This project is to buy 20 threshing machines for six villages in Jialaxi Township to alleviate the village women’s workload and furthermore to improve family living condition.

Shem’s Private Donor Mr. Hans 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 2008. Now she is a teacher in Ari Zha Primary School in Shiqu County Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province.

What?  Purchase 26 threshing machines for the six poorest villages to alleviate village women’s workload, and to improve families’ living conditions in Jialaxi Township, Xinlong County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

Who?  Six villages, including Rala Village, Xide Village, Regan Village, Gagandi Village, Walo Village and Niuri Village in Jialaxi Township, Xinlong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

Photos of project implementation:

The project manager choosing the best quality of threshing machine and electric motor with the boss of the threshing company in her office.

One of Walo Village’s leaders (also a project manager), the truck driver and the project manager check the machines and make sure there are no problems, making sure the company exchanges the machines if there is any problems before loading them into the truck.

 4000W top-quality electric motors

Workers loading the machines onto the truck 

Covering the machines with a tarp

There is heavy snow on the way to the project site, so the driver has to put chains on the truck’s wheels. The project manager and driver did not reach Kanding until midnight, having only one meal the whole day, because the road was so slippery with snow.

The threshing machines and the electric motors arrive at the project site, and the project managers distribute them to the villagers.

The project manager collecting beneficiaries’ fingerprints

The project manager explains the instructions and guarantee of the machines to the villagers. She also distributed the warranty papers.

Rala villagers (from one of the six villages) come to get the machines and the project manager explains the instructions and guarantee again.

The recipients load their own machines in tractors to transport them to their own villages.

Project summary: 

Project title: Threshing Machines for Six Poorest Villages in Jialaxi Township.

Project goals: Purchase 26 threshing machines for six villages to alleviate the village women’s workload and to improve families’ living conditions in Jialaxi Township, Xilong County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

Project location: This project is located in Rala Village, Xide Village, Regan Village, Gagandi Village, Walo Village and Niuri Village in Jialaxi Township, Xinlong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, PRC.

Total beneficiaries: This project directly benefited 453 people from six villages, including Xide Village, Rala Village, Regan Village, Gagandi Village, Walo Village and Niuri Village.

Implementation organization/Individual:

Tashi Hlamo (the project manager), the six villages and Shem Women’s Group.

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received:

Tashi Hlamo received 42,960 RMB (80% of the project funds) from Shem Women’s Group on January 16^th , 2012, and received 9,741 RMB on March 19^th, 2012 after the project manager implemented the project successfully.  

Details of the project activities:

1. Discussed with the villages’ leaders and the villagers why they need threshing machines and how threshing machines can help them to thresh barley.  
2. Discussed with the villagers how three households would share one machine.
3. Figured out where to buy the threshing machines and the prices of machines at a company in Chengdu City.
4. Figured out how to transport the machines to the villages and the transportation fees.    
5. Wrote the project proposal.  
6. Received the funds for the project.
7. Purchased 26 machines from the threshing machine company in Chengdu.
8. Delivered the machines to the project site and distributed them to the villages; explained the instructions and the guarantee of the machine to the villagers.
9. Took pictures of the implementation.
10. Completed the final report.
11. Sent final report to Shem

Project finance: Notes: * +1,199 RMB was the remainder of the donor contribution of the project funds because the project manager purchased slightly smaller machines than originally planned because of the villagers’ recommendations. Out of 1,199 RMB, 200 RMB was given to Anai, whose mouth was injured during implementing the project, for his treatment fee, and the project manager also gave 100 RMB towards his treatment from her own pocket. The remainder of the donor contribution is 999 RMB.                                                                                        

Changes, Difficulties and Lessons Learnt:

 Changes:

    There were two changes to the project. Firstly, in the original proposal, we planned to purchase 20 threshing machines and 20 electric motors at a cost of 2,800 RMB per electric motor. However, the villagers said that in recent years, the electricity is not good so sometimes the there is not enough power to run a 2,800 RMB machine since it needs a higher wattage of electricity. The villagers suggested that the project manager buy a smaller electric motor which costs 2,070 RMB per threshing machine. The cheaper electric motor needs less electricity so it is more useful to the villagers. The project manager bought 26 threshing machines and 26 electric motors, which is 6 more threshing machines and electric motors than we originally planned. We also planned that each of three households would have one machine with one electric motor, but actually every two households received one machine based on their location (for some families, it is a very long distances between households).

     The second change is in the location of some of the beneficiaries. Originally, Gere Village was included in the six villages that would get machines from the project, but the villagers had a big conflict recently which is not about the project, and some people left because of this. In addition, some people from the village told the project manager that they could not share the machines with two or three households as planned because of the recent conflict. Therefore, the project manager decided to give the machines to another village named Xide Village instead of Gere Village because there was not enough machines for each family. Xide Village is Gere Village’s neighbor and the distance between the two villages is only about half of a kilometer. The living condition of the two villages is exactly the same and the number of households is also approximately the same.

 Difficulties:

The project was successfully completed. However, during implementation of the project, the project manager encountered some problems as following:

Firstly, when transporting the machines from Chengdu to the project site, it snowed heavily and the road became slippery so it took the truck much longer to get there. The driver and the project manager got very cold and hungry; they only had one meal for the whole day.

Another problem was that when the villagers were unloading the machines from the truck, unfortunately a villager named Anai’s mouth was injured by a machine. There is not even a single clinic in the whole township, so we tried to stop the bleeding and cleaned his mouth with white alcohol(白酒) and gave him Compound Aminopyrine Phenacetin tablets (pain killer去痛片), but it was difficult to stop the bleeding from his mouth. So the project manager immediately let one of Anai’s relatives send him to the county town hospital by motorcycle and she also gave him 300 RMB to see the doctor because Anai did not have money in his pocket at that time. Anai got a doctor to give him stitches for his mouth that day. After the project, the project manager still kept contact with Anai to ask about his heath and his wound was almost completely recovered within 15 days.

The last problem is that many people came to the project manager to ask for machines when she was distributing the machines to the six villages, and some locals even came to her home crying and asking for machines. The project manager told these other people that this time, it had already been decided that only the six villages could receive the machines and she will try to do a machine project for them next time. They finally understood that the project was only for the six villages and they stopped bothering the project manager, and they hope that the project manager can apply for machines for them in the future.

 Lessons Learnt:

 The project manger has done several projects so far, but through managing this project, she also has learnt and experienced different things than during her other projects, for example:

a)        It is very important to be careful to avoid people from getting injured during implementing a project especially during transporting things (loading and unloading things from trucks)

b)        In order to implement a project successfully, it is important to be flexible.

c)        To be strong emotionally is also very important to implement a project successfully.

List of the recipients:

Translation of the name list:

Thank you letter

Translation of thank you letter

Thank you letter

Dear donor and helpers,

Firstly, on behalf of all the beneficiaries of the six villages, I would like to say thank you very much for your compassion and kind help.

I am one of the village leaders and my name is A le. The six villages perch on high slopes of mountains. Our villages are living with very poor conditions and our transportation is not convenient. Therefore, we could not afford threshing machines until this year, and we have always faced the burden of threshing barley and wheat in autumn every year. Before the project, the villagers, especially the village women, needed to get up as early as roosters and go to bed as late as dogs to thresh barley and wheat by their hands for more than one month in every autumn of the year. However, with your kind support, every two or three households got a modern threshing machine, so from the autumn of this year, the women don’t need to spend as much time threshing barley and wheat as before and they can finish threshing in two or three days. This project releases our village women from their heavy burden.

Lastly, I faithfully say many thanks for your kindness and generosity again. Simultaneously we wish all your dreams come true and have a healthy and long life. Tashi Delek Shog!

From all the villagers of the six villages.
February 8th, 2012

The list of receipts:
Receipt #1

34,060 RMB for the threshing machines.

 Receipt #2

19,760 RMB in total for the electric motors.

 Receipt #3

6,500 RMB for the transportation fee of the machines from Chengdu to Xinlong (ID No. and contact number is also provided in the receipt above).

Receipt #4

The project management expenses:

It is 300 RMB for each person from Xinlong County to Chengdu by small car, so it is 600 RMB in total for two people (the project manager and one of the local project managers).

300 RMB for the hotel fee for three nights for two people in Chengdu.

It is 100 RMB for the hotel fee for one night for the two project managers in Kangding.

It is 100 (2×50Rmb) RMB for phone call fees during the implementation of the project.

81RMB (24+20+19+18) in total for taxi fees during the implementation of the project.

