Heifer China Family Continues Improving Farm and Home

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Heifer China

In the time since our last post, Heifer China participant Chang Julan’s family suffered a loss of livestock. Seven sows all became pregnant, but in May one of the sows had a difficult pregnancy and died, taking with her at least 10 unborn piglets. Now Julan’s family only has six sows and eight young pigs for fattening. During these months they also bought 20 piglets since the selling price this year was relatively low. Ms. Chang also decided to continue to raise sows and to increase her flock of chickens.

Chang Julan's family's living room. Photo courtesy of Heifer China.

Although the whole house has yet to be whitewashed, the Chang family has completed their new kitchen along with the remainder of the renovations. They now have a hard stable floor and ceramic tiles beneath the stove. In April they installed a protective railing around the first floor windows and the second floor balcony. The family now also has running water and the ability to burn firewood, and the use of electric and biogas-fueled cooking. Ms. Chang is committed to environmental preservation, and in the future wants to focus more on the use of biogas.

Ms. Chang’s son, Yang Jiusong, has completed the High School-placement exam at the Northern Vocational Middle School in Guangyuan City, and is still at school preparing to take a computer aptitude exam. Ms. Chang’s husband, Yang Yongguang, works in Guangyuan City as a day-laborer, although both husband and wife are also busy clearing weeds from the cornfields.

Recently Chang Julan purchased a water tower in preparation for installing running water in the bathroom, so as to be able to better clean the toilet and to shower. She plans to install a solar heater. Ms. Chang has also bought two electric fans and a scale; the scale is for weighing pigs when she’s selling them, and for organizing the fodder by weight.

Chang Julan's happy family. Photo courtesy of Heifer China.

The entirety of the countryside was busy for a month, until early June when it all was finally over. In late Autumn the Chang family sowed over 1 mu (about 1.5 acres) of rapeseed, collecting more than 400 jin (440 pounds); sowed over 2 mu (about 3.25 acres) of wheat, collecting more than 1000 jin (1,102 pounds); irrigated 4 mu (about 6.5 acres) of paddies; and planted 2 mu (about 3.25 acres) of corn. Lastly, they also planted sweet potatoes, peanuts, red beans, green string beans, and cucumbers, along with other assorted vegetables.

Editor’s note: This post is part of a series that follows the progress of specific families, starting at the beginning of their work with Heifer. Our colleagues in the field have chosen one family in each region in the countries where we work and will bring us quarterly updates. You can read past posts about Chang Julan and her family here.

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From the Field: Heifer’s Work with Cooperatives Around the World

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Erin Snow

This weekly post shines a light on a handful of stories from Heifer.org’s “From the Field” section.

Today is World Food Day and this year’s theme, as announced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is “Agricultural Cooperatives – Key to Feeding the World.” Heifer empowers families around the world to achieve food security, and bringing them together as agricultual cooperatives is an effective method to end hunger and poverty. Learn more about Heifer’s cooperatives in the video and stories below.

In Cameroon, members of two self-help groups formed a dairy cooperative seven years ago. In addition to giving them food security, member families have tripled their income.

Hongyu’s Pastured Chicken Cooperative in China recently opened its own store. Now members sell the chickens they raise directly to consumers, with no need for a middleman.

Corina de Jesús Ramirez lives in Nicaragua. Joining a coffee cooperative has given her access to credit, better prices and technical assistance to improve both quantity and quality of production on her farm. Claudio Hernández Vásquez also belongs to a coffee co-op in Nicaragua. His success with growing coffee has allowed him to expand farming activities to include poultry, pigs, vegetables and basic grains.

Marfusha Cooperative was founded in Ukraine in 2009. This milk co-op, which started out small, now provides collection and cooling services and sells high-quality milk to the local Danone plant.

A Hopeful Spring in Tibet

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Heifer China

The cold winter had finally passed. The belated spring put a hopeful smile on the herdsman’s face, because for herdsmen, the spring is the key season of the year. It often snows in the highland areas in spring, which probably causes livestock death and serious economic loss. On the other hand, spring is also the hopeful season here, because it’s the breeding season for yaks and sheep, which means spring is the best season to increase this family’s income.

