August-September 2007

1st October 2007

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DORS Forestry Projects
At the end of August we paid a visit once again to Fuyou Village. Their Heibaoshi plums had already entered the producing period, and the branches strung full of fruit looked extremely enticing. The whole village put together can produce about 15 tons of Heibaoshi plums a year, but the villagers still haven’t found a suitable and reliable channel for selling them. From now on, helping villagers find markets for their new produce is a development direction DORS needs to consider. Because walnuts are convenient to transport and store, temporarily their sale is no problem for us. Because the new species of walnut has large fruit, and the flavor is good, we are aware that in all of the villages that planted walnuts, the majority of villagers are very satisfied with the results.

Maping Village
Biogas Containers Construction Project
This project’s funds come from Misereor Foundation. Because funds were limited, we only planned to construct 6 demonstration biogas containers. We expected that each biogas container would cost 2150 yuan, of which the villagers would contribute 150 yuan (with the villagers also taking care of constructing the pigsties and the toilets that go over the container), and DORS contributing the rest. We received a 200 yuan guarantee fee from each household, and had the demonstration households be responsible for each other as well as township and village cadres be responsible for them. Demonstration households were chosen by application or recommendation, once again with DORS’ engineer and project management officer Bai Shihai confirming the villagers’ space, laboring ability, and other contributing factors to their ability to complete the construction on time and with good quality. According to the contract, DORS will choose 5 Maping villagers with good basics in cement work to receive training in constructing biogas containers. We hope through training these villagers will be able to independently construct biogas containers, and thus achieve sustainability for this project. Bai Shihai will be the trainer of these villagers.

Fuel-efficient Stoves Project
DORS implemented a fuel-efficient stoves project in Maping village as early as 2005, and at the urgent request of villagers, DORS agreed to help those villagers who didn’t participate in the past program to construct their own stoves. This time we plan to construct 9 fuel-efficient stoves, and we’ve signed the contract with the villagers as well as received each household’s contribution of 100 yuan towards the project. In addition villagers have to pay the 100 yuan cement worker’s fee for each stove. The work of constructing the stoves will be done by formerly trained villagers of this village. Purchasing and transporting materials are paid for partly by villagers’ contribution and partly by DORS, with DORS’ part being about 210 yuan for every stove. At the same time DORS receives 50 yuan from each household as a guarantee. Because Maping village is in a remote location, it costs a lot to deliver materials, therefore the contribution for every stove is higher than in other villages.

Daying Village
Biogas Demonstration Project
At the beginning of August, at villagers’ invitation, DORS’ engineer Bai Shihai constructed a biogas container for them free-of-charge. Daying villagers’ requests for biogas systems are extensive, they all believe biogas is a great project, both convenient as it lights quickly (as opposed to starting a fire in a wood stove), and sanitary. In order to confirm the amount of biogas the systems would produce in Daying village, DORS decided to have Bai Shihai provide technical support for free in Daying’s Hamlet 1, which is also Daying village’s highest-altitude area. Mr. Wei Chunhai’s home at about 1700 meters above sea level became the experiment site. Bai Shihai fought the hot sun in tough labor for six days, after which a biogas system was completely constructed. After confirming that there definitely weren’t water or gas leaks, the system was turned over to the villagers to use. The amount of gas produced was evaluated as well. Villager Li Yude (former fuel-efficient stoves trainee of DORS’, whom DORS later invited to train other villagers in their construction) took the initiative to ask Bai Shihai to train him in constructing biogas systems as well. But he believed the technology for constructing the biogas containers was difficult, not at all as easy as constructing fuel-efficient stoves.

Shiquan Village Comprehensive Project
Village School Toilets Project
Shiquan Village school’s toilets have been completed on time, according to contract and plan. Along with the start of a new school year the children have already started to use the clean and safe toilets.

DORS Donations News
In September we received a donation of 5000 yuan from Ms. Joanna Xu of Beijing, who would like it to be used for education support. After careful research DORS decided to use her 5000 yuan to individually help support the tuition and living expenses of three elementary school students, five middle school students, and three high school students from DORS project villages. At the same time Ms. Xu is also assisting DORS with translation work. Here DORS sincerely thanks her.

DORS News and Information
 On August 14th, DORS’ vice-director Guo Yumei and project officer Wang Zhifang attended the Sichuan Youth Volunteer Program nonprofit organization sharing meeting put on jointly by Shuguang and PCD.  The meeting mainly discussed volunteers’ and organizations’ relationship, with 17 organizations attending. Guo Yumei represented DORS from a managerial perspective and discussed volunteer management experience, and Wang Zhifang represented the organization’s other staff sharing her experience here. This was a great chance for lots of organizations in Sichuan to share experiences and learn from one another. Also, from August 21-26, Yang Fangyuan went to Chengdu to attend Sichuan Youth Volunteer Program’s third-period training. 
DORS has successfully completed its search for a volunteer film cameraman. Graduated from Shenzhen University Broadcast Department majoring in Advertising, Guo Yuchi (left) arrived in Hanyuan September 9th, and became the 28th DORS volunteer since its founding. He will work for two months serving for free, especially in charge of filming publicity material for DORS.  We believe his year’s experience teaching in Guangxi helped him obtain a unique and real angle of view, which will allow him to smoothly complete film material for us. At the same time we hope everyone will continue to follow our progress, waiting together with us for the birth of this new work!
At this time with the double festivals of Mid-Autumn and National Day approaching, all of DORS here wishes everybody
Joy, health and peace!

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