Tag Archives: China

Spring Brings Surprises in Yarkant Village

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When we visited Tuerdi and his family again, we were in for a surprise. With the coming of the spring cultivation here in Yarkant Village in the Xinjiang region of China, the family is getting busier. Tuerdi needs to get up earlier to take care of the pregnant cattle that were provided by Heifer China and to make the breakfast for his children. Then he will ride his recently-purchased motorcycle to the field for working on his land. He bought the motorcycle two weeks before our visit in order to save his time and energy when making the trip between the fields and his home.

And during our visit, we learned that Hasanjan, the family’s son, now eats more nutritious lunches through a local government program (he used to eat only a pancake as his lunch). Although we don’t know how long the lunch support will last, we are happy to see Hasanjan’s face is getting red and rounder. When we ask about his studies in school, the little boy is quite excited in telling us he could count the numbers from 1 to 10 in Han-Chinese!

As we were leaving, Tuerdi phoned the the next families we would visit to inform them of our arrival and to check on their cattle. Through his enthusiasm for joining all the Heifer program trainings, he has become an expert in cattle rearing, and he serves as an instructor of the subject in his village. Spring is the best season of the year, and we wish Tuerdi and his family will have a busy and prosperous 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 Tuerdi and his family here.

The Niuniu Family’s Hope in the New Spring

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Three months have passed by and there is great news to Pite Niuniu’s family that his wife, Azhe Zuotu, has given birth to a healthy baby girl!

After Chinese Lunar New Year, the eldest child, who is 16 years old, went to Guangdong trying to find a job. The two sons have begun their new semester. They go to school in the day time and after school both of them need to help the family with chores. And, now they have a new job: looking after their baby sister who is now just less than two months old.

Every March is the time for spring plowing, and that also means it’s a time of great expense. The family spent 1500 RMB (about US $230) for animal feeding, $30 for grass seed, $80 for fertilizer, and bought 200 kg of potatoes. Another big cost is for the new Yi village, a housing project supported by the local government, which will provide about $3,140 for each family. The rest of the construction cost for each family home (about $6,300) needs to be supplied by the family. More than 70 families will join in the construction here in Zhaojue County, Sichuan Province.

Pete's wife is paring potatoes

Azhe Zuotu paring potatoes.

Azhe Zuotu, a self help group member, participated in the trainings of grass planting, animal rearing, drug prevention and the 12 Cornerstones. She also took part in the community events of art performance and tree planting, and she did all these things while in the final three months of her pregnancy.

Spring is the beginning of the new year, and we Chinese have a saying: “Plan your year in Spring.” Pite Niuniu and his family hope the rain will come early to end the drought and the pregnant sow will give birth smoothly and bring them as many piglets as possible. They also hope the construction of the new Yi village will be done soon so they can move into their new house. All of these are giving them some excitement and happiness.

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. Read the first post about Pite Niuniu and his family here.

Heifer 12 x 12 China and Nepal Round-Up

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Blogger Betty Londergan of Heifer 12 x 12 has wrapped up her writing about her trips to visit Heifer’s work in China and Nepal, just in time to head to Cameroon. Check out this round-up of Betty’s lively posts from halfway around the world.

China:

Nepal:

Stay tuned on Heifer 12 x 12 as Betty writes about her adventures with Heifer in Cameroon. And click here to help Betty reach her Team Heifer goal of raising $5,000 for Heifer.

How Partnering Together Can End Hunger

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By Gail Neuwirth of Elanco

I’ve been in China for seven days.  I came here to celebrate our Heifer China project, and to actually see it for myself – and I had high expectations for both.  Traveling halfway around the world, participating in an event at the Great Hall of the People with the presidents of Elanco and the Lilly Foundation, and visiting our community in rural China is all pretty heady stuff.  My trip exceeded all my expectations, but more than that, it made me really really understand our cause and our commitment.  And it touched me deeply.

Listening to Jeff Simmons speak about the Three Rights (the human right for food, the consumer right for choice, and the environmental right for sustainability) in a room full of eager young Chinese faces at an Ag school makes the statistics about growth, hunger, and the looming food security challenges much more real and urgent.  These are the leaders who must work together with us to close the food gap.

