Village activities to show their abilities. Also it is a good chance for women to gain experiences to do things that can improve women’s ability too. This project will encourage many more and more children will get education in school without help family to carrying water. Also once there is a water system in that community it is certain that many girls will spend far less time collecting water and many girls will have the time to be able to attend school and gain an education, allowing them to gain the skills to do their own projects in the future.

Government approval
The local government agreed with the villagers to build a water system three years ago, but they have no money to support the village. If this project is funded, the government leader Niangba said they completely support it and they really hope this project can happen as soon as possible.

The steps of project
1.1st, May, 2007 during the May Holiday I went to Qurang Village discuss the main problems of accessing water with the Villager leaders (Niang Tai jia and Rang zhuo) and villagers. (Already done)

2.Talk with village leader and villagers about the village’s most essential needs. (Already done)

3.Collect information about the project and decide how the water problem can be solved with village leaders. (Already done)

4.With some villagers and village leaders visited the spring which is sustainable and will supply the village with its new water resource.(Already done)

5.Take pictures of the local conditions with village leaders.(Already done)

6.Talk to a project manager (who did running water project before) and skilled workers who have experience working on this type of project. Discuss with them what kinds of materials are needed.(Already done)

7.Asked township’s leader that they have agreement to do this project.(Already done)

8.Contact the factory leader to get specific prices about all the materials in Gonghe county.(Already done)

9.Hold a meeting with villagers and ask four women and three men to be responsible for the materials and decided the best place in charge of the spring.(Already done)

10. Write project proposal.(Already done)

11. Secure Funding.

12. Receive funds.

13. Hold a meeting with all of villagers to discuss the date of the project when will it start and choose two responsible people to arrange villager to prepare the sand and stones.

14. Purchase plastic pipes, cement and bricks from Hainan prefecture and choose the three responsible villagers (two men and a women) begin overseeing the project construction and until the project is completed.

15. Villagers will dig the ditch and build the water tanks.

16. Interview the villagers to gage the success of the project and take photos.

17. Write a final report and send it to donor.

Time frame (the project needs 60 days for its completion)

a. One day: hold a meeting discuss all the things that need in project

b. Three days: contact with project committee and prepare

c. Twelve days: ask villagers to prepare stone and sand

d. Six days: purchase cement, brick and plastic pipe in Hainan prefecture

e. Five days: purchase all the materials in Hainan prefecture

f. Twenty five days: villagers will dig running water pipe line

g. Seven days: water is piped to Qurang Village

One day: hold meeting with project committee again and we will check out the project.

Detailed budget