This project is to build a stable bridge, for Zhuang Guo Village in order to improve the living conditions for Zhuang Guo villagers by providing a safe and convenient way for them to cross the river.

Hans 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 2008. Now she is a teacher in Ari Zha Primary School in Shiqu County Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province.  
What?  Build a stable bridge for Zhuang Guo Village in Jialaxi Township, Xinlong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. 
Who?  Zhuang Guo Village in Jialaxi Township, Xinlong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.
Photos of project implementation:

The cement for the bridge arrives at the project site and the villagers unload the cement from the truck.

Stones and sand for making the bridge foundation.

The villagers hire an excavator for about two hours from the County town to dig and flatten the bridge foundation.

The villagers make the foundation for the bridge with mixed cement, sand, gravel and stones.

The villagers mix the sand and cement for the bridge foundation.

The project manager visits the project and checks the quality of the bridge in the picture.

The two sides of the foundations for the bridge are in the picture.

The two sides are layered with some tree logs and some stone, which are the foundations of the old bridge in front of the newly built the bridge in the picture.

The completed bridge is in the picture. The bridge is very strong and sturdy. Motorcycles, tractors and trucks can drive conveniently through the bridge at any time.

Project summary:

Project title: Bridge Project for Zhuanguo Village

Project goals: to build a stable bridge for Zhuang Guo Village to improve the living conditions of the villagers by providing a safe and convenient way for them to cross the river.

Project location: The project is located in Zhuang Guo Village, Jialaxi Township, Xinlong (Nyarong) County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.  The village is about 11 km from Xinlong County Town; this is about 700 km from Chengdu City, the capital of Sichuan Province

Total beneficiaries: This project directly benefits 87 people from Zhuang Guo Village and the other five upper villages of Jialaxi, because every upper Jialaxi village has to cross the bridge to go to pray and offer sang for the mountain god every New Year. In total, about 280 people benefit from the project.

Implementation organization/Individual:

Tashi Hlamo(the project manager), Zhuangguo villagers and Shem Women’s Group.

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received: Tashi Hlamo received 23,168 RMB (80 of the project funds) from Shem Women’s Group on April twelfth, 2011 and will receive 5,792.62 RMB after the project manager implements the project successfully.

Details of the project activities:

1. Discussed with the villagers why the village needs the bridge and collected information for the project.
2. Discussed the project’s needs with the village leader Tsering Tashi and decided what kinds of materials we needed.
3. Checked the prices of the materials.
4. Took pictures for the project.
5. Wrote the proposal.
6. Received the funds.
7. Held a meeting with the villagers to assign tasks for them.
8. Bought sand, gravel and cement and transported them to the village.
9. Built the foundation for the bridge with mixed cement, gravel, sand and stones.

10.  Placed wood logs on the bridge foundations with boards and earth.

11.  Completed the project.

12.  Interviewed the beneficiaries and took pictures.

13.  Completed the final report.

14.  Send final report to Shem.

Project finance:

Notes: L: local contribution D: donor contribution

Explanation: *-852.5RMB was not enough for the project due to the speedy increase of goods recently in China. Therefore, 852.5 RMB that was not efficient for the project implementation was paid by the villagers.  

Delays, Difficulties and Lessons Learnt:

Delays:

The project was delayed for about four months for the following three reasons: All the villagers were busy with cultivating their field lands when the project manager received the money for the project from Shem Women’s Group. Right after they finished cultivating, it was time for the villagers to climb mountains to dig caterpillar fungus. Digging caterpillar fungus is the main source of income for the villagers, so they had to go for digging caterpillar fungus. The last reason is that there was no enough time between the harvest time and the time of the villagers finish digging caterpillar fungus to implement the project completely for the villagers. Because of the above reasons, the project was delayed for several months. Finally the villagers chose the time after the harvest for the project and it was the best time for the villagers to implement it.

Difficulties:

The project was successfully completed. However, during the implementing of the project, the project manager had encountered a small problem. The problem was about the budget for the project, because the budget for the bridge project was made in 2008 and the project was implemented in 2011. Therefore prices for the materials of the bridge had changed and there was a big difference. Year by year the price of things rapidly increase, and this is true for the price of cement, gravel, sand and payment for workers in this project. Therefore after finished purchasing the materials for the bridge, there was not much money left in the project budget for hiring a skilled boss and skilled workers as the budget planned. However the villagers and the project manager had came up with a good solution, before we planed to hire a skilled boss and ten skilled people for 15days in the proposal for the project but in order to save the money we decided that the villagers would work for a longer time (more days) and hired fewer people for a shorter time (fewer days) compare to the plan in the proposal. In addition, at that time the local skilled boss for the bridge was building a new house, so we decided that one person from every family in Zhuangguo village needed to help the boss to build that house for two days instead of give payment to the boss in order to save the money. So finally we overcame the problem and the project was successfully completed with the full satisfactions of the villagers.

Lessons Learnt:

Through managing this project, project manager learnt and experienced following things:

ž   To keep updated budgets in proposals is very important to carry out projects successfully.

ž   To be thoughtful and flexible are also very important in order to implement a project successfully.

ž   To be aware that projects may not go as planned or as you expected in the proposals.

ž   The project manger should be very careful to choose the right time for implementing projects when she writes proposals especially construction projects, because for a construction project, you should know the villagers’ situation and season in order to avoid delay.

ž   The project manger had done several projects including construction projects but she also learnt new things from this project as mentioned above.

Interview of project beneficiaries:

Genqiu: The project manager Tashi Hlamo interviewed the man in the picture. Genqiu is 28 years old and he is one of the project beneficiaries. There are 11 people in his family: his parents, three brothers, four children, his wife and himself. During the interview, he said that before they had a narrow wooden bridge in poor condition with stones and wood logs for the foundation. However the bridge was not very strong and durable, so almost every year in the rainy summer, a harsh flood came and it washed the bridge away and it put the villagers in very difficult situation. Now because of the thoughtfulness of the kind donor and the helpers of the project, the villagers have a very durable and strong bridge with mixed sand, gravel and cement for its foundation. Therefore from now on the villagers don’t need to be afraid that aharsh flood would wash away their new bridge. He appreciated the kind help of the donor and the helpers of the project by showing his gratitude by saying so during the interview.

Nuobu Zhuoma:

The project manager Tashi Hlamo interviewed the woman in the picture and her name is Nuobu Zhuoma. She is 25years old and there are six people in her family: Her two children and her husband and her mother and mother in law. She showed a big smile on her face and said the village has a very durable and strong bridge because of the kind help of the project manager and the donor when she saw the project manager. During the interview, she said that before the project, the villagers did not have a stable and good bridge, so in rainy seasons, especially summer and autumn, there sometimes was a big flood and it carried the tree logs of the old bridge away and it made the foundation of the bridge with stones and earth fall down. So it not only made the villager’s life difficult and inconvenient. The villagers needed to rebuild the bridge again and again when the harsh floodwater came down. However because of the kind help of the compassionate workers and doners, from this year they don’t need to rebuild the bridge and they don’t need to worry about crossing the river any longer. Finally she wishes the people who helped the project to have a healthy and happy life and she appreciated the kind help of the donor and the project manager.

Thank you letter

Translation of thank you letter

Thank you letter

Dear donor, Shem staff and project manager,

This year under the donor’s kind sponsorship and through Shem’s responsible project person Tashi Hlamo’s professional management, we were able to accomplish the project as we planned, which brings great convenience and help to all the villagers.  

 In the past in order to cross the river, we had faced difficulties for years and years, but now all the people, livestock and even trucks can directly cross over the bridge.  In addition to that even people from nearby villages in the township, such as from Zebu and Nuri villages can cross through this bridge as well. Therefore, I would like to on behalf of all the beneficiaries say that all our hearts are filled with deep respect and infinite gratitude to your kindness, we hope that good health is always by your side and may you get whatever you aspire for!

From Zhuanguo village

December 8th 2011.

The list of receipts:

Receipt #1

It is 9,000RMB in total for the cement.

Receipt #2

It is 4,800RMB for sand (4 trucks×1200rmb=4800rmb) and 4,800RMB for gravel (4 trucks ×1200=4800rmb). It is 9,600 RMB in total for sand and gravel.

Receipt #3

It is 990 RMB for wood boards and 1690 RMB for wood logs. So it is 2,680 RMB in total.

Receipt #4

It is 280RMB in total for nails, thumbtacks and plastics. It was paid by the villagers.

Receipt #5

It is 6800RMB of the payment in total for the workers.

Receipt #6: The project management expenses:

It is 200 RMB for the project manager from A rizha Primary school in Shi Qu County to Xinlong County (the project site) by small car.

