US Ambassador Visits China Project

In early November 2010, Ambassador Patricia M. Haslach, a Senior Official, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), along with Mr. William Klein, Deputy Director of Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs Office of U.S. Department of States, and Mr. Dave Moore, First Secretary of Economic Sector of US Embassy in China paid a visit to a Heifer project village, Renyizhuang of Yixian County, Hebei Province.

In the morning, the visitors met Mr. Xu Ming, Director of Yixian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau, Heifer's local project partner in Yixian, and listened to a brief introduction of Heifer China Program and its work in China. The visitors and delegates from Yixian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau and Beijing regional office of Heifer China Program had a good conversation concerning local agriculture, thecountryside and farmers.

In the afternoon, escorted by Beijing regional office of Heifer China Program and Yixian Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau, the visitors drove to visit the Renyizhuang project community of Yixian. Arriving at the village, the visitors were surprised at the scene: more than two hundred people were gathered in front of a community center, old and young, men and women, to welcome the guests. Some of them danced local Yangge dances; others applauded merrily, all wearing smiles on their faces. In the community center, there was a long and friendly dialogue between the visitors and the project farmersabout village natural resources, agricultural production and animal husbandry, project family incomes and life, as well as the community plan for development. After learning how the Community Plan for Capacity-Building training and the Cornerstones education helped the project families organize themselves to pool funds to help one another, and how the community worked to transform itself one family at a time, Ambassador Haslach said to the villagers, "You are an inspiring example." The visit ended up with Ambassador Haslach and her colleagues visiting two project families and the newly set-up women's sewing workshop in the village.