Quzong's baby yaks

Quzong is busying delivering babies for livestock as usual this year. All eight sheep babies and four yak babies are alive now. If the babies grow up soundly, Quzong’s income will increase RMB 3800 this year, which is fantastic for her, and she has not had such a big increase in income for the last few years. The breeding season is the busiest, most tiring and difficult season for herdsmen. Quzong has to get up at 4 am every morning and walk through mountains and valleys with her yaks and sheep. If some yak gives birth, she will go to help it quickly and give it simple medical care as well. Besides, Quzong needs to take care of the babies at night, for they mean all to her.

Quzong's yaks

This year’s harvest could help Quzong achieve a wish, which is to purchase a set of famous Tibetan cushions. As we know (since she has purchased a set of Tibetan furniture last year) Quzong cannot afford cushions any more. This has worried her for a long time, because according to the Zhegu custom, if you have the best Tibetan furniture, you have to use the best cushions to match or people will laugh at you. We hope Quzong could purchase the best cushions by the end of this year in order to better her life.

Editor’s note: This post is part of a series that follows the progress of specific families, starting at the beginning of their work with Heifer. Our team in China has chosen one family in each region where we work and is sharing quarterly updates as these families work to better their lives with Heifer’s help.

A Fantastic Experience in Hong Kong

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Heifer China

April was a special month for the children of Heifer China project participants. Some of them had the opportunity to visit Hong Kong, where they met with a number of students and donors. This year, Mao Huanhuan (Wang Qinghua’s son) had his dream tour in Hong Kong. The seven-day trip gave children who are from the remote villages a great opportunity to see the outside world. Huanhuan and two other children visited six Hong Kong schools, where they had classes and played games with children as well as introduced their families and talked about how Heifer has changed their lives. Huanhuan showed them a homemade toy top, which is a toy Hong Kong children also enjoy.

Heifer China project children visit Heifer Hong Kong to meet with donors

Huanhuan and the other children attended two gatherings of donors. They talked about the changes brought about by Heifer, answered all questions from donors and talked about the future. Huanhuan even cried, “These uncles and aunts are so nice to care about me and my family. I was always afraid that my family cannot support me to go to college, but they are encouraging me to believe in myself then my dream will come true.”

At last, they took part in the finals of “Primary Student Good Book Presentation Competition,” an event supported by the Hong Kong department of education, HSBC and Heifer Hong Kong. Mao Huanhuan also made a presentation on behalf of the Chengde recipients, giving the “Thanks” certificate to the representatives of HSBC to show gratitude for their funding.

“It’s amazing to see the creativity and expressiveness of Hong Kong’s students. In only 3 minutes, they could recommend and introduce a book to everyone with different presentation styles. Some of them spoke in Mandarin, others in Cantonese, some even in English,” Huanhuan says. “I should learn from them to improve myself to acquire better public speaking skills. Thanks to Heifer and all the kind-hearted people for giving me this chance.”

Mao Huanhuan and other children attend the school event

“As Mao Huanhuan’s parent, I felt grateful that he could get the opportunity to visit Hong Kong and meet donors and students there,” Wang Qinghua said. “Thanks to Professor Song (Heifer China’s Beijing Regional Manager) and other leaders [for making this] recommendation. When I heard the news, I was too delighted to say any words. I’ve never imagined Huanhuan could go to Hong Kong.”

On May 3^rd and 4^th, the CEO and other managing directors of Elanco, the chairman of Eli Lily Foundation, and the CFO and other leaders of Heifer International came to Weichang County to visit Heifer China’s Yangebai and Deanzhuang project sites. They also paid a visit to Wang Qinghua’s house and asked more questions about the project.

Rob Smith (Chairman of Lily Foundation) and Wang Qinghua

Heifer China Empowers a Family and a Village

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Heifer China

We paid a visit to Wang Qinghua’s home earlier this year, and we saw that in the past three months, this family of Heifer China project participants has experienced some changes. Wang Qinghua bought a seven-seat van for purchasing goods and ingredients for her restaurant. Meanwhile, it was used to send water to the Daxigou forest farm twice each day.