It is 100 RMB for the hotel fee for one night in Ganzi County town.

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

Detailed explanation: As shown above, the expenses are for a one-way trip from Shiqu County to the project site (Xinlong), totaling 300 RMB, including transportation and hotel costs. The project manager went to see the project twice, so then 300 RMB×4=1200 RMB plus phone call fee100 RMB. In total it is 1300 RMB for the project management expenses.

Original Project Proposal

Project Location
The project is located in Zhuang Guo Village, Jialaxi Township, Xinlong (Nyarong) County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The village is about 11 km from Xinlong County Town; this is about 700 km from Chengdu City, the capital of Sichuan Province

Population
12 households make up Zhuang Guo Village. There are 87 people in the village: 36 men, 24 women and 27 children.

Education
Among the 60 elder people in Zhuang Guo Village, 54 are illiterate and 6 are monks; the monks can read well but they cannot write well. There are 15 school-aged children in the village, but only 7 children are going to Yinlong Primary school and one is a high school student in Sichuan Tibetan School in Kangding, which is about 400 km from Xinlong County Town. The other 7 children stay at home to help their parents herding livestock and fetching water. No one in the village has an official job. Some parents of the village also say that nowadays it is difficult for the children to get an official job and to send their children to school is just wasting their children’s lives and family money. Some parents cannot deal with all the work – 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.

Cash Income
Zhuang Guo Village is a farming village at the foot of a mountain. Four years ago, the villagers had three ways to get cash income:
1. Cutting trees and selling lumber to other cities. 2. Digging caterpillar fungus and selling it (caterpillar fungus is medicinal herb) 3. Construction work outside the village.
However, two years ago, the Xinlong government enacted a “No Cutting Trees” policy, and the villagers no longer can cut trees to earn cash. Therefore now the villagers have only two ways to earn cash income: Digging caterpillar fungus, and construction work. Each caterpillar fungus costs about 5-6 RMB. In total each family could earn about 4,000 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 45 RMB per day and a woman can earn 40 RMB per day from construction work. On average each household can earn about 2,500 RMB per year from construction work. On average, each family can earn about 6,500 RMB in total from selling caterpillar fungus and construction work in one year.

Each family spends at least 65,000 RMB on clothes, food, medicine, and the celebrations such as New Year. In Jialaxi Township most of the villages are farming villages Also, selling caterpillar fungus is not a sustainable source of income, because caterpillar fungus grows only on high plateaus in summer and these days there is less of it to be found, and the price of caterpillar fungus is also going down. . The farmers are saying that they will be starving in a few years, because officials’ salaries are increasing, which means that market prices are also increasing.

Agriculture
On average, each household has about 8 mu (one mu = 667 square meters) of land, and each mu of land can produce about 100-150 kg of barley. In the village each household can produce on average about 400 kg of barley, 400 kg of wheat, 125 kg potatoes and 100 kg of beans per year from their land. That is enough for some smaller families to survive for a whole year, but it is not enough for most of the bigger families in the village. So they have to buy barley from Ganzi County Town every year, and 50 kg of barley cost 130 RMB in Ganzi County Town.

Herding
Zhuang Guo village is farming village and they also have some livestock. On average each household has 6 cows, 1 female yak and 1 bull. Each household can produce
about 25-30 kg of butter from cow and yak milk. People in the village just keep the butter to eat and they don’t sell it.

Weather
Zhunag Guo is about 3,080 meters above sea level, and is one of seven villages in Jialaxi Township that are spread along both sides of a river.. The river is a big problem for the seven villages because every year in midsummer and autumn there are lots of heavy rains. Therefore, the river rises and it floods the villages’ bridges, fields, roads and even sometimes houses (click to see photos).

Half of Zhuang Guo villagers are living on one side of the river and half of the villagers are living on the other side of the river. There is a wooden bridge in poor condition between them, which they frequently have to cross carrying things such as crops. However, the river floods the bridge during rainy days in summer and autumn, which puts the villagers in a difficult situation. In the winter it is very cold. Sometimes it snows heavily and the bridge is covered by snow. Therefore it is very dangerous for the villagers to go back and forth.

Project goals
The immediate goal of this project is to build a stable bridge, 6m long, 2.7m high and 3.3m wide for Zhuang Guo Village in Jialaxi Township, Xinlong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

The overarching goal of the project is to improve the living conditions for Zhuang Guo villagers by providing a safe and convenient way for them to cross the river.

Problems

1. Time consuming and heavy workload
Zhuang Guo villagers are located on both sides of the river. In summer and autumn there are lots of heavy rains in the village, so the river rises up and floods the village’s bridges and fields ( Click to see photos ). The village has a narrow wooden bridge in poor condition, however it floods almost every year in the beginning of autumn.. This makes work difficult for the villagers.

During harvest time the villagers use the bridge to transport the crops by hand tractors. The villagers take about seven or eight days to finish the harvesting with the bridge. However, once the bridge is flooded, the villagers have to carry the crops on their backs to go around about 2 km to get home. So it makes hard work for the villagers and it wastes their time; instead of taking seven or eight days to finish the harvest, they have to take about 25 days without the bridge. Also, usually the whole village takes about two to three days to repair and rebuild the bridge at the end of autumn (when the river becomes small and the water goes down).

2. Dangerous for the village
The bridge is built out of tree logs, and its foundation is made from stones so it is not really durable and firm. Sometimes when the villagers transport heavy things such as firewood in trucks,it splits the wooden bridge and detaches the bridge’s tree logs because the foundation of the bridge is not solid. It is easily broken by rushing floodwater. Therefore it is very dangerous for the villagers and livestock to go back and forth.

In winter snowy days the bridge is covered by snow and when people cross the bridge it also becomes slippery and very dangerous..

3. Inconvenient for the village
When the bridge is washed away by the flood then the villagers have a difficult time reaching the fields on both sides of the river, and are forced to go a long way around to reach their fields.

4. Poor living conditions
The villagers wanted to build a stable bridge, since they need to repair and rebuild the bridge almost every year. However, due to their economic condition, they cannot afford to build a stable and good bridge.

When the village’s bridge is flooded by the river during autumn harvest time, the villagers have to spend about 25 days harvesting instead of seven or eight days. Therefore the villagers have less time to look for extra work to earn money.

Benefits

1) If there is a stable bridge for Zhuang Guo, villagers can transport the crops by hand tractors during harvest time, and they won’t need to carry things on their backs for a long distance. Therefore it lessens the villagers’ workload and saves lots of their time.
2) If the village has a good quality bridge, then the villagers will be safe going back and forth. The villagers also can transport anything by hand tractors and trucks to each side of the river and the bridge will not be broken because it will be made of mixed concrete, sand and gravel. So it will be very stable and the villagers will be safer.
3)If the village has a stable bridge then the villagers won’t need to go a long distance and they can just cross the bridge to reach both sides of the river easily, which will be much more convenient.
4)If there is a stable bridge then it will not be flooded in autumn and summer, and the villagers will not need to spend time rebuilding and repairing the bridge. They can go out to earn money from construction work and their living conditions will be improved.

Beneficiaries
This project will directly benefit 87 people from Zhuang Guo Village and the other five upper villages of Jialaxi, because every upper Jialaxi village has to cross the bridge to go to pray and offer sang for the mountain god every New Year. In total, about 280 people will benefit from the project.

Government support for the project
The project manager called the local government leader Banggeng Duoji in August 2008, and she got permission to do the project. The leader is also very happy about the project and he encouraged the project manager to do the project.

Gender equality
This project benefits both men and women equally but it also involves gender equality issues. Formerly in Jialaxi Township, people used to believe that women were powerless and they could not do meaningful things as men do. They also believed that sending girls to school was useless. However, 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 electricity panels and potable 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 an 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 for themselves to accomplish more meaningful things. Once, one of our village women named Wengzheng gave birth to a baby, and when she knew it was a girl she felt sad at first, but later she said “Giving birth to a boy or girl is the same, because Sangjia family’s Tashi Hlamo (project manager) is also a girl but she can do great things that the boys cannot do in our hometown.”

