A Turning Point in Tibet

By Casey Neese

October 3, 2019

Last Updated: April 2, 2012

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.