October-November 2008 Newsletter

1st October 2008

Earthquake Relief and Rebuilding Project

PCD

During these last two months DORS visited Moduo, Chalin, Maping and Hejiang villages one after the other, going from household to household surveying conditions.  After justr ecently surveying Hejiang Village in detail, now the surveying work as well as plan-making for the PCD (Partners for Community Development, a Hong Kong foundation)-sponsored project’s first period is finished.  We spent extensive time staying in these villages while doing work, especially Moduo (9 days).

In Moduo Village, according to plan, materials have begun being distributed (roof tiles to Hamlet 5 and Hamlet 7, cement to Hamlet 9), but when Moduo’s weather falls below freezing, work will stop for a while since cement can’t be used then.  If the weather changes quickly and cement is left over, Moduo villagers will keep the cement bags indoors, keep them dry and use them before spring to be sure the cement doesn’t perish.  Maping has also received some materials (steel bars, sand and cement to Hamlet 2), and Chalin has ordered virtually all its materials—including the brickmaking machine planned in the PCD contract, which is already being used.  As of the time of writing, November 24, the materials were starting to be delivered there.

Hejiang  is currently preparing its plan for us to review, and then work will start.  The above picture is DORS staff Wang Yang summarizing the results of a group discussion about Moduo Village Hamlet 1’s post-earthquake rebuilding project implementation plans.

MercyCorps

An American foundation named MercyCorps contacted DORS in July about working together to provide post-earthquake care to some originally poor schools in Hanyuan.  DORS and MercyCorps worked together to select 5 schools, which are Tangjia Township Central School, Wanli Township Central School, Wusihe Township’s Wanli Village School, Tangjia Township’s Hongshuisanjiu School, and Fuchun Township Central School.  All of these are primary schools.  The plan is to provide facilities support such as a basketball court/cemented playground area and kitchen supplies, psycho-social support in the form of books to read, sports equipment, and other recreational supplies, and material aid to make up some of the funding lack in these schools, such as multimedia (projectors, etc.) supplies, computers, blackboards for mobile classrooms, desks and chairs, etc.  Thus far basically all of the materials have been ordered and delivered to the schools, and most are already being used.  When we can confirm they have no problems we will pay the factory.  With MercyCorps’ permission we changed the plan for Fuchun school to materials provision instead of building a new toilet building.  This had a number of reasons, including that the standard for toilets changed and would now require a significantly greater contribution from the Education Bureau than previously anticipated.  If we didn’t build according to the new standard (which includes a biogas system underneath), it would have to be rebuilt too soon to make it practical. Also, the Education Bureau is already planning to rebuild the toilet sometime this school year, just after the MercyCorps project is over, and although ideally we would rebuild it now in case there is another earthquake centered nearby, there probably will only be aftershocks, and the building has been reinforced by steel bars (inside), making it safe under normal conditions for the time being.

Rural Energy Project

A fuel-efficient stoves and biogas construction project supported by Australia’s Charities Aid Foundation is well underway.  The results by village are the following:   Ranmo village has completed 14 demonstration fuel-efficient stoves, of the 15 that are planned.  14 biogas systems are planned, and further materials have been delivered as well as local villagers trained in construction.  Qinglin Village has completed 5 demonstration stoves and when their post-earthquake house rebuilding is completed, they will start building more stoves inside the new houses (a total of 33 is planned).  No biogas are currently planned for this village.  Wanjia Village’s stoves construction is in progress, currently most of the stoves included in the CAF project have been completed.  (Altogether they have almost completed 35 of their 40 stoves, but not all will be included in the CAF project).  Biogas systems have not yet been planned for Wanjia.  Chalin Village has planned 20 fuel-efficient stoves, and currently 10 are in progress.  Biogas training has been completed—both the theoretical training and the hands-on practice—and with materials already transported there, they are currently implementing the biogas project.  35 are planned.  Hejiang Village has completed 5 demonstration stoves of the 85 planned. Biogas have not been started yet—16 are planned for this location.  Most of the stoves’ construction has not started yet because of the post-earthquake rebuilding situation.  Moduo has the same situation, and they have planned 56 stoves and 43 biogas.  Daying, again, is the same and has planned 53 biogas but no stoves.  They previously did a fuel-efficient stoves project.