Project steps
1. Discussed with the villagers why the village needs the bridge and collected information for the project. (Done.)
2. Discussed the project’s needs with the village leader Tsering Tashi and decided what kinds of materials we need.( Done)
3. Checked the prices of the materials (Done.)
4. Took pictures for the project (Done)
5. Wrote proposal (Done.)
6. Receive funds.
7. Once the project gets funding then have a meeting with the village leader to assign tasks for the villagers.
8. Buy sand and cement and transport them to the village.
9. Start to build bridge
10. Interview the village men, women and children about the project and take photos.
11. Write detailed final report.
12. Send the final report with photos and receipts to donor.
Time frame
This project will take approximately 26 days.
1 day: Hold a meeting with the villagers
5 days: Transport stones from nearby village
2 days: Purchase sand and cement and transport from county town to the village
1 day: Purchase small materials and transport from our county town to the project location.
15 days: Build the bridge
1 day: Hold a meeting with all the villagers about the completion of the project
1 day: Interview the village men, women and children about the project and take photos

Detailed budget

Project Sustainability
This project is very sustainable because the foundation of the bridge will be built by mixed cement, gravel and sand. So it is very strong and stable, and the flood will not be able to damage it. The foundation of the bridge will be 2.7m high and the water will also not reach the wood logs on the foundation. The wood logs will be placed on the foundation tightly with strong and thick wires. The wood logs are very thick and they will last at least ten years; if the wood logs  become rotten or broken then the village will be responsible for changing them. Since all the villagers know how difficult it is without the bridge so the whole village will be responsible for repairing it.

Reference 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. In 2009 she also successfully completed a water project for three villages and a solar flashlights project for four villages in Jialaxi Township. The four projects are located in Jialaxi Township, Xinlong County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. These four projects are mainly to improve the impoverished local people’s living conditions, reduce their workload and increase enrollment of school children.

The bridge project for Zhuang Guo Village is her fifth project. She has been working for Shem Women’s group in Xining City, Qinghai Province since March of 2008.

Pictures

The village’s bridge is endangered by the flood in this picture from September of 2008. An iron is still attaching one end of one log, and the other bridge logs have already been washed away.

The river rushes up to the village’s road and fields. The road is the whole township’s main route for going back and forth from Xinlong county town to the township. However, in this picture the road is flooded, and rock and mud are sliding on the road. The township people have to go on foot to buy necessities in the county town, which is about 15 kilometers from the township.

The road and field after the flood.

Project Diagram

Map of the project Location

This project is to announce to the Nationalities colleges and Universities, and other Nationalities high schools and middle schools to participate in the women’s writing competition held by Shem Women’s Group. Then select the 12 best pieces of women’s writing in Tibetan and give awards to them at the Awarding Ceremony.

Winrock International-Tserang funded this project

What?/Who? To announce to the Nationalities colleges and Universities, and other Nationalities high schools and middle schools to participate in the women’s writing competition held by Shem Women’s Group. Then select the 12 best pieces of women’s writing in Tibetan and give awards to them at the Awarding ceremony.

Photos of the project Implementation

The project managers are announcing at North West University in Lanzhou and Lhasa Tibet University

Project manager Lugyal is organizing the participants’ articles

After the judges have finished grading the articles, the project managers had meetings with the judges to select winners from the ties(when the judges came up with grading same scores for the articles), and also discussed about how to hand in the articles to the last round of judges.

The participants’ articles in the process of organizing

The winners of Snow-land Women’s Writing Competition got their awards

Famous female writer Pematso is giving her speech about encouraging women to write more, have more women writers, and how sad it is to see that there is only her sitting among all the male Tibetan famous writers.

One of the project managers, Gongbojyi is introducing the process of the project design, funds, implementation, and its goal to the audience.

Participants of Snowland Women’s Writing Competition Ceremony

Project summary

Project title: Snow-land Women’s Writing Competition

Project goal: The immediate goal of this project is to announce to the nationalities colleges and universities, and other nationalities high schools and middle schools to participate in the women’s writing competition held by Shem Women’s Group. Then select 12 best writings and give awards to the winners on the Awarding Ceremony. The overarching goal of this project is to empower more Tibetan women to write their life stories, ideas, and to value education. Moreover, this project also encourages more people to value women’s education on the Tibetan Plateau.

Location of the project: This project was held in Xining City, the capital of Qinghai Province, China.

Total beneficiaries: More than 300 participants attended the awards ceremony, 205 girls participated and the 12 award winners directly benefited.

Implementation organization/individual, Gongbojyi, Lugyal, and Shem Women’s Group

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received

Note: Shem covered the extra cost of 1001.5RMB of the actual cost. The detail of Shem’s contribution can be seen in the project finance section.

Details of the project activities

July-August 2010

The project managers traveled to different schools and places, carried out certain research about the female students, and announced the upcoming competition at the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011.

At the end of October and beginning of November
The project managers announced the deadline for receiving articles, and started to collect the articles

From November 11^th -21^st 2010

Sort out the articles (Input hand written articles to the computer), and selected the first round of judges

November 25^th 2010

Selected the first 50 best articles

From late November to the end of December 2010

1. Finished the first round of selection and started second round of selection

2. Worked on project progress report, financial reports with receipts, and further plans for the project

From March 1^st –April 2^st 2011

1. Worked on the reports from February for collecting the second round selected articles
2. Started the last round of selection
3. Collect the scores that the judges given for the articles
4. Organized the scores that the articles got from different judges
5. Told the winners about the ceremony
6. Told the judges about the announcement and sent invitation letters to them and other Tibetan media companies, newspaper/magazine companies, etc.
7. Reserved hotels and ceremony space
8. Prepared the ceremony
9. Welcome the judges, reporters and competition participants from Lhasa, Gansu, Sichuan.

10. Arrange their accommodation, food

On April 3^rd 2011

The ceremony was held in Kojima Base in Xining City, Qinghai Province

From April 4^th –June 1^st 2011

Worked on reports and published the book of articles

Project Finance

Actual Cost

Note. The 18000RMB was for the project manager’s salaries, but the project managers decided to use this money to publish the books and produce CDs of the ceremony.

Detailed Finance

Expenses in November

Expenses in December

Expenses in February

Expenses (partially in October and November), and expenses in March and April

Expenses of Shem

Original budget

Note: The project cost more than we have budgeted before and all the detailed monthly expenses reveal the details of the expenses of the project and please see the receipts and time sheets of the project managers for clearer idea of the project expenses.

Delays, difficulties, and lessons learned

Delays and Difficulties

1. During the article selection time, it was difficult for the judges to check and grade the articles on time due to their busy schedules. Sometimes some judges couldn’t check, and the project managers had to look for other judges to replace them immediately in order to make the project flow successfully.
2. Since the project managers Gongbojyi and Lugyal were individual managers, and they were the ones who have been working in the fields announcing, collecting articles, and looking judges, deciding on the selection processes, and inviting the guests for the ceremony, they met many difficulties in these processes. An example is that they didn’t have a camera, printer, copy machine or internet They had to do all the monthly reports by borrowing cameras from others, printing, scanning receipts, and photocopying outside in the photo copy shops. They spent lots of time especially during the evening in internet bars for making reports. Another example is, during the second round of article selection, to give the articles to the judges, they photocopied more than 800 copies of articles to the judges, and during the third selection they photocopied more than 500 copies of articles.
3. During the project implementation, many small and cheap restaurants and hotels in rural areas do not have official receipts; the ones who have official receipts are advanced and expensive. But for the donor’s requirement we have to have official receipts, so we tried to look for cheaper restaurant and hotels with official receipts.
4. Since the project was designed in 2007, and the budget in 2010 was updated according to the budget of 2007, inflation has caused the budget to be very tight. So when the project managers collected articles or send articles to judges, in order to save money, they stayed with friends, slept on couches, and they walked to many judges and places instead of taking a cab a number of times.
5. During negotiation with the donor about this project, the donor didn’t agree with the cash award, and they wanted to give books or other things as award instead of cash for the award. We understand that the donor organization has their own rules for this kind of project, but as Shem, we also didn’t want the donors to change or influence the core idea of the project. Also, we designed this project to encourage more women to write, increase the number of female writers, and have women’s stories for people to read in this society. That’s why we wanted this very first women’s writing ceremony more elegant, expensive, and reputable. Due to these kinds of reasons, we value this project and a cash award is one of the main values of the project. So Shem decided to support the cash award.
6. Since this is the first time to have such a project, and first time to co-operate with Winrock, there were lots of financial rules and reports which needed to be submitted monthly. We had to spend lots of time on the reports and negotiation with the donor side and local manager’s side.
7. Since this is a women’s writing event, we wanted to have more famous female writers and female scholars to involve in this event, but due to the percentage of female writers are very low, plus not all of them are available for this event. Therefore we had to have more male judges for this event. Hopefully, in the future there will be more female scholars in this field.

Lessons Learned

The project manager Gongbojyi and Lugyal have learnt that if there is a clear goal, it can be achieved if you work on it. If you’re not afraid of the difficulties and continue the hard work, at the end you can not only achieve the goal but also it will be fruitful.

