April / May 2009

1st June 2009

Earthquake Relief and Rebuilding Project

Rebuilding - Supported by PCD (Partners for Community Development)

Hejiang road’s construction work is now fully completed! Materials for the earthquake rebuilding have now been transported in and as the next step, the work of their distribution in different amounts to each household—to be done by the village committee—is about to start. They have given us the namelist, already made public to the village, of which households are to receive which materials, along with amounts.

The majority of villagers have already completed the first floor of their normally two-storey houses, though most have not yet been whitewashed. Some villagers have also begun construction of the second floor of their houses.

As before, Moduo, Maping and Chalin continue constructing and repairing houses with the materials delivered and produced in these villages. The villagers are, still, very busy working on this and spring farm work at the same time. According to the village leaders-supplied namelists of which households received what amounts of different materials,

DORS staff personally surveyed each household to make sure the amounts on the lists were correct, and also surveyed the villagers’ degree of satisfaction with the quality of the materials. “Health walks” observations and needs-collection were done in Moduo in April, by PCD together with DORS, toward the goal of improving the overall health of the village in the second phase of the project. If possible, we will continue these walks in other villages as well.

Beyond this, we also plan to give particularly poor households extra help with materials-purchasing for house repair. ( Above Photo: Left is Dors staff Li Maohui visits the rural houshold.

Right is Hejiang Road maintenance. )

Earthquake Relief (Supported by Quaker China Group)

Of the funds received from various sources to support earthquake relief, 1822 British pounds (about 18,524 yuan RMB) came from Quaker China Group. This amount of funding was collected by the Group and then voluntarily donated to DORS.

DORS plans to use this funding to support Hanyuan residents physically hurt in the earthquake, and otherwise earthquake-affected Hanyuan residents. As of the present, and 8 families’ support in the county town and surrounding area has been paid for, and in our Earthquake Project Villages (Moduo, Maping, Chalin) we have confirmed a namelist of 7 households to be supported, with 2-3 families left to be chosen. Our support criteria are: Earthquake-affected families which are also in financial difficulty, who may also be disabled in some way and/or have children in school to support, etc.

Post-Earthquake School Support Project (funded by MercyCorps)

Due to the fact that the opening date for Tangjia Central School’s new teaching building has been delayed, the purchase of the multimedia equipment for this school must also be postponed one month. The implementation of this part of the project may have to wait until late June.

About the counseling room establishment, DORS staff Liu Yusen is currently tracking down expert advice. Tangjia Central School’s principal also specially inspected Sichuan Normal University’s counseling room. He was inspired by it. Mr. Li says the Hanyuan Education Bureau is very supportive of Tangjia School implementing this project. In the beginning of July Wuhan Univeristy (as part of the province-to-earthquake-area matching program—Hanyuan County’s relief comes predominantly from Hubei Province) will send some students to Hanyuan. Mr. Li says they will ask for some psychology master’s degree students.

Rural Energy Project

Hanyuan Project (funded by Charities Aid Foundation)

As of the present, 118 fuel efficient stoves have been completed for the CAF-supported villages, and at least 92 biogas systems have been built with 23 of these fully in use.

Because the rainy season is fast approaching, many villages cannot continue the construction process, mainly because materials cannot always be transported into these villages now. Therefore the current period is mainly a period of completing construction on those stoves and biogas for which materials have already arrived at the villages.

During the rainy season, which is also an agricultural off-season, we will take advantage of the time to discuss with other villagers how to continue and expand the project.

At this time we will sign contracts, collect guarantee fees and villagers’ contributions to the funding, and then organize whom from the village will go together with us to purchase materials, and organize the transport and distribution of them. Finally we will train local villagers in the stove and biogas-building techniques.

Daying Village altogether has 20 biogas containers whose construction was begun in April, completed in May, and then installation paused because there was no water with which to fill the containers. In this season their village lacks water, even for drinking, so they must wait until the rainy season is over to add water, test the pressure and add fertilizer material. After this the biogas tubes and rangetops can be installed and the systems put to use.

In these two months the CAF part of the rural energy project has added two villages—Zhaoyuan Village in Lianghe Township, and Zhuangzi Village in Hexi Township.

Zhaoyuan is quite an interesting place. Its natural surroundings include abundant forest, an ancient hanging bridge, a creek encircling the village, a no-longer-used water wheel, and many old-style wooden houses. (Pictures include Zhaoyuan’s forest, hanging bridge and water wheel).

Ganluo Project (funded by Worldwide Fund for Nature—WWF)

In May we completed an evaluation together with related and interested Ganluo government departments, of Bobo Township’s fuel-efficient stoves. Because this location had no local villagers with basics in cement work, training them requires a longer period of time. Under the supervision of the trainer, 10 stoves were completed, and then the trainees independently completed the remaining 30 stoves. Although the stoves’ outer face is not as well done as that on our other project villages’ stoves, we consistently awaited the trainees’ progress in learning to build better, and consistently encouraged them to construct further stoves to gain practice. We will continue to look for opportunities outside of this project to further these new master workers’ training, since they started from scratch. In actuality, recipients of the stoves were very satisfied, and Ganluo departments and villagers alike quite proud of the new stove technicians. With still more practice we are confident their skills should progress.

Education Project (Funded by Global Fund for Children)

The primary school in Taiping Village, in Hanyuan County’s Shirong Township, has been chosen as the location of the newest DORS library project.

Using project manager Zhang Guangtao’s words to describe Taiping Village School, this school is quite suited to this project. Its facilities are limited, it presently has no library or reading books, and the 64 students and 3 teachers occupy one traditional building and a mobile building.

The teachers use student desks for teachers’ desks, and instead of an electronic bell system, a cowbell is rung to signal the start and end of class.

Since starting the library program in 2007, there have continually been warmhearted individuals interested in providing books or funds for the purchase of reading books to establish libraries in order to share outside-of-textbooks knowledge with children.

We thank them on behalf of the children, and wish for everyone an abundance of new worlds outside of the classroom. Photos: Taiping Village Primary School.