Dec 2011/Jan 2012

4th January 2012

Special Report

Nutritional Lunch Project for Nimei Village Central Primary School sponsored by Mr WuAnming – Thank you for your continual support

Above: A girl of NiMei Village Central Primary School

WanLin village is surrounded by mountains. Early in the morning at six o’clock, the village is sitting in darkness, dark like ink. An 8 year old girl named Gaga of Yi Minority is walking on the muddy and slippery road to go to school which is 3 kilometers away. She wears a thin shirt and is carrying a big school bag with books and potatoes inside. You may wonder why she takes potatoes. Because this is for her lunch. This is the most common sight in most of the underprivileged rural areas in China.

For all children of Nimei village, this is the only way to go to school; it will take them 1-2 hours to walk to school every day. As the living condition is poor in Nimei Primary School, there is no cooking service for the children to warm their lunch. Therefore, they could only take potatoes which are available and easy to bring and can be eaten cold.. A hot lunch is preferable for these children. In this January, DORS received good news that Mr. Wu Anming would like to support the nutrition lunch project for Nimei Primary School. DORS started to work on this project with Nimei Primary School: to discuss the project implementation action plan with School, work out the budget, write up the proposal and so on. You would never forget the touching moment when you see the happiness and excitement on the children’, teachers’ and their parents’ faces, which reminds us of the song of “thanks for your support. With your help, we have the courage to keep on going”

Project Progress

Rural Energy Project : Fuel-efficient Stoves Project Evaluation

Funded by Mr WuAnming: Nutrition Lunch Project for NiMei Village Central Primary School

Funded by Mr XiongDarun:Projects for the ShiQuan Village Poorest Households, Cement Road for XiangShu Village

Health Village Projects: Apple Management and Pesticide Reduction Test for Moduo Village, Drinking Water Project for Moduo Village, ” The Sound of Earth” - “ShuiJing Fang” Community Culture and Art Festival, ChaLin and Moduo village Fuel-efficient Stoves and Biogas Project

Rural Energy Project :

Fuel-efficient Stoves Project Evaluation

Happy life is because of the good stove!

Good stove is from good technician

Good technician is from good training

We reported the stoves project progress in 106th Newsletter. This December, we went to WanLin village and Nimei Village to assess the new built stoves. All stoves were constructed by trained villagers themselves.

All villagers expressed their thanks to DORS. Because of the new stoves, it increases the firewood burning. Villagers don’t have to suffer from the heavy smoke. The other very important thing is that it also saves firewood compared with the previous one. Villagers could use the time saved to do other things and children don’t have to pick up firewood regularly.

Left:Mr BaiShihai is checking the new built stove

“ The Sound of Earth” - "ShuiJing Fang” Community Culture & Art Festival----Look for your happiness

“The Sound of Earth”— The 3rd Loving Music Community Performance of “ShuiJing Fang” Community Culture & Art Festival and was held on 10th Dec. It was initiated by Partnership of Community Development (PCD) and organized by “Loving Music Community Culture Development Centre”The activity aimed to provide a community art platform to improve the exchange of folk culture and art among communities .The activity included Art Festival, Community Art Seminar, which has attracted various community art groups from HongKong, Yunnan, ShaanXi and SiChuan to participate Above: PianMa villagers learning how to play traditional instrument

Our artist from ChaLin Village of Pianma Township showed guests the Yi minority special instruments on the performance. Through this activity we hope to improve the cooperation among communities.

From what Mr. ShaoHua told DORS, you may understand what happiness is: “I love singing and dancing. When I finish a day’s work on the land, I will call all the children together to dance and sing together in my open yard .We don’t have microphones or any instruments, .but we enjoy the singing and dancing. Money could not bring you happiness, I don’t have lots of money but it doesn’t mean I am not happy. Happiness comes from your heart” Our villager interprets us the most sincere way of happiness.

Health village project:

1, Some tips for apple tree management during winter time

Clean the farm
Loosen the soil
Prune
Fertilize
Visit other people’s farm and learn from others, share experiences.

2, Celebration for Apple Harvest

“Hey, what are they doing?”

“They are playing the tug-of-war competition ”

“Why?”

“They are holding a celebration for the apple harvest”

People celebrated their harvest with their simple ways: Village head giving speech, guest giving speech, then waist-drum dancing, tug of war competition, rope skipping race and so on. We wish them a good harvest with the knowledge of what they have learnt and used to cultivate their apple trees by next season.

With the sun set, we were going to go back home. All the villagers stood in front of our car holding glasses of wine, celebrating and not wanting us to leave. They said, “Thank you DORS for all your help. Cheers”..We picked up the wine and wished them all the best.

How can we forget this sincere greeting, they are like our brothers and sisters. Their happiness is ours.

Above:Enjoying the tug of war competition

Funded by Mr. XiongDarun— Cement Road Project for XiangShu Village

Most of village paths are built by villagers themselves. This is not complicated work but requires all people to work together. As DORS always done before, we assisted them to set up a management team, then follow up their action plan, discussion and project implementation. If needed, DORS would give them advice. Most of road constructions take about half a year, and some take more than a year. It depends on the weather and some other issues, but all are following every project requirement: such as baseline study, needs investigation, budgeting, and calculating village input and so on. By December, people of Xiangshu Village have constructed 1491 out of 2351 meters of the path. By next Newsletter, you will receive the news of the completion of the path construction.