Specifically, they have learnt how to organize such a big project, the steps of implementing this project, how to organize receipts, etc. As Shem, we also learnt the same thing, we learnt how to make sure that what you are doing is what you wanted, and learnt a lot from the financial reports. We together also learnt the great experience of implementing such project from the beginning to the end, and that will reflect in the next round of project.

Interviews:

Tsekyilhamo, is a student from Tibet Medical in Lhasa, and she got the encouragement prize of Snow-land Women’s Writing Competition. She said that she likes to write, but is only published in few magazines and newspapers. “During this ceremony, I was not only able to meet many female writers and editors, but also learned writing experiences from them. Thank you very much for providing such a great stage for me and female writers like me. Hope to attend for future writing competitions and ceremonies”

The Rules for the judges:

Translation of Rules:

1. Judges must respect the rule of grading fairly for the articles
2. Judges must take the grading seriously
3. Judges must make sure the articles are written by the writer
4. Judges must pay attention to grammar and writing skills as well as the meaning of the article
5. Judges must pay attention to the quality and creativity of the writing
6. All the articles have a grading table and the judges give grades according to it
7. Judges must not contact the writers or other editors to discuss about the articles and grades
8. Judges must keep the grades secret from others

When articles are sent to the judges, all the articles should be printed with same font/ size of papers without name and any other clues, also the judges don’t know each other the who the other judges are.

Grading Table:

List of Awardees

Note: before we planned only to select from above college level, but her writing was great, so we wanted to encourage her too.

Thank You Letter

Translation of Thank You Letter

I am one of the participants of Snow Land Women’s Writing Competition. My name is Woshukjyi. This competition is the first and great event in Tibetan areas; this program created a stage for the girls to open their minds to great ideas, insights, writing skills and willingness of writing. It also helps girls to excavate their capabilities and revive their confidence.

Since I am one of the participants, I have strongly realized that this event has encouraged me to write more and continue in the future. Therefore, I would like to thank the implementing organization Shem Women’s Group, the project managers, and other people who helped to make this happen. I am planning to try my best to continue writing. Like Shem Women’s Group, I also would like to do something meaningful and helpful for my community and especially for those impoverished people in the future.

Woshukjyi

Date: December 6^th 2011

Receipts

November Receipts:

December Receipts

January Receipts

Original Proposal

Project Background
In order to improve Tibetan women’s writing skills, motivate Tibetan women to write more and build their self confidence, Hortsang Lhegel, Gonpojyi, and Pakmodrolma together started to hold the women’s writing forum. In 2007, they started a women’s forum and cultural preservation meeting that was attended by around 2000 people in Hezuo City, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province. The second forum was held in Qinghai Nationalities University in Xining City, Qinghai Province. During these forums they invited famous women writers, teachers, and important people who really cared about women’s writings and women’s right. Participants also gave each other advice and feedback regarding the problems they faced. Participants and organizers were enthusiastic about continuing their work with Shem’s support.

Hortsang Lhegel (b. 1976) was born in Martang Village Labrang (Xia He in Chinese) County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, and China. He was not able to attend school due to his parents’ divorce and the mistreatment received from his step mother. In 1998 he realized the importance of Tibetan development and Tibetan history. He also realized the importance of education. He received teachings from a Lama in Labrang Monasteries in Labrang County, He then traveled to many different Tibetan areas to do research about Tibetan culture. Now he is the Executive Director of the Tibetan Folk Culture Research Group. He is also a member of Gannan Writer’s Organization, Qinghai Minorities Charity Fund, and is the Under-Secretary-General of Qinghai Buddhist Cultural Service Center. In addition, he has been the main manager of the First and the Second Tibetan Women Writer’s Forum in Hezuo and Xining. Hortsang Lhegel will be one of the main managers of this project.

Pakmodrolma (b. 1984) was born in Mangra County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. In 2001, she entered Qinghai Nationalities University, Xining, Qinghai Province. She has published over 20 articles in different magazines and newspapers. She was one of the main assistants for the First and Second Tibetan Women Writer’s Forum in Hezuo and Xining. Now she is pursuing a master’s degree in Qinghai Nationalities University. Pakodrolma will be one of the managers of this project.

Gonpojyi (b. 1983) was born in Luqu County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, and China. Since September, 2007 she has been studying for a master’s degree in North West University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province. Gonpojyi has published more than ten poems and several prose pieces, such as << Believe>>, << Welcome you>>, <<A Description of Tibetan Custom Wool Knitting>>, and so on. She was the editor for the <<Poetry Newspaper>> when she was in the college. Now she is one of the managers of Snow Land Women Newspaper, and Tibetan Women Writer’s Forum.

Problems

1. Lack of self-reliance
In Tibetan areas, since the students’ tuition is paid by their parents, students don’t need to worry about their tuition. Hence, the children and university students do not realize the difficulties of earning money. At the same time they tend to rely on their parents. Therefore, most of the students don’t pay much attention to self-reliance and hard struggles. Even after they graduate from the universities many of them stay at home, and their parents help them to find jobs.

2. Social expectations cause women to have fewer ambitions
Traditionally, most Tibetan families expect their daughters to be hardworking, gentle, and obedient. If the girl gets married with a nice man then the girl’s life is settled, and she ought to be happily ready for her new settled-down life. The parents show their love to their daughters by buying expensive ornaments and clothes rather than sending them to the school.

There is a famous saying that is: “The monks belong to monasteries, and girls should get married and stay with their husband’s family”. So the parents expect their daughters to get married with a nice man and get a nice job… They expect their daughters to get married in their twenties. Many parents don’t expect their daughters to continue their education after graduating, asking, “Are you going to study for your whole life?” People expect boys to be successful in studies and work, and they respect the boys who choose not to get married soon in order to study. Therefore, most women in college are not likely to strive toward successes in work and they are less likely to think about ambitious goals in their lives.

Regarding writing, generally, women hardly continue their writing after their graduation or after marriage. The few women writers who continue to write are looked down on and face difficulties getting the work published.

3. Most Tibetan women are not aware of importance of women’s health
Most women in Tibetan areas don’t have access to health education, information about hygiene and sex education. There are rarely Tibetan health books, newspapers and articles available. Therefore, Tibetan girls have very little awareness of health problems especially sex education

Benefits
The Writing Forum and the SWG writers’ award will encourage women to write more and will provide a space for women to express their ideas, difficulties, and successes. These activities will also have an important influence for encouraging more women to become writers. In addition, these events will help participants gain more knowledge and experience. Women will be inspired to accumulate more ambitions in their lives. Furthermore, this project will help these women realize that they can be more independent through writing.

This project will enable more girls to have access to more women’s writings and will be a model for the younger women generations to write more. This project will also encourage people to pay more attention to women’s writing.

In addition, this project will have a positive effect on Tibetan women’s health. These forums will also serve as a platform for women writers to discuss and publish information about health education, especially hygiene and sex education. At the same time, young girls and boys will have easier access to clear health information.

Number of Beneficiaries
This project will benefit more than 3,000 people.

Detailed Budget

Detailed Budget for the Third Snow Land Women’s Literature Forum in North West University.

Notes:

# Phone cost: is for the 3 managers from the beginning (which is from designing until the end of the implementation of the project), Shem Women’s Group and the 3 main project managers are in different areas and need to discuss and provide information to Shem Group through the phone and internet.

Project Steps for the Third Snow Land Women’s Literature Forum in North West University

1. Talk to the female teachers (Huamao, Tsering Tso and Wanmatso) and writers (Dekyidolma and Jamyangjyi) about their plan and ask them to give speech on the forum. (Done)

2. Discuss with Shem Women’s Group and ask them to write proposal and look for donors. (Done)

3. Look for the meeting hall, restaurant and hotels. (Done)

4. Prepare materials for the forum (such as speeches introducing the forum, reasons and goals of the forum, and the supporters of the forum) (Done)

5. Look for a cameraman and some one who takes video, (and borrow video and camera.) (Done)

6. Find out the budget and provide data and information to Shem. (Done)

7. Write proposal ( Shem Women’s Group) (Done)

8. Receive funds

9. Give announcement

10. Make a schedule for the forum.

11. Invite the teachers and writers who give presentation on the forum, and arrange their lodging, meals.

12. Start the forum, take video and photos

13. End the forum.

14. Write final report

15. Submit the final report with receipts

16. Make CDs

Detailed Budget for the Fourth Snow Land Women’s Literature Forum in South West University

# Phone cost: is for the three managers to communicate. As they live in different areas they need to discuss and plan over the phone/internet and also coordinate with Shem Women’s Group.