Talking candidly with Chinese friends about where we come from on a personal level helped me understand the obstacles and prejudices we have to overcome and how easy that is when we get to know each other. My Elanco colleague talked about being taught to fear and look down on westerners while growing up.  My Heifer International colleague talked about growing up in southern China with no shoes.  I talked about the loss of manufacturing jobs in my hometown of Flint, Michigan and how low-cost labor in Asia impacts families in the U.S.  Sharing those stories helped me see that we’re all members of one global community, trying to care for our families and striving for a better life.

Watching a confident woman describe the transformation in her Heifer project village in front of photos and bar charts gave me hope.  Photos that showed dirt roads and isolation at times when they were unable to cross the river in 2008 and photos of paved roads and a brand new bridge today.  Charts showing that In 2008 the whole village sold only 50 beef cattle, cattle from inferior stock, poorly fed and cared for. In 2012, they sold 5 times as many healthy cattle and family incomes soared.  Pictures of barren landscape then and lush green vistas now because they built cattle barns to house their cattle and protect the environment.  The 3 year business plan for a new community cooperative that will ensure access to markets for the things they grow.  Now when I explain that Heifer and Elanco enable families to lift themselves out of poverty, I get it.

Listening to the Heifer Asia Director coach members of the cooperative made me see that I’m not thinking big enough when I set my goals.  He challenged them to make an additional business plan, one focused solely on social responsibility.  He suggested for example, they commit to collecting all the plastic bottles strewn throughout their community and sell them for a small profit.  And that they think big by educating the entire county about caring for the environment and then collect all the plastic bottles in the county for recycling.  And then think bigger again by sharing that vision and process with counties throughout China.

It’s simple.  There are hungry people that need to be fed.  We all need to work together to make it happen.  It can be done.  We need to act now and think big.  Simple.  Profound.

Weekly Article Roundup: Heifer Around the World

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As a global organization, Heifer travels frequently to visit partners and projects to work toward our mission of ending hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. This week on the blog, we’ve visited China, Honduras and Kenya.

In Kenya, Elizabeth Bentliff, Vice President for Heifer’s Africa program, presented a keynote address at the 8th African Dairy Conference and Exhibition held by the East and Southern Africa Dairy Association. Read more about her keynote address here.

In Honduras. Virginia Tech students recently took a Heifer Study Tour trip were they saw just how much of an impact Heifer’s work can have in the field. See how they chose one photograph from their trip and explained why it embodied Heifer’s 12 Cornerstones.

In China, Heifer and Elanco have partnered  to increase food security in China. Through this partnership, Elanco announced a global commitment to end hunger for 100,000 families, or about 600,000 people starting in Weichang county of the Hebei province.  Read more about how working together can help end hunger.

As Heifer works to make a difference around the world, see how you can help:

Wang Qinghua Passes on Her “Heifer Spirit”

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Wang Qinghua; her son, Mao Huanhuan; and her husband, Mao Jingjun (back row) and other family members

by Heifer China

It was a sunny day when we visited Wang Qinghua’s family in Deanzhuang Village, Weichang County, Chengde City, Hebei Province. But the temperature remained -15 degrees Celsius, which prevented us from exposing our hands outdoors. Even in the house, the temperature was just above freezing.

Wang Qinghua (age 38) lives with her husband, Mao Jingjun (age 42), and her son, Mao Huanhuan, who is 17 years old. The couple also cares for four elders in the family. In addition, Wang Qinghua’s elder brother and her uncle are both suffering mental illness, so she also needs to take care of them. Life is difficult for her and her husband.

Through Heifer China, Wang Qinghua received two cows and some farming materials such as vet medicine worth 500 Yuan (about US $80). Each cow gave birth to one calf per year, and in the past two years, they sold seven cows with the income totaling 21,500 Yuan, or about $3,400. Right now, two pregnant cows are still in the barn. They upgraded the cattle barn with the government’s support of 10,560 Yuan (about $1,700).

Wang Qinghua and Mao Jingiun received soil fertilization training, and they fertilized the soil with livestock manure and improved the plantation varieties to get more income. Before the project, they only planted corn, but gradually they’ve brought in melon, potato and pole beans. At present, Wang Qinghua is producing 45,000 kg (about 50 tons) of corn, 3,000 kg (about 3 tons) of potatoes and 4000 kg (about 4 tons) of pole beans.

