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.

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. You can read other posts about Wang Qinghua and her family here.

Rob Smith (Chairman of Lily Foundation) and Wang Qinghua

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.

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. You can read the first post about Wang Qinghua and her family here.