Project Steps for the Fourth Snow Land Women’s Literature Forum in South West University:

1. Talk to the female teachers (Baimatso, Tseringkyi) and writers (Dekyidolma and Wosartso) about their plan and ask them to give speech on the forum. (Done)

2. Make announcement for teachers in South West University in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. (Done)

3. Look for the meeting hall, restaurant and hotels. (Done)

4. Prepare materials for the forum (such as speeches introducing the forum, reasons and goals of the forum, and supporters of the forum) (Done)

5 Look for a cameraman and some one who takes video, (and borrow video and camera.) (Done)

6 Research budget and provide data and information to Shem. (Done)

7 Write proposal (Shem Women’s Group) (Done)

8 Receive funds

9 Project managers go to South West University in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province and make an announcement about the forum. 10

10 Make a schedule for the forum.

11 Invite teachers and writers to give presentations at the forum, and arrange their lodging, meals.

12 Start the forum and document with video and photos

13. End the forum.

14Write final report

15 Submit the final report with receipts

16 Make CDs of the forum

Detailed budget for the First Shem Women’s Group’s Literature Award Ceremony for women writers

#: This price is different from the last two forums because after the competition we would like to produce high quality CDs with covers.

Project steps for the First Shem Women’s Group’s Literature Rewards Ceremony for Women Writers

1. Hold meeting with the project managers about the forum. (Done)

2. Decide the style of writing for proposed competition. (Done)

3. Research budget (Done)

4. Choose location (Done)

5. Decide the date of the ceremony (Done)

6. Provide information to Shem for the proposal (Done)

7. Look for a cameraman and some one who takes video, (and borrow video and camera.) (Done)

8. Write proposal (Done)

9. Receive Funds

10. Make an announcement to all the Tibetan Areas mostly colleges in Gansu Province, Sichuan, Qinghai Province and in Tibet.

11. Collect articles

12. Article Selection Section:

a) Select 100 good articles by some Tibetan University teachers and writers

b) Select 50 better articles by Tibetan professors and famous writers

c) Tibetan famous scholars and writers, will select 11 best articles in Xining City Qinghai Province, China

d) Re-confirm date and location of ceremony

13. Give announcement

14. Choose famous, respected people for giving speeches and presenting rewards

15. Select 20 volunteers to help during the ceremony

16. Prepare materials for the ceremony (such as name tag, make schedule, and prepare the loud speaker .etc)

17. Hold the “First Shem Women’s Group’s Literature Rewards Ceremony for women writers” for two days

18. Take Record (photos, video)

19. Conclusion

20. Write final report

21. Submit the final report with receipts

22. Make CDs

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

The German Embassy funded this project

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

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

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

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

Photos of the project implementation

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

The villagers are unloading the threshing machines from the truck. 

The local contribution of the project is collected.

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

Contact group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds received: Amount and date received

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

Details of project activities 

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

Project Finance

 Explanation of the changes in the project finance:

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

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

Difficulties

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

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

Lesson learned  

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

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

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

The Canada Fund funded this project

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

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

Who? 51 households with 300 people in Hor Village.

Photos of project implementation

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

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

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

Project summary

Project title:  Plough machine for Hor Village

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

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

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

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

 Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

 Email: kalwangjyid@shemgroup.org

Phone: 0971-6302115, 13997297104

 Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received

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

 Details of project activities

Originally planned project activities:

1 Interview the villagers and discussed what they really need

2. Buy the plough machines

3. Collect the information of the village for the project

4. Get the government’s permission

5 Find out the price of the plough machine

6. Write a proposal

7. Receive funds

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

9. Purchase good quality machines

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

12. Interview the local beneficiaries and take photos

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

 Activities realized in the framework of the project:

December 31^st, 2010, received Canada grant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Project Finances:

 Actual budget realized in the framework of the project:

Delays, Difficulties, and Lessons Learned

 Delays and Difficulties

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

 Lessons Learned

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

 Interviews

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

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

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

Pag ris is ploughing his field

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

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

Letter of appreciation

 Translation in English

 Thanks Letter

Dear Canada Fund and Shem Women’s Group:

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

                                         From village leader Guan Qie

                                          2011, 10, 4  

Receipts

 1#

2#

Contract

Original proposal

Plough machine for Hor village

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Project Budget

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

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

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

Map of the project location

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

The Canada Fund funded this project

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

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

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

Who?  150 villagers of Lha khang Village 

Photos of project implementation

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

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

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

Project summary 

Project title:  Cow project for Lha khang Village 

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

Location of the project:   

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

Total beneficiaries: 350 Tibetan people in Lha Khang Village 

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

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group 

Funds received: Source, Amount, and Date Received  

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

Project activity details

Originally planned project activities: 

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

10.  Take pictures and interview the project beneficiaries. 

11.  Write the final report. 

Activities realized in the framework of the project:

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

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

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

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

January, 10^th, villagers checked 18 cows. 

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

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

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

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

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

Project Finances:

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

 List of recipients: 

Recipients’ in English

Delays, Difficulties, and lessons learned 

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

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

Delays

None 

 Difficulties 

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

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

 Lessons learned 

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

 Interviews 

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

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

Letter of appreciation

Translation in English 

Thanks letter 

Dear donor 

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

                                    Drolma on behalf of all villagers from Lhakang. 

                                                                                        January, 5^th, 2011 

Project Receipts 

 Original proposal 

Cow project for Lha khang Village 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Project Finance 

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

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

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

 Map of the project location 

This project is to buy 503 books for Hor nag Central primary school including 306 Tibetan books, 114 Chinese books and 83English books. And 10 computers, In order to improve the students’ general knowledge, and increase the number of students’ who pass the Middle school and High school entrance exams.

The German Embassy funded this project

Skal bzang mtsho is from Stong che Village, Hor nag Township, Rebgong County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. Currently，she is studying for BA degree at Qinghai Normal University.

What? To buy 503 books (306 Tibetan, 114 Chinese and 83 English books) and 10 computers for Hor nag Primary School in Rebgong County, Qinghai Province, China.
Who? Hor nag Primary School, Hor nag Township, Rebgong County, Qinghai Province, China.
Photos of project implementation

The project manager bought the books and computers for the school from a bookstore and an electricity market in Xining. Teacher Shes rab helped the project manager to purchase the books and computers.

The computers and books were transported to Hor nag Primary School at around 5 p.m. from Xining and the schoolteachers were waiting to unload the computers and books.

The school teachers unloaded the books and computers from the truck.

The female teacher Sha bo mtsho is counting the books in the library.

Teachers get ready to put the books on the bookshelves.

The books placed on the bookshelves.

The students borrow books from the library and the library manager lists the students who borrowed the books.

The students use their break time to read books in the library under the management of a librarian.

Some skilled male teachers start installing the computers in the computer room. 

The students having class in the computer room with their computer teacher.

 The project manager Skal bzang mtsho had meeting with the school leaders again to emphasize the importance of the project’s sustainability. 

Teachers asked the project manager Skal bzang mtsho to take a picture with the school leader. They are grateful for Shem Women’s Group. 

Project summary

Project title: Book and Computer Project for Hor nag Primary School

Project goals: The immediate goal of this project is to buy 503 books for Hor nag Central primary school, including 306 Tibetan books, 114 Chinese books and 83 English books, and 10 computers.

The overarching goal is to improve the students’ general knowledge about the outside world, and create high possibilities to pass the entrance exams for attending middle school and high school. 

Location of the project: Hor nag Central Primary School is located in Hor nag Township, Reb gong County, Rma lho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Mtsho sngon Province, PR China. Hor nag Township is about 22 kilometers from Reb gong County, and Reb gong County is about 130 kilometers from Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province.

Total beneficiaries: This book and computer project will directly benefit 285 students and 27 teachers in Hor nag Primary School, and then around 1000 villagers will indirectly benefit from this project.

Implementation organization/individual: Skal bzang mtsho (project manager), Sha bo thar (school leader), Snying lcaks tshe ring (Head of all the schools in Hor nag Township), Shes rab (a teacher), and Shem Women’s Group.

Contact Group: Shem Women’s Group

Funds Received (source, amount, and date received):

Shem Women’s Group distributed 35,780 RMB (80% of the project money) to the project manager, Skal bzang mtsho, on the 18^th of September, 2011. Skal bzang mtsho will get the remaining funds, 8945 RMB (20% of the project money), from Shem after completing the project.

