Our rural education project in China began in February of 2003, jointly funded by WJFB and CIDA. The project promotes and increases access to education, as well as improving farming techniques in the poor mountainous areas of the Sichuan Province. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of our local partner, SWPI, we have successfully implemented almost all of the components of the project. Four elementary schools have been built in four mountain villages, allowing more than 600 boys and girls to receive basic education. In addition, four intensive two-week training sessions have been held for 562 elementary school teachers. This training allowed participants to enhance their teaching methodologies and improve their teaching standard. Some of the teachers have been working for over 20 years but due to lack of funds have never had the chance to upgrade their skills. Teachers are extremely impressed with the course, and all of them received a certificate after passing a final exam. Although we budgeted to train only 151 teachers in the project, thanks to the donations and subsidies of our local partner we were able to train 562! The program also involved animal husbandry technique training, and we invited experts from the Agriculture Research Centre to give presentations to several hundred local farmers. These unskilled farmers began growing carrots in the summer season, when before they had only grown in the winter. For the first time introduced squash into their crops. Although some were reluctant to grow the squash, village leaders initiated the project and many more farmers have since followed. Growing squash on available land under fruit trees has been a success, and the first crop was recently harvested. The squash helps generate more income for the families. In addition, peach trees have been introduced to the area through the work of more than 100 families, after experts instructed them how to plant and care for them. In all of these ways the farmer training brought new technology, ideas and alternatives to farmers, helping poor families reduce poverty. Our program also provided extra training to 240 village leaders in the areas of farming, agriculture directions, social work, law, economy, business and marketing. The village leaders play very important roles in their communities, and basic skills training helps them to take care of all aspects of life in their villages. A special training session was designed to target women’s needs. Sixty married women, all under the age of forty, went to SWPI to receive a three-day training. Volunteers assisted with the training, and the women had a wonderful experience. Some were moved to tears, saying that they had never had an opportunity like this before. They met the Chairwoman of the Women’s Committee of Nanchong City. They learned about women’s rights and the legal details about the protection of women. Health experts provided information about women’s health. An animal husbandry expert gave a presentation about how to raise goats in the mountain villages. The successes of this project would have been impossible without the efforts of our local partner. We especially thank Ms. Yuan, the coordinator of the project from SWPI. In this project she has dedicated herself to the poor, working hard and giving of her time and energy to think of how to best use funds and get excellent results. Rain or shine, she visited school construction sites in remote villages, and she tirelessly worked with local government officials and related organizations to develop training sessions. With SWPI’s efforts and donations, we have delivered 200% more training than we initially budgeted for. For all of the trainings, SWPI has provided lodging and food to the trainees, subsidizing the cost and allowing us to train more people. SWPI also donated school furniture, trees, sports facilities and books to new schools. More than 200 SWPI students volunteered with the project as well as over 100 professors and staff. The project is nearly complete. Five
small libraries will be constructed in the coming month, and one more
training for village leaders is underway. We are looking forward to seeing
more squash harvested next month and to watching the continuing progress of
these villages in China. |
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(C) World Job and Food
Bank. |