Heifer China also brought an infrastructure upgrade to this village. The government helped them build a main road leading to the county, through which villagers can transport their crops and vegetables to the bigger market. Wang Qinghua and other self help group members had a meeting and reached an agreement to purchase a motor tricycle to do transportation. As a result, the vegetables could be sold at a higher price and the profit has been increased. In December 2010, Wang Qinghua passed on a cow to her neighbor ahead of time. In June 2011, she completed her Passing on the Gift™ requirement by sending out another cow.

“If Heifer project hadn’t arrived at our village, we couldn’t definitely experience such a huge positive change on our life,” she says. “I just want to spread Heifer spirit with my own effort.”

Wang Qinghua’s son, Mao Huanhuan, went to the senior high school in September 2011. In the past three months, the family borrowed about $3,200 and opened a small restaurant. When planning the future, Mao Huanhuan wants to go to university to study engineering and become a repair engineer. For Wang and her husband, they dreamed of having a big house.

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. Initially, this series will focus on our programs in Asia/South Pacific, where our colleagues have chosen one family in each region in the countries where we work and will bring us quarterly updates.

Wang Qinghua takes part in a training session at a Heifer China-sponosred self help group

 

Mao Huanhuan feeds the family's cows

A Turning Point in Tibet

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Qunzong at her home in Tibet

by Heifer China

As we know, Tibetans live at high altitudes. Wangdu dorjie is one of them. He is 40 years old, the father of a family and he took part in the Heifer project this year.

One day before we visited him, it snowed there so that we could see the snow-capped mountains as well as their roof covered by snow. The sky in Tibet is deep blue and the sunshine is warm and bright. Only Wangdu dorjie and his wife, Qunzong — wearing a Tibetan traditional Quba — were home because both of their children went to school.

Wangdu is the typical herdsman in the Tibetan area who does not grow any crops. His family will get two good-quality yaks from Heifer through the Tsomei Community Integrated Project. Although they already have 42 yaks and some sheep and goats, they still need Heifer’s help. Their yaks are not good-quality ones, which means they are smaller and thinner. Besides, they just feed them but do not know how to sell them and manage them, which results in poverty.

Since they became members of this self-help group, they began participating in such group activities as cutting grass and helping the village vet to distribute animal medicines.  Qunzong is very shy to talk with us. When we asked her some questions, she just said, my husband will know about it.

Now, there is a problem that worries Wangdu — his younger daughter, Ordrun Droma (age 12), doesn’t like school very much, and she wants to drop out to help the family raise sheep. Surely her parents want her to continue her schooling, but Wangdu said they would let her make her own decision. One of their dreams is that their kids could continue their education and find a job after graduation. The other is that they want to have more good-quality animals in the future.

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. Initially, this series will focus on our programs in Asia/South Pacific, where our colleagues have chosen one family in each region in the countries where we work and will bring us quarterly updates.

Qunzong works at a loom while her husband, Wangdu dorjie, watches

Qunzong works with yarn at her home in Tibet

Zhang Hui’s Hope for His Family

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Zhang Hui's two daughters

by Heifer China

Zhang Hui, his wife, and three children are living in a remote, mountainous village named Baishui in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province. The local economy is limited by a shortage of farmland, water resources and poor transportation. The whole family has only two adults who can work. What’s worse, Zhang Hui’s right leg was injured when he was a migrant worker, which prevented him doing some heavy work. Besides, they have three children who are all at primary school, a 6-year old son named Zhang Zijie and two older daughters named Zhang Ming and Zhang Yan. The low production and larger expenditures lead the family to poverty.

Before the project implementation, Zhang Hui only raised 23 natural-fed chickens and 2 pigs. After the Heifer project was implemented on April 16, 2011, he bought 314 chicks with the gift money and started his pheasant breeding industry. Then he joined the self-help group and became a leader. He accepted trainings of 12 Cornerstones and animal husbandry, and acquired skills in corn and rye planting and pheasant breeding. Moreover, the Kaili Science and Technology Bureau provided him 30,000 Yuan to purchase corn seeds as well as have an additional allowance.