Details of project activities

1. Contact the village leader and discuss what the village needs.
2. Ask the school teachers what kinds of books are really helpful and what type of computer is good for the students.
3. Go to the store and check the price of books and computers.
4. Collect background information about the village and the school.
5. Get government’s permission.
6. Receive funds
7. Hold a meeting with the teachers and the students who will manage the library and computer room.   Set up rules.
8. Purchase the books from Xining and Xinhua bookstore and buy the computers from Shengli Road Electronic Market.
9. Arrange transportation, and deliver the books and computers to the school.
10. Hold a meeting with the school leader, teachers, and students to let them know the process of project.
11. Take photographs and interview the beneficiaries.
12. Send final report to the donor with pictures and receipts.

Project Finances: 

Actual budget realized in the framework of the project: 

The original donor contribution was 45,129 RMB, but actually the project manager received 44,725.

While purchasing the computers, the project manager found out that the computers cost 100 RMB more than planned for each computer. The school teacher said that the school needs more Tibetan books than English and Chinese.  So when the manager purchased the books, she bought more Tibetan books and less Chinese and English books. Transportation became more expensive and amounted to 1,000 RMB. Also, the actual project management expenses are 136.9 RMB. The manager spent 100 RMB for phone fees and the extra for the taxi in Xining city.

Delays, Difficulties, and Lessons Learned 

Delays 

The book and computer project was funded in July 2011, but the money was received at the beginning of September in 2011. The starting date for the project was delayed for several days. Firstly, at that time the project manager Skal bzang mtsho was not in Xining City. She was in an internship for three months and she didn’t have access to the internet. Secondly, in 2011, all the schools were checked by the national education program (“两基”国检验收 ), so all the students and teachers were busy with welcoming leaders. Thirdly, the project manager couldn’t come to Xining on time– she was doing an internship as a teacher and the school leader didn’t give her permission to leave.   

Difficulties 

Under the support from the school and project committee, the project manager Skla bzang mtsho didn’t meet any serious problems. However, the project manager encountered several small problems. Firstly, the project manger didn’t know much about the price of computers and the quality of computers. So she went to the electronic market several times and asked almost all the stores to compare the prices of computers. Secondly, the project manager was doing an internship in another town, and so it was difficult for her to find time to do the project. She had to ask permission from the school leader to do this project. This affected her teaching work, and it was also hard for her to travel between the project location and her school. In addition, the donor contribution was less than the original budget. Another problem that project manager faced is that when she went to buy the books, the school teacher said they need more Tibetan books than Chinese and English. The prices of the books increased from the time of writing the proposal. So the project manager had to create a different budget for the books.

Lessons Learned 

During the implementation of the book and computer project, one thing which the project manger learnt was that it is very important to have a meeting with the school leaders. Sometimes there might be changes regarding the project needs after the proposal is submitted to the donors. Hence, if the project manager has a meeting with the school leaders ahead of project implementation, then there won’t be any problem during the project implementation and it can help the students get what they really need.  

While implementing the book and computer project, another lesson that the project manager learned was that she needs to be responsible, otherwise it is very difficult to complete the project on time. She knew that without villagers’ and school teachers’ support, it would be very hard for her to complete the project successfully. She learned that she needs to prepare for unexpected events at anytime—for example, she should prepare extra money to be used if there are any budget changes.   She should also pay more attention to the current price of goods so that she can devise a more exact budget.  This experience taught her how to be a more responsible person, effectively communicate with different types of people, and how to deal with the difficulties.

Interviews (3-5 interviews)

The headmaster
Sha bo thar is from Hor nag Township, Abog Village. He was born in this township and has been teaching in this school for almost 20 years, and now he is the headmaster of the school.  He said, “The school is lacking computers and books for the students. The project manager did a great thing for the school, even for the local people in this township. Before, there were only 20 computers, and two or three students would sit in front of one computer. So the class was not good, the students couldn’t get the main point of the class. During the class, sometimes they fight with each other. Especially the female students sometimes cry after fighting and are defeated by male students. Books from this project make the students more interested in studying, and they can get different information or knowledge from different books. I don’t know how to thank the donor and Shem Women’s Group, and very much admire their great job. Except saying ‘thank you,’ I really can’t do anything for you. Lastly, I wish the organization keeps doing this kind of great job and helps poor schools like this in other areas as well. I hope their other work goes well, and I believe good beginnings have good results.”

One of the leaders in this school, Snying lcaks tshe ring
Snying lcaks tshe ring is from another township in Re Gong County and has been working in this school for three years. He said, “When I came to this school, I saw that all of the students are very hard working and they are very lovely. They are farmers’ children and they are honest. But the school’s condition is limited and there isn’t enough equipment for the students to study very well, such as, not many books in the library and no computers in the computer lab. So this situation made me feel very sad. I wanted to ask the government to give some computers to our school. But now you have done this. Moreover, there were very few books in the library, so the students didn’t go to the library very often. But from now on, due to the project manager’s proposal to Shem and the donor, our school got a big contribution. I am so happy that the students can improve their studies better than ever. I am very thankful for the donor, Shem Group and the project manager.”

Teacher Shes rab

 He has been working in this school for 15 years and was a main person that provided information about this school when the project manager was writing the proposal. The teacher helped the project manager a lot during the proposal writing. He felt really happy when he learned the project was funded. He was the first to tell the school the good news. He said, “Although I didn’t do much during the project, I feel really happy that the students got good equipment for learning. I will work hard and take care of the books and computers for my generation and hope to pass it to the next generation without any damage. And I want to give one thousand thanks to the donor for helping an area with such poor educational resources.”

A student at the school
He is a grade three student in the school and his name is Zla ba rkyal mtshan. He is 10 years old. The project manager asked him what type of book he wants to read. He replied he likes to read cartoon books, such as Grey Wolf and Outman. Before, there weren’t enough cartoon books to read. But now he can read many cartoon books and his school life will be interesting. He said he can learn some lessons from the cartoon books. For example, that good behavior has good results. The project manager also asked him whether he knows what a computer is, and how much he knows about using computers. He said he knows what a computer is. His teacher showed him a few computers in the computer room, and he can play some games on the computer. Then the project manager told him that he should study hard and learn more about computer, not only games– the computer can do lots of things, and he can learn many things from the computer besides playing games.

The girl is a student from grade 5 and her name is Sangs rkyas skyid. She is 12 years old. The project manager asked the girl what kinds of books she likes to read. She answered she likes to read storybooks and she has read some storybooks before, such as The Red Hat, The Lion and the Rabbit. The teachers told her there will be more storybooks to read soon since the project was funded. At that time, she felt so happy and she was waiting for the books every day. At last, the books arrived and she didn’t know how to show her happiness. She said their teacher taught them how to type Chinese on the computers, but there were only a few computers and it was really hard to get a computer for every class. From now on, she can learn more about computers and she will try her best to learn more. She thanked the project manager for implementing such a great project for their school.  

Letter of appreciation

 

Scanned letter in Tibetan

Translation in English

Dear Shem Women’s Group and the Donor:

Firstly, all the teachers and students would like to say thank you for your generous donation to our school.

The school is located in a remote valley where transportation is very inconvenient and information is lacking, and this is a big obstacle for the development of school. On the 20^th of September, 2011, our school got 10 computers worth 38,600 RMB, 318 Tibetan books worth 3,482.7 RMB and 95 Chinese and English books worth 1,505.4 RMB. Therefore, your donation is very huge and all the equipment really fulfilled the needs of the school. Your donation provides a great opportunity for the teachers to improve their teaching methodology and motivate the students to learn effectively. We will never forget your help and we promise that we will do a good job with those new and useful books and computers. From now on, we do not need to worry about reading materials aside from the textbooks. We can be more focused on our teaching and learning. We believe that we will try our best to improve the teaching quality of our school.

At last, all the teachers, students and all the local people wish all Shem members and the donor to be healthy forever. We hope everything goes as you wish. We would love to say thank you very much for everything you have done for us.

Hor nag Primary School

Sep 20^th 2011

List of recipients:

Receipt #1

These two receipts are for the Chinese and English books (1,505.4 RMB) and Tibetan books (3,482.7 RMB) 

Receipt #2

These four receipts are for the computers (38,600 RMB)

Receipts #3

This receipt is for the transportation fee (1,000 RMB)

Receipts #4

These five receipts are for the project manager’s phone fee (100 RMB) and the taxi fee when the project manager went to purchase the books and computers (40 RMB).

Original Project 
Project Location

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

Project population

There are 285 students in Hor nag Central Primary School, 120 female students and 165 male students. There are 27 teachers, 14 female teachers and 13 male teachers in the school.

