Annual Review 2002

1st January 2003

During the last year, DORS has been continuing with community development projects in 21 villages of Hanyuan and Ganluo Counties of Sichuan Province. Following the decision in 2001 to expand our strategic aims to include assisting other organisations working in the field, we have also hosted a number of study tours and workshops. This annual review covers the financial year from 1 April 2002 to 31st March 2003.

Project Progress:

In Ganluo County of Liangshan Yi Minority Prefecture, DORS expanded the number of villages from two to four villages. In Hanyuan County of Yaan Prefecture, we also expanded to two new villages. In addition, we have continued to provide support to a further 15 villages. DORS community development project are based at village level, in each village, a number of components are implemented over several years depending on specific needs and requirements of the communities.

Education: Continued to provide school fees support for selected children in project villages to attend primary school, now supporting 306 students, of which over half are girls. DORS also assisted in construction and repair of two primary schools in Dawan Village, and one in Wanping Village.

Water Supply: Completed new village drinking water systems in Teke, Wenzeluo, Zhongpu and Songjiang hamlet 4 and 5 providing drinking water to 1836 people. DORS also completed the Sustainable Water Supply Management and Maintenance Project which included setting up supply level maintenance systems, training for local maintenance workers, community sanitation training and small-scale repairs to 30 water supply systems in 13 villages. This project secured the drinking water supply for 8697 people.

Forestry: Set up a new forestry project in Xiangshu Village and held a total of 6 forestry training sessions involving 109 people from 5 villages.

Micro-credit: Loans of approx. 1000 RMB were made to 303 women. Some women re-loaned for the third or fourth time. Currently there are micro-credit loans to 327 women in 5 villages. DORS have also made loans for developing butter bean production in 2 villages, loaning to households for the purchase of bamboo canes. Repayment rates have been good, and butter bean production increased.

Roads/paths: DORS have provided partial funding to three villages (Chalin, Wanping, and Huodi) for improving road conditions to the village.

Rural energy: DORS contributed to part of the funds needed for Baikun and Zhongpu villages to be connected to the rural electricity grid improvement project implemented by the local government.

Training: In addition to water supply and forestry training, DORS also held two three-day training sessions for Ganluo County officials and villagers. The training was to introduce participatory methodology and project management skills.

Networking/Conferences

DORS volunteers had the opportunity to attend a PRA network meeting in Yunnan and a Dfid World Bank poverty alleviation project planning workshop in Beijing.

Donor Visits: In 2002, we received visits from Sylvia So from Kadoorie Charitable Foundation, Kirsty Smith from Methodist Relief and Development Fund (UK) and Oga Thingo from Misereor (Germany) and later in the year, Christopher Lavender Director of Kadoorie also visited Sichuan.

Visitors/Study groups: DORS hosted several groups of visitors during the year. 15 Tibetan women from the Canadian funded Basic Human Needs Project in Tibet came on a study tour of several project villages and attended a workshop. In addition, we hosted a fungus researcher Warren Priest, two ex World Vision employees, and sanitation trainers from MSIC Canada.

Volunteer News

In 2002 DORS saw the arrival of three new volunteers and departure of two. Elsa Fan, Project Officer, left in April 2002 after 18 months with DORS to work for UNV in Beijing. Caroline Legros, Project Officer, moved on to a UN World Food Programme position in New Delhi in December 2002. Guo Yumei continued working as DORS Forestry Officer, and Rita Bonomally continued working as Office Manager/Project Officer. In November 2002, Peter Vautier joined the team as Project Assistant and a local engineer, Bai Shihai joined for one year as a technical engineer/trainee. In July, Zhuang Yongtao, a masters student from Beijing started to work with DORS as a trainee for 7 months. Rose Acock continued to work part time with DORS and part-time with Trace Foundation in Tibet.

Rose Acock was awarded an MBE (Member of the most excellent order of the British Empire) for services to rural development in China.

Plans for 2003

DORS will continue with its core integrated poverty alleviation projects in Hanyuan and Ganluo, we will also be providing opportunities for Chinese trainees to work with us and welcoming groups from similar projects in China to exchange experiences.

Directing Donations for Projects: DORS received donations of GBP 79,670 over the year. We expended GBP 68,914 on direct programme work and GBP 6,504 (8.4%) for administration support. In total over 13,600 people have benefited from projects implemented this year.

Key: SGS - British Embassy Small Grants Scheme (UK)

KCF - Kadoorie Charitable Foundations (HK)

EPWS Expatriate Professional Womens Society (Shanghai)

MRDF - Methodist Relief and Development Fund (UK)

* Using exchange rate of GBP1 to RMB 12

** Project was started in previous year. Expenditure is total amount (incl. previous years).