Story and Photos by Chen Yuehua | Yunnan-Guizhou Regional Project Partner | Heifer China
Families from the Miao ethnic minority group in Gui Xi Village, a key poverty alleviation and development village in southeastern China, took part in the village’s first Passing on the Gift® (POG) ceremonies on April 20 and 22, 2013.
During the ceremonies, 61 original project participants passed on livestock to 61 new families, members of the Da Bang and Ai Zicai self-help groups (SHGs) in Gui Xi Village, Guizhou Province. In total, 226 Miao families from Gui Xi and Tong He villages have received gifts through this Heifer project.
In April 2011, Heifer China provided original participant families in the village of Gui Xi 244,000 renminbi, or about $39,698. Since then, the Agricultural Bureau of Sansui County has carried out the project according to Heifer requirements, actively organizing the project community and farmers to develop livestock-rearing, working on the project community plan, providing livestock technology training and holding public cultural activities. Remarkable improvements have been achieved in terms of education, health, road construction and ecological conservation.
The community facilitator organized the POG between the old and the new SHGs, and the SHG leaders guided the gift passing from group to group and family to family. The 61 pass-on families signed POG agreements, promising to Pass on the Gifts in the future and continue to spread this love in the land of Sansui County.