Cash Income

In Stong Che Village most of the villagers (except old people and children) usually dig caterpillar fungus, which is a medical herb that grows in high mountains, and it is the basic way people earn money in this village. Every year after planting the crops, the villagers start to prepare digging caterpillar fungus. The time is only for one month, so after they pay the land fee, each person can earn 2,000-4,000RMB on average. Every family goes to dig the herb (except for families who only have one member). When the villagers come back, it is time to harvest. It takes about one month to finish the harvesting. And after the harvest, villagers go to do construction work to earn money, except for old people and children. Each person can earn 1000-2000 RMB on average doing construction work. These two forms of labor are the main cash income of this village.

Education

In Stong Che Village there are 8 university students (5 boys and 3 girls), 19 high school students (11 boys and 8 girls), 20 middle school students (13 boys and 7 girls), and 40 primary school students (19 boys and 21 girls). On average, one child from each family is receiving education. Approximately 80% of villagers are illiterate and 20% of villagers are literate, which includes the monks and traditional religious scholars. In total, there are 535 people in the village.

Agriculture

In Stong Che Village, all the villagers are farmers. They grow barley, wheat, pea, rape seeds and potatoes in their farmland. Because of the elevation and the landscape, the fields can not be irrigated, so the crops have to depend on the rain. On average, every family has 10-20 mu of land (1 mu = 0.07 hectares). Every year the land is divided into two parts, the villagers plant one part of the land and leave the other part for next year in order to enrich the soil quality. The other part needs to be ploughed three times a year. It is important for having a good harvest next year. Usually, each family can get 500kg of potatoes, 400kg of barley, 300kg of wheat from their fields each year. Some poor families have few potatoes, wheat and barley, so they usually have to buy from the county town.

 Herding

All the villagers are farmers in Stong Che Village, which is located on a mountain. On average, each family has 1 mule, 1 donkey, 2-3 cows and 30 goats. The mules and donkeys are for transportation and farming, and the cows and goats are for milking and selling when there is an emergency of needing money.

School Background

Hor nag Central Primary School was built in 1953. There are 285 students; among them 120 are girls and 165 are boys. There are 14 female teachers and 13 male teachers, and six grades. They study Tibetan, Chinese, Math and English. There is a library but there are only a few books. The school is not collecting any extra money from the students to buy practice or library books; they only pay the tuition fee. This school is located at the center of three villages. These are Ri zhol ma, Ri gong ma and Stong che villages. 85% percent of the students come from these three villages, and 15% of the students come from other villages in the township. There are seven villages in Hor nag Township. The other four villages have their own primary schools, but there are only three grades, so when the students who come from the other four villages reach grade four, they come to Hor nag Central Primary School and finish the rest of primary grades.

Problems

1.Lack of library books and basic computer skills
Hor nag Primary School is located in Hor nag Township. Since the township is located on a mountain, the transportation is very inconvenient. They are isolated from the outside world and the source of outside information is very limited. There is a library in the school with just a few books, and there are some old computers, but the school really wants to set up a real library with books for all the students to read and let students learn computer skills. However, due to their financial condition, the school can not afford to purchase the books and computers.
2. Lack of interest in learning
Most of the students get bored with just learning from the textbooks. The students don’t want to attend the class because they are bored, so they skip classes. Students who do this fail most of the exams, and it makes the parents disappointed about their scores and allow students to give up on school. Sometimes the students beg their parents to let them stop going to school. Most parents let their daughter drop out of school because in this village, females have many things to do, for example, working in the fields, carrying water, collecting yak dung and washing clothes. In addition, teachers and students do not talk during or after classes. The relationship between teachers and students is not very close, so students are scared of teachers and afraid to speak out their thoughts. There are only a few computers at the school and usually two or three students have to share one computer. During the class, male students don’t let the female students use the computer, so male students’ computer skills become better than females’. Overall, students in Hor nag Primary School don’t have the same computer skills when compared to other schools of the same township. Due to these problems, the students cannot get good scores on lower middle/high school entrance exam. If they failed the examinations, they have to give up school and stay at home.
3. Limited teaching skills
Teachers in this school are teaching in traditional ways, using the same methods they were taught to teach their students. There are not any seminars or trainings for the teachers to update their teaching methods. Even if the teachers want to use a new and effective way to teach, they lack the resources, such as teaching materials and internet. Much of the educational content has been changing, so the teaching methods must be improved and updated.
4. Students’ free time is wasted
During the summer and winter vacations, usually the students from Hor nag Central Primary School spend most of their time playing games, chatting with friends, and sleeping after finishing their homework, which was given by the teachers from the text book. They have no interest in reading books during their free time, both in school and at home. Thus, if there are interesting books, students can read more to improve their knowledge outside of class.

Benefits

If this project is funded:

1. The school library will have many different kinds of books to read, which can be used by both students and teachers. The students can use new computers to expand their knowledge, and each of the students will have her/his own turn to use the computers. This will also lessen the teachers’ burden for teaching computer skills. Furthermore, if there are computers for each student to use, there won’t be conflicts among the classmates who are arguing over the computer, so the relationship between students will improve.
2. Students’ general knowledge would be improved by reading books from the library, and the students’ basic computer skills would improve. This would help the students get a good score, and pass the examinations for middle school and high school. This could prevent students from dropping out of school after graduating from primary school or middle school. Since many students’ parents let their sons and daughters to stay at home after the students fail the examination, if they know basic computer skills, they can find a job more easily even if they drop out.
3. The school teachers can use some books or teaching materials from the library, like maps and exercise books for teaching, which can help the teachers to make the class more interesting and fun. It will help the students to love learning, love classes, and love school.
4. If there is a variety of books in the library, the students will have more options for ways to spend their vacations, rather than only playing or helping with family chores. The students can spend their time to reading books according to their interest, such as poems, novels, magazines, science books, etc. In this case, the students could develop their reading skills and increase their vocabularies, or discover their interests by reading different kinds of books, and that could be a great milestone for developing their own interests in learning and talent.

Gender Equality

Firstly, this project will benefit both boys and girls in the school, since all students can borrow books from the library. They can use their own computers during computer class, which is especially important for the female students who have not had a chance to do this in the past. They can also concentrate more if they have their own computer during the class. Furthermore, the students’ general knowledge will be improved by reading books from the library. Girls can continue school which means in their future life, they don’t have to depend on men all the time.

Secondly, the project is designed by and will be implemented by the project manager, who is a woman. By doing this project, she can improve communication skills with different people like the local headmaster and build self-confidence. Also, she will send an important message to the local women, and show them that women can also do helpful things for their society.

Beneficiaries

This project will directly benefit 285 students and 27 teachers. Around 1000 villagers will indirectly get benefits from this project.

Sustainability

The project manager and school leader will discuss what kind of rules to make for using the new resources and how to make the library card. Two responsible teachers will manage the computer room, and two will manage the library. They will write down rules that are agreed upon by all the teachers and all the students and stick them on the books in the library and the computer room, letting the students know the rules clearly. Every time the students want to borrow books, they should show their library cards with their name and picture on it and write their names on the registration forms. If they damage or lose the books, or break the any part of the computer, the teachers must follow the rules and make sure that the students will be responsible for the damages and missing books. This will hopefully ensure the library books and computers are in good care for a long time.

Government approval
In June 2010, the project manager, Skal bzang mtsho, discussed this project with the village leader (Dbng mdun rkyal), the school leader and the teachers. They gave the project manager full permission to go on with this project and encouraged the project manager to do her best because it can help many children in the village.

Project Checklist

1. Contact the village leader and discuss what the village needs. (completed)
2. Ask the school teachers what kinds of books are really helpful and what type of computer is good for the students. (completed)
3. Go to the store and check the price of books and computers. (completed)
4. Collect background information about the village and the school. (completed)
5. Get government’s permission. (completed)
6. Receive funds
7. Hold a meeting with the teachers and the students who will manage the library and computer room. Set up rules.
8. Purchase the books from Xining bookstore and buy the computers from Shenglilu Electronic Market.
9. Arrange transportation, and deliver the books and computers to the school.
10. Hold a meeting with the village leader, teachers, and students to let them know the process of project.
11. Take photographs and interview the beneficiaries.
12. Send final report to the donor with pictures and receipts.

Project duration

This project will take about four weeks to complete.

1 day: Inform the school teachers that the project is funded

4 days: Purchase the books from Xining bookstores.

5 days: Purchase the computers from the Electronics Market.

5 days: Pack all the books and computers and transport them to the school.

2 days: Hold a meeting with the school leader and teachers. Set up rules.

5 days: Display the books in the library and install the computers.

3 days: Take photos and interview the students and teachers.

Detailed Budget