“I had acquired some basic knowledge of pheasants breeding when I was in an eco-rearing base in Kaili. At that time I knew it would make money, but I was too poor then. However, Heifer China came; I have the initial capital to do this,” Zhang Hui said. “I wanted something different, so I choose pheasants instead of pigs, and I want to be professional.” With his hard work, plus the material and technical support from the local government and Heifer China, Zhang Hui had a harvest of both crops and pheasant rearing. By selling pheasants, he had an income of 20,150 Yuan.

In the past 3 months, the family has received electricity, built a bio-gas unit, and bought a refrigerator and an egg incubator. Meanwhile, they have upgraded their house into two floors, which provides another 50 square meters of space. While planning the future, Zhang Hui mentioned at present he would enlarge the chicken-rearing scale to gain more income to support his children’s schooling. The eldest daughter dreamed to be a running athlete. She has kept jogging 4 km per day from home to school for nearly one year. 3 children are top students at school. If they want to go to university, Zhang Hui stated he would definitely afford their tuition no matter how hard he and his wife should work.

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. Initially, this series will focus on our programs in Asia/South Pacific, where our colleagues have chosen one family in each region in the countries where we work and will bring us quarterly updates.

The new second floor addition to Zhang Hui's house

Pheasants on Zhang Hui's family farm

Rewriting Haoran’s Story

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China: A family affected by AIDS receives assistance from Heifer International

Zhangmin (left) with her family in Anhui Province, China

by Heifer China

One day when Wang Haoran was in third grade, he remembers his mom quarreled with his dad so badly that no one prepared breakfast for him. He knew his dad had serious illness afterward. But he is too young to know what it is. Actually, his dad is an HIV-infected person, and now the onset of AIDS means that he can not do any work any more. Zhang Min, Haoran’s mom, is a strong woman who carries the whole family on her shoulder.

They live in Wangzhuyuan Village, Jiangji Town of Lixin County, Anhui Province. Zhang Min is 33 years old while her husband is 43. They have two children: 11-year-old Haoran and his 9-year-old sister. There must be a lot of happiness in other children’s memories, but what Haoran remembered is that hundreds of chickens they raised died and they were too sad to have dinner, which made him feel so hungry that day. These chickens are all they had then. We could not understand what they’ve been through, but we know, when Heifer came to the village, Zhang Min said, she regained hope.

Zhang Min earned 5000 RMB (about US $780) to buy 4 goats recently as a Heifer project farmer and took part in the self help group that includes training on livestock management, the 12 Cornerstones, self help group fund management and agriculture techniques. Zhang Min now participants in community activities, such as dancing. In her saying, although they are poor and her husband is sick unfortunately, she is still in love with him and feels full of hope when Heifer encourages her by all means. As for the future, she says the fact that her husband is alive is the best gift for her and she also hopes when the kids grow up one day, they could help her support this family. “That would be good if they can go to college in the future” Zhang Min said. “I don’t want them to be farmers any more.”

This was supposed to be a sad story, but now we could expect it will have a happy ending.

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. Initially, this series will focus on our programs in Asia/South Pacific, where our colleagues have chosen one family in each region in the countries where we work and will bring us quarterly updates.

Beyond the Pig

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The year 2011 was very special for the villagers of Wushan community, Houshan, Anhui, China. This was the year they said goodbye to the muddy road and welcomed a flat, cement road.

Villagers enjoy the new cement road.
The old road in winter,
before cement was laid.

Wushan Self-Help Group (SHG) is situated at the edge of the village, with only 100 families, for a total population of 400. Of those 400, only 100 members actually live in the village year-round, while their family members sell their labor in other cities. Transportation from the village to anywhere else has always been very inconvenient due to the muddy and rubble-filled conditions of the main road. In the rainy season, only motorcycles and small vans could successfully travel it. Flooding after a big storm would always wash the road away, and farmers would have to level it. This struggle went on for years and, with no funds to build a cement road, the villagers were helpless to do anything about it. The biggest victims were the children who had to walk to school on the road.

In 2011, things changed. With motivation from their work in the Heifer project, the villagers decided to use the resources secured through the project to improve the road. Combining help fromt he local government and the SHG’s group savings, a cement road was finally built in the village. Children are happy because, much to their parents’ relief, they now ride to school in a van on the newly paved road. The two SHGs in Wushan are determined to use the road to improve income, too. With transportation no longer an obstacle, they can increase hog-raising activities to a more profitable scale. In addition to better transportation, the new road opens the door to outside markets and information.