Dec 2001/Jan 2002

31st January 2002

Wanping School Teacher's Dormitory Project Completed

Earlier last year we began the construction of a teacher's dormitory in Wanping Village of Pianma Township as part of the Kadoorie-funded Integrated Community Development Programme. This project was designed to improve the quality of education in the village. Because the school is difficult to access, the construction of a school dorm would allow teachers to stay there during the term.

Before starting the project, we met with all the villagers to discuss this project, and most were all in support of it, particularly as we were also to begin supporting a number of students to attend the school this year. The Education Dept also agreed to send two teachers to the school. DORS contributed funding towards purchasing and transport of materials, and the villagers agreed to put in the labour for the construction. In total, the dormitory took 6 months to complete. A total of 18,250 RMB was expended.

The teachers have already moved into the dorm, and have begun their new teaching posts at the school. In addition to improving the quality of education by having formal (rather than daike or substitute) teachers, the school has also been able to expand the number of classes being taught to include 1-5th grade. All the villagers were pleased with the project. We appreciate the support of Kadoorie Charitable Funds for this project.

DORS News and Information

This month two members of the Trace Foundation working in the Dingjie County office in Tibet came to visit our projects and briefly train with us for 2 weeks. Pasang and Dandron both work with Rose Acock in the Qomolangma [Everest] National Nature Preserve in Tibet implementing similar community development measures. During their time here, they accompanied us on village visits and learned more about our micro-credit, education, school rebuilding, forestry and upcoming Ganluo County projects.

DORS would like to wish all our partners and supporters a HAPPY NEW YEAR! We appreciate the support we've been given over the past five years, and look forward to continuing the relationships and building new ones over the next few years.

Baikun Village Finishes Their Fuel-Efficient Stoves

Our move into the adjoining Ganluo County has kicked off into the new year with the completion of phase I of the fuel-efficient stoves in Baikun Village, part of Lianghe Township. A total of 37 stoves were built in the two hamlets, and 4292 RMB expended for materials, transport, and technician fees.

DORS contributed 116 RMB worth of materials for each household, and the villagers agreed to contribute 70 RMB, including the purchase of the woks for cooking. There was a tremendous amount of enthusiasm
for this project as most villagers found the shortage and labour of fuelwood to be one of their greatest difficulties. As such, a stove was constructed for participating households in the village.

Late last year we began the training of villagers and township representatives in the technical aspects of the stoves. Mr Bai, an engineer from the Rural Energy Office with whom we have worked before, spent 2 weeks in the village working hands-on with the villagers. After building a demonstration stove, he oversaw the construction of two more stoves by villagers themselves. The villagers were then responsible for training and assisting other villagers with the construction of their stoves. In this way, villagers are not only reaping the benefits of having a stove, but are also endowed with the technical skills that may be useful and applied in the future.

We would like to thank the Kadoorie Charitable Foundations for support of this project.

Capacity Building- A New Direction for DORS

Earlier last year DORS mentioned new directions for the organisation and identified ways of increasing our impact within the field, particularly through the training of local people who plan to remain in development. As the new year begins, we find ourselves in the position to take on more of these responsibilities.

As many of you know, DORS has been implementing grassroots based poverty alleviation measures in Hanyuan County for 5 years now. As such, our hope is to expand our impact beyond Hanyuan through the training of local Chinese people who plan to pursue a career in development. While still maintaining a core area of project work, we believe that capacity building is a direction that not only encourages the self-sustainability of local communities, but also benefits the aims of long-term sustainability of future development work.

Therefore, we would like to invite organisations who would be interested in both sending and funding local Chinese people for training to contact us. If there are further questions or comments, please feel free to email us at: info@dors.org.uk.

Assisting Local Communities-Chenhe's Social and Community Forestry Project

As part of our new capacity building efforts, one of DORS' project sites, Chenhe Village in Xixi Township has been approved for a Chenhe Community Forestry Project by Misereor. We have implemented several projects in Chenhe Village with the assistance of the Party Secretary, Chen Dongxiang. The proposed project was to develop non-timber forest products and huajiao for each household. The villagers will be responsible for managing their own plots and have selected a management committee for each hamlet to oversee general responsibilities. They requested our assistance in seeking funding for this project, and after having written the application, DORS assisted them with translation and liaising with Misereor, who has agreed to support the project. The total funds for the project are 262,800 RMB (73,000 DEM).