October 1999

31st October 1999

National 'Friendship Award'

Rose Acock was awarded the 'Friendship Award' by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs in Beijing at the end of September. The award winners attended the National Day 50th Anniversary celebrations in Beijing on October 1st. Rose was recommended by the Sichuan Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office, DORS' partner, to receive the award for her contribution to poverty alleviation through DORS. One hundred foreign experts were selected 'in honour of their enthusiastic support for China's construction and friendly co-operation', each received a plaque and medal. Rose was the youngest recipient and one of only 4 women receiving the award. The award winners were invited to watch the National Day parade from the rostrum in Tiananmen Square and were invited to State level banquets in the Great Hall of the People, where they also had a meeting and photograph with Premier Zhu Rongji. DORS Trustee Barbara Acock also attended the events.

Na'er Village Primary School Rebuilt

DORS project to rebuild the primary school in Na'er Village was completed in time for the start of the autumn semester. The simple building was designed and built by the villagers to replace the existing school which had a rotten roof and was in danger of collapsing. This is the first school building project DORS has been involved in. The total DORS contribution was 4,560 RMB or 337 GBP. The County Education Bureau also agreed to give funding of 5,000 RMB (370 GBP).

Social and Community Forestry

Rose and Adam Grant (pictured left beginning partipatory mapping with villagers of Shunhe Township in preperation for DORS forestry projects) recently attended the south west regional seminar on the application of PRA in resource management, hosted by The Sichuan Natural Resource Conservation And Development Training Center (SCTC).

They attended through the kind invitation offered by Tan jingzhang and Deng weijie two senior lecturers at the college. The seminar was also attended by senior forestry and social science experts, from the south west region of China. Who were invited to present papers on their organisations current findings on the application of PRA in resource management. The seminar provided a clear insight into how the use of PRA in China was being recognised as an important area of rural development. And with future adaptation and modification will become an invaluable process.

The seminar was funded by IDS (Sussex) UK.