Mr. Xiong Darun-Supported Shiquan Village

Shiquan Village Primary School playground’s supporting wall and ground-leveling work has been completed for the entire surface—by January it is unlikely the cementing work will be able to be finished, because the agricultural busy season interrupted the completing of the project, and soon it will be too cold.  Right at the moment the road has some problems, preventing cement from being transported into the village.  We must wait until the coming spring to cement the playground.

We discussed the particularly poor households project with Shiquan.  After Chinese New Year (at the end of January), we will take the next steps on this project.

Misereor Social Development Foundation of Germany

Income Generation

(Photo is a Moyu seedling)

In the last period we chose Pianma Township’s Daying village and Yongli Township’s Shashu Village in which to implement the income-generation project.  The major progress in the last period for this project is that a lengthy discussion was had and plans made with Daying Village Hamlet 4 for the planting of Moyu (from which a kind of tofu can be made).  The plan is to have Daying Hamlet 4 be a demonstration hamlet for the growing of moyu, which has a high income-to-input and income-to-land area value, and if it goes well and people are interested, implement this project throughout the village.  Hamlet 4 was chosen because of its previous experience with growing moyu.   Some interesting facts about moyu are that the income from one square mu of land planted with moyu equals the income from 5 square mu planted with corn.   Also, the labor required is low:  while moyu and tobacco both produce about the same amount of income per mu, the labor required for moyu is only 1/4 of that for tobacco.  Moyu is suited to growing in Hanyuan. 

A meeting was also held with Daying’s Hamlet One about the growing of Green Sichuan Pepper, which in their application for this project they had suggested as an income-generation project.  We chose demonstration households with basic skills/experience in Sichuan Pepper raising, with appropriate land for growing it, and with motivation to be active in working on this project, and as a demonstration hamlet chose Hamlet One.  We plan to scale the project to their specifications.  This coming spring is the chosen planting time, and if the demonstration households’ pepper trees’ survival/growth rate is good,  we will expand the project to other households next year in the fall.

Contacts, Visits and Donor News

At the beginning of October Ya’an Poverty Alleviation Office vice-director Ms. Wang Chaoying and four other members of other Ya’an government departments came to visit DORS as part of their trip to inspect the work of Hanyuan and Shimian Counties’ Poverty Alleviation offices (part of Ya’an District).  Ya’an PAO vice-director Wang came to meet DORS’ new staffmembers and encourage DORS to maintain contact with them as well as to maintain a good relationship.  She encouraged DORS in our work and offered to help us when we run into work problems.

Ya’an branch office, Hanyuan Service Station Ping’an Renshou Insurance Company, Ltd. of China’s Mr. Zhou Yong contributed 200 yuan toward DORS’ Education projects.  DORS sincerely thanks Mr. Zhou Yong.

Global Children’s Fund

DORS has signed a contract with American foundation Global Children’s Fund, and the funds have arrived.  The planning for this project is well underway and next semester the first round of middle, high school and vocational school student fees’ support will start.  It is a small project ($5000 USD), and plans to also establish a small school library.   This is our first partnership with this organization.

Above photo:  Brickmaking machine bought by DORS in use (part of the PCD project).

Below photo:  Bricks made by the new machine.

DORS News and Information

At the end of October DORS staff Zhang Guangtao, formerly also a member of Sichuan Youth Volunteer Program, attended that program’s graduation ceremony.  As planned, DORS has hired him as Project Assistant for the coming year.

Earlier in November DORS’ Guo Yumei and Katherine Miller attended a reception by the British Consulate Chongqing in honor of Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday, attended by Prince Andrew in Chengdu.  Thank-you to the Consulate for inviting us.

During the middle of November DORS’ Li Maohui and Wang Yang attended a training in Chengdu held by PCD and Chengdu Urban Rivers Association,  on “Tools in Analyzing Ecohealth Issues”.  This workshop used a systems approach to analyzing sustainable development and harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.