Feb / Mar 2015No. 126

31st March 2015

Project Progress

Help-Age Project in Ma Ping Village launched

Ma Ping Village is located in Yongli Township of Hanyuan County, with an altitude of 1500 - 1700 meters. The whole village has 319 people, 218 are living in the village. The number of people above 60 years old is 69, about 32% of the total population, and 50 are above 70 years old, 38 people are living alone. The aging problem is serious.

In November 2014, we conducted a survey on people above 60 years old in Ma Ping Village: 80% of them are on a deterioration in health status. Due to the poor accessibility, and poor economic and medical facilities condition, all of them can’t get better treatment when they get sick. After discussion, DORS decided to implement the Help-Age pilot project in this village. On February 11, 2015, a week before Chinese New Year. We gave the people of over age 70 some essentials, each one had 5 liters cooking oil, some meat and rice for them to have a good time in the traditional New Year celebrations. In March according to the pilot project plan, for those who (above 70 years old) want to raise chicken, we gave them 5 chickens for each household, in total of 145 chickens for 29 households.

We hope more people pay attention and give some help for the rural aging population, especially for the elderly people living alone.

Project for underprivileged households-- Needs survey and Chinese New Year Visit

According to the project procedures, village cadres provided the names of candidates who are the poorest in the village, and after DORS field visits and asked about the situation from the local villagers, 35 households from 4 village of Pianma Township were selected as the target group to participate in the project. We conducted a needs survey, and decided to support children’s education for the participating households. No more than 2 children from each household received the education funds for them to go to school. Girls and children in the high grade level are given the first priority in the project. We also supported the households with some piglets for them to raise. 

Learning/Exchange/Visit

Li Maohui and Sang Lingzhi visited the Foreign Investment Center of Provincial Poverty Alleviation Immigration

On March 12, 2015, DORS staff, Li Maohui and Sang Lingzhi visited Provincial Foreign Investment Center, and presented DORS’ recent work to them. Wang Sitie, the director and the officer Zheng chiping met with them and exchanged the works. They encouraged DORS to provide more projects and services to cope with  poverty in rural Sichuan. 

The Association of Provincial Poverty Alleviation (APPA) visited DORS

 Focusing on the “Loans for small business development project”

In March, A team of President Yan Jilu, Vice President of Sun Shaoying and Deputy Secretary-General Wang Yu of DORS’ strategic cooperation partners--the Association Provincial Poverty Alleviation visited DORS. After listening to DORS’ project officer Li Maohui`s work report, Mr. Yan asked about the difficulties DORS encounter in the work, and told us that they will try their best to help DORS solve the problems. In the afternoon, accompanied by project officer Bai Shihai, the team of APPA went to DORS “Loans for small business development” project village and watched the fishing-boat bought by the participant Mr. Peng Nalin by using the loan. Mr. Peng told the team that without the loan he couldn’t buy the boat and now his business is running well, and gaining profit already.

Capacity Building

Visit to the agricultural cooperatives

Cooperatives as a form of business organization strive to maximize the benefits they generate for their members. Due to the farmers faced with unsatisfactory performance (low price of the product and poor service) by the market, a cooperative is necessary to act as an integrator, collecting the output from members, sometimes undertaking manufacturing, and delivering it in large aggregated quantities downstream through the marketing channels. With this purpose, on March 26, DORS organised a team of 16 villagers coming from 5 Villages (Da Ying, Ran Mo, Cha-Lin, and Wan Ping Village of Pianma township, and Heng Shan Village of Ni Mei Township) to visit the agricultural cooperatives in Pu Jia Township and Ping Xi Township. The Pujia Township agricultural cooperatives was established in 2011, mainly dealing with walnut tree planting management and marketing. The Ping Xi vegetable cooperatives have their special business model: local government help to set up the cooperatives. It has its own brand and stable selling channels. 70% of villagers’ income is coming from vegetable sales from the cooperatives. This visit has increased our team members’ interest and confidence to find out how to establish suitable cooperative models for our villages.

Training on the Co-operatives

On March 27, DORS carried out a sharing meeting on the topic of “farmers’ professional agricultural cooperatives”. The aim is to share experiences of successful cases in other areas so as to improve villagers’ capacity. We invited  Ms. Wang Honghong, the former director of Foreign Investment Management Centre, as this training consultant. Villagers from 5 Villages in ChaoTian district of GuangYuan city attended the training.

Activity has three phases: Firstly, Ms. Wang presented the case study: why and how farmers form cooperatives. Secondly, games for participants to promote teamwork and enhance team performance. Thirdly, sharing lesson learned and their own experiences on establishing and running cooperatives.

We hope this training can help villagers to better practices and operate their cooperatives for the sustainable development in the future.

Rural Energy Project

News and Information

2 staff left DORS in February.

The first was Wang Jingmei,and  we thank her  for her 4 years’  work with DORS. We wish  her good luck and happiness in the future.

The second one is the driver Chen Jianhua. He has brought us joys. Thanks for Mr. Chen’ work in DORS. We wish him all the best.

Welcome to Hanyuan to enjoy the countryside landscape and Dadu River’s view in  Spring blossom.  Nature is waiting to embrace you.