The family got 21,000 Yuan (about US $3,300) in income through cattle rearing, about $470 in income from their vegetable plantation, about $2,200 through running the restaurant, and roughly $1,400 from their corn, potato, hazelnut and mushroom crops. This year the family has spent more than $860 on elders’ medical care, $1,500 on their son’s tuition and boarding fees and $315 on a computer.

The whole family are having lunch.

Because of the success of the De’anzhuang Project, the television station in Weichang County broadcasted “Small Village, New Changes: Heifer Program in De’anzhuang” four times a day for two days in February in order to inform people about the big changes in this small village. Wang Qinghua, as one of the three project families, was interviewed by the journalists and appeared on the TV program. Other Heifer China self-help group members and Wang Qinghua also did participatory self-reviews and planning on project activities in 2011 and practiced their Yong Ko dance. They also received trainings on marketing, spring season cattle rearing technology and pole bean growing.

Wang Qinghua’s son, Mao Huanhuan, experienced a significant winter vacation by doing lots of activities such as feeding cattle, washing clothes, playing basketball and playing Chinese chess while completing his assignments. Moreover, he helped collect a special kind of plant especially for urinary tract infection treatment to help a member of their village who is suffering from this condition.

Mao Huanhuan feeding one of the family's cows.

As to community development, the community facilitator organized a discussion on exploring markets and enlarging the sales of vegetables. They finally reached an agreement to establish a cooperative, and Deli Vegetable Plantation Cooperative has been officially registered. 208 families in this village bought a share, and more than $28,000 in start up funds was raised. The construction of the road and the De’anzhuang middle bridge have been completed. There are also plans for a 1000 square meter vegetable trade market, a 220 square meter office and a fresh-preserved storehouse with the capacity of storing 60 tons of vegetables. This cooperative will focus on conducting the trade near their village. They also plan to install a street lamp, dig 15 wells, construct six small bridges and pilot a wind power project.

Through Heifer China, a Thriving Business for Zhang Hui

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Heifer China

The freezing rain in GuiZhou Province has lasted for a long time from the days before Lunar New Year. But the weather didn’t change Zhang Hui and his wife’s resolve to make a difference in their lives.

In the past three months, there have been a lot of changes for Zhang Hui and his family. The 500 pheasants he raised were sold out during the Spring Festival. Demand exceeds supply. Zhang Hui regretted not raising more to earn more money — each pheasant sold at a price of RMB 70 Yuan (about US $11), which brought Zhang an income of 31,500 Yuan (nearly $5,000). After factoring in the costs for feed, corn, disease prevention and chicks, Zhang earned $3,470 of net income.

In addition, the natural-fed chickens Zhang raised were also sold for a very good price. During the past three months, he has sold 726 natural-fed chickens at a price of about $12 each, which brought him a profit of $6,944. With this income, Zhang Hui bought 24 breeding hens and four breeding cocks. Zhang has accumulated about 600 hatching eggs up to this point, and he plans to raise all of the hatched chicks. Zhang also bought a hatching machine at a cost of about $500.

“With the help of the hatching machine, I can hatch more chicks to raise, which saved me a lot of expenditures on purchasing chicks,” Zhang says. “And I can also sell chicks; it’s a win-win.”

As his business expanded, Zhang also enlarged his chicken house. He used wood and iron sheeting to build two new poultry houses with a fence surrounding them. With a key function of raising pheasants, each house covers nearly 60 square meters and a nearly 600 square meter open area is fenced for raising chickens. The building materials of the two poultry houses cost 6,500 Yuan, or about $1,025.

: A new poultry house

Because his pheasant business is off to such a great start, Zhang went back to his profession, which is making leather shoes. Shortly after his return from Guangzhou, Zhang started a small shoe business. But at that time, he had little start-up money, he was not skilled at manufacturing shoes and the market was not good. Those factors led to him running his shoe business in a deficit. With the money they earned from their livestock rearing, the couple has re-started their shoe business. Zhang bought a machine at a cost of about $4,100. Their work is mainly to process semi-finished products into final products.

