Tag Archives: Heifer China

The New Year Brings Joy in Tibet

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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. 

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.

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.