Jan / Mar 2019No. 145

31st March 2019

Cooperative capacity building

Villagers participating in the sustainable  livelihood project registration

Consultant counseling cooperative

Project Progress

Walnut Marketing Project for Hanyuan County

Cooperative Capacity Building

Pianma Township Cooperative visited the Mandarin Orange Cooperative in Shimian：In order

to facilitate the cooperative management and operation team’s understanding and perception  of the cooperative developing direction, operation approach and yearly objective, we set the  aims of group start-up, standard regulations, unified technical norms, connecting market and  integrating multiple development elements at the very start of the cooperative. The consultant  advised villagers to travel out of village to visit, communicate, discuss and practice in terms of  management team capacity building and actual operation. Therefore, DORS organized this  visit as the beginning of similar future visits. A total of 17 key members from 8 cooperatives  participated. Let’s hear what they have to say after attending the experience sharing of the  host:

—“The development of the Mandarin Orange Cooperative is quite touching, having seen its

standard management - especially the size-gauging of the oranges - our Jianping cooperative  should also classify walnuts by quality and size, guaranteeing the quality as the Mandarin  Orange Cooperative does. ”

—“In addition to the assembly line and self-made packaging boxes of the Piangyang  Cooperative, it’s dining hall regulations are also worth learning from.”

—“People need to get united and learn more, ideas are fundamental. One needs to take action  to find out which part is difficult, but we should remain united.”

“Quality matters, we should learn unified management, high quality ensures better price.”

—“It takes a lot to lead a team, the director must have strong confidence to get where they are  today. DORS has contributed a lot to carefully plan the visit behind the scenes. It’s said that  one learns to be the person he follows, but how much you can take home depends on your  understanding, whatever you learn will be beneficial to yourself.”

Consultant invited to Coach the Jianping Cooperative

DORS invited Mr. Wang Zhiwei, director of the Pingyang Mandarin Orange Cooperative, who is experienced in the operation and development of cooperatives, to design coaching courses  for Jianping cooperative based on its real situation. Hopefully, after one year of personal  coaching, Jianping Cooperative will be guided to the correct developing track, the director,  technical service team and operation team will be working well and sustainable objectives will  be achieved. By March Mr. Wang assisted Jianping Cooperative to complete training in  practical rules and regulations, building technical service team and operation team as well as  experience sharing. The operation team of the cooperative had successfully organized its first  agricultural material purchase activity, the technical service team had instructed its members to  finish the walnut management work during winter and spring. The board of directors signed the  purchase contract of a walnut drying house and a storage vault, whose construction started in  March.

Look for Market in Chengdu

Through the visit to the fair hosted by Chengdu Huizhi Social Worker Center, a connection has been built in the fair between the rural produce from Pianma Township and Chengdu local  residents. Jianping cooperative brought the samples of pepper, pepper oil and dry walnut from  Pianma Township to showcase in the fair around the Spring Festival, which served as the warm-  up of the 2019 sales. We believe the tastes of our produce will be appreciated by local  consumers.

Sustainable Livelihood Project in Siguojue  and Machang Villages

Villagers start registration for sustainable livelihood projects

In January 2019, through full discussion and investigation, we started to sign up voluntary  villagers for a sustainable livelihood project. The project is aimed at financing women to  generate income through small-scale farming or breeding or other kinds of business. The  women will decide what they should do by themselves, but the finance limit is 1000rmb/household, which mustn’t account for more than 80% of the total investment. In other words,  women should also contribute to the finance. Only in this way can their sense of possession and responsibility be sparked, and it’s easier to find out their true need contrasted to a project  requiring nothing. During the project we will visit and study households to identify those which  can’t take part in the project due to practical difficulties, designing specific project to help these  extremely impoverished households.In the meanwhile, certain training sessions on farming, breeding,  hygiene and health and financial management will complement this project. Hopefully these  activities could raise women’s awareness of environmental problems and consequently  encourage them to take actions in terms of the harm caused by drainage, waste discharge,  pesticide, chemical fertilizer and garbage. We expect to teach women to keep accounts of  income and expenses(use their own sustainable livelihood project as an example), and implant  the financial management concepts such as the relationship between household income,  expense and savings into them. Despite the fact this effort may produce little effect, we still  firmly believe little effect could bring about influence to the village over the long term.

Tiller

In January 2019, we inspected the tillers in Siguojue Village household by household, mainly to find out the usage and quality of the tillers. The findings of the inspection  showed that villagers are satisfied with the tillers, they praised the tillers’ efficiency and  quality in addition to the maintenance service from the provider. It was in winter that the  inspection took place, most tillers were found in fields. After one year in service, neither a  machinery breakdown nor an accident was recorded. We owe this to the meticulous  enquiries done before the purchase made by village cadres and the patient training  provided by the provider technician. DORS also emphasized safety awareness and  common usage tips to villagers at different stages of the project, expecting villagers to  benefit from every detail of the project. In view of the villagers unanimous favorable  comment, we soon paid off the 10% guarantee money to the provider.

Education Project

Tuition Support

DORS staff learned about the impoverished students from Pianma Township through

various means in January. DORS knows Pianma Township - one of our project sites - well,  which helped when selecting the students from the most impoverished households. After  visiting these households, DORS eventually funded 10 students at the start of the school  term.

Senior Project

Elderly Care

In order to facilitate contact between the seniors living in remote mountainous areas andtheir children working in cities, as well as making emergency calls, DORS and Hanyuan  Telecom Company initiated the Senior Mobile Phone Project. Altogether we financed 36  mobile phones designed for seniors. We hope the project could bring convenience and  happiness to the seniors from Huodi and Maping villages of Hanyuan who are over 60  years old.

Learning / Communication / Contact / Visit

National Security Bureau of Yaan City visited DORS office

The staff of National Security Bureau of Yaan City visited DORS office on January 3,expressing their appreciation to DORS staff and learning about DORS project in terms  of progress, strategic plan and fund sources etc. They were concerned about the  difficulties DORS came across in work and offered help if necessary, willing to keep  contact with DORS. DORS staff expressed their gratitude for their support and trust  and handed them their plan for future activity for 2019.

Financial audit

Complete the financial audit of 2018

According to the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Administration of Overseas Non-Governmental Organisatio in Mainland China, Sichuan Yongle Accountant Services  LLC China had completed the auditing work for year 2018 in January, DORS had  submitted the auditing report on time to the administration authority and the Public  Security Department under Sichuan Provincial Government.

New changes of the office

DORS office moved

DORS office lease expired in January 2019 and we had to move offices. We reported this to the administration authority and the Public Security Department under Sichuan  Provincial Government and got their approval. We moved to the new office, located on the  5th floor, No. 166, Fulin Dadao Erduan, Haiyuan County, on January 28th 2019.

Misereor Project trainee

March saw the coming of another DORS

Misereor Trainee. Miss Zhang Yuru, a  Hanyuan local, majoring in Food Processing  and Inspection, will graduate from college  this June. The young woman, like most  DORS members who grew up in a village,  committed herself to the job with deep love  for the village. She believe the task of  poverty alleviation is not just the process of  approaching villagers with our working ideas  and methods, but also the process of  villagers recognizing the project plan and  taking actions proactively. Only through two-  way matching can we help villagers develop  further on the sustainable way.