“The main business for us is still the poultry rearing. My wife and I just do the manufacturing work for two hours at noon, and another two hours at night,” Zhang says. “When it rains, we also do the shoe processing. My wife is still a new-comer for this; she is very slow at this, but I will teach her. When we are old, we can use this craft to make a living. This doesn’t cost too much, we can pass this craft to our children if they are not good at study.”

Zhang and his wife have made 200 pairs of shoes together since January, with a profit of about $4.70 per pair. At this time, the predictable income is about $950. One of Zhang Hui’s older brothers runs a shoe store in Kaitang Township, and Zhang can have his shoes sold there. “Making shoes is a tough job, but every time when I look at the future of my family, I can hold it even if I feel alone,” Zhang says. “I want to drink wine every day, play Mahjong, watch the battle between the oxen, singing and dancing, just like everybody else did. But I take time to make shoes, if I can enlarge my business in the future, I will make leather bags. I can also use the leftover materials to make kids shoes, which can bring me about $3 each.”

: Shoe making machine

Since Zhang’s income has increased, he purchased a stereo. When he stays at home, he can listen to some music to make his life happier.

Learn About Chinese Jue Ju On International Literacy Day

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Linda Meyers

Every Saturday we feature a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom. Today is International Literacy Day, so this lesson on Jue Ju Poetry seems like a great fit.

China has a written history at least 2,500 years old. During this time, the Chinese developed many forms of art and philosophy, including poetry. Jue Ju poetry has four lines; each line has the same number of syllables – usually five, but sometimes seven.

Examples of Jue Ju Poetry

Thoughts on a Still Night, by Li Bai, a famous Chinese poet

Building a Fire in Sichuan Province, China

Photo by Russ Powell, Courtesy of Heifer International

Before my bed, the moon is shining bright,
I think that it is frost upon the ground.
I raise my head and look at the bright moon,
I lower my head and think of home.

Jue Ju poems by teachers and students

The winter wind blows loudly
Zadou listens through the wall
The house is strong and sturdy
He is warm and safe through all

Biogas is neat
Gives off lots of heat
Thanks to pig and cow
We have heat right now

The trees protect the clean air
The trees protect the rich soil
The trees protect the water
How can we protect the trees?

How to Write Jue Ju Poems

Try to write your own Jue Ju poems about people and nature. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Rivers and people
• People’s dependence on water
• The creation of mountains
• People’s reliance on energy
• How people get energy

Share your poems with a wider audience. Send them to us in the comments or share with your parents and friends.

To learn more about Jue Ju poetry and a more detailed lesson, download our Jue Ju Lesson Plan. For other lesson plans and ideas for activities, go to the Learning Resources at the bottom of our Read to Feed Resources page.

Heifer China Eases a Mother’s Burden

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Heifer China

When we visited Zhang Min’s home again, she looked very unhappy because her husband’s illness continues to worsen. Wang Chunqiang has AIDS, and he has no appetite and feels sick all the time. This also means that he is unable to work. He told us his family sold two goats this year and bought another female one, who had delivered two goat babies already. “Thanks for Heifer’s help! ” he says. Zhang Min added, “We raise goats so that we could get money by selling them in an emergency. Heifer really helps us in this way. Now we bought another goat again; she had babies as well. The hope is endless.”

Heifer China: A woman cooks in a household affected by AIDS in Anhui Province

Zhang Min cooks at her home in Wangzhuyuan Village, Anhui Province, China.

As for the last Chinese New Year, it was good that they got RMB 200 (about US $31), as well as two bags of flour from the government. Zhang Min’s sister also gave them two fish, two ducks and 5kg of meat — meat is not something this family usually has available to them. Their son, Wang Haoran, has studied hard, and his final exam scores were good. This brings great pleasure to Zhang Min.

There’s another happy event in this unlucky family. We heard Zhang Min has been elected as National People’s Congress deputy of the town. “Thanks to Heifer, I enjoy this honor.” Zhang Min smiled. There are a lot of weddings or birthday invitations in this village, and Zhang Min had to give gifts to them according to local custom, which is a burden to this family. But for future, Zhang Min is still optimistic and confident because of Heifer.

Pheasants Mean Business is Good for Zhang Hui

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Heifer China

Guizhou Province endured a long stretch of heavy rain, creating problems for many travelers. But for Zhang Hui’s family and for all of Baishui Village this was a joyful occurance: last year’s severe drought was fresh in everyone’s minds, leaving a lingering fear for the year ahead. But with this bountiful amount of rainwater the villagers were assured of a good harvest.

This inundation left everyone very busy, especially considering the season, and Zhang Hui was no exception. Although during this period he had only sold 78 pheasants (for a total of RMB6240 or US $981, and a profit of RMB3100 or US $487), Zhang Hui’s main concern at the moment was the successful incubation, hatching, and nurturing of his chicks.

“Don’t think that because these chicks are small they won’t be able to fetch a good price. My incubator can hold more than 600 eggs at a time with a successful hatching rate of over 80%. So I’ll sell this batch of 1,120 birds for a profit of RMB11,800 (US $1854),” Zhang says. “Then I’ll buy more chicks from elsewhere at RMB 3.5 (US $0.55) each and incubate them for 20 days before selling them off again at a price of RMB 15 (US $2.36) each, making a profit of over RMB 10 on each bird.”

Zhang Hui managing the incubator

Zhang Hui plans to sell all his pheasants at the Lunar New Year, so at present he still has all his current chicks. This year Zhang Hui has decided to raise 4,000 chickens before the Lunar New Year, so that by Lunar New Year next year he will have made a small fortune. Going along with this scale of expansion, this year Zhang also planted 20 mu of corn. He said, “This year the corn I plant will have 2 days of after-manuring, when I’ll ask friends to come help out. Everything else can be done by the children and their mother, so I won’t need to do anything at all.”

Studying Mom's technique for making leather shoes

Zhang Hui feels very satisfied because not only are his two daughters both obedient, they are also talented: the elder daughter is top in her class, and the younger daughter is a talented painter, getting second prize in a contest held on Children’s Day (June 1^st).

“Usually I have so many things to do, making my time at home limited. It’s difficult to help look after the children,” Zhang said. “So I bought and brought home an electric rice cooker and a microwave to give them, to make it easier for them to cook for themselves.”

The younger daughter cleaning the pen

Zhang Hui’s family is getting on better and better. Recently Zhang applied for building an operational base to better raise his pheasants, and has already heard that his application has been approved. Zhang’s wife is a skilled artisan in every aspect of making leather shoes, and is happy to help shoulder responsibility for her family. The children, too, are growing up peacefully and happily. All in all, we can see a family that has a bright future ahead of them!

The New Year Brings Joy in Tibet

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Heifer China

For Quzong, it is a long and difficult process to get help from Heifer, for there are a lot of needy families who need Heifer’s help in Zhegu Village. As part of the first batch of recipients, Quzong is lucky to reap the best opportunity to improve her family’s life.

Last December, Quzong received money to purchase two yaks from a neighboring village; the yaks are expected to be pregnant and deliver this year. It was on the 26th of the twelfth lunar month of the Tibetan calendar when we visited Quzong’s home, and all the villagers were busy cleaning the yard or preparing food for the festival. This made Zhegu Village more lively than usual.

Quzong’s two children were also at home for the winter vacation. She bought a set of cedar furniture, which is a symbol of a happy life, from Zedang Town several days ago. “Although I had wanted to buy it for a long time, I could not spend all income of last year to do that. I was not sure we can get money in the coming year, for our animal quality was poor so that some may die in spring or die off when suffered from snowstorm,” Quzong said. “But I feel confident this year because the yaks we bought are good and I believe they could deliver the babies in the coming year. Therefore, I purchased this furniture as the greatest gift of this New Year!”

According to Tibetan custom, people treat each other in the village and visit house to house during the New Year period; hence people will feel proud if they bought something new this year. Because of this new set of furniture, Quzong’s family is filled with joy and anticipation to this New Year of Tibetan the calendar.

It is really a special New Year for Quzong’s family. We hope she can be better off in the future and wish them a happy New Year.

Editor’s note: This post is part of a series that follows the progress of specific families, starting at the beginning of their work with Heifer. You can read the first post about Quzong and her family here.

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