2008 Update
The Quanzhou Women's Federation (WF) have asked us for assistance with a project to train 400 women in the production tomato, chilli peppers and sanmu herb and pig husbandry.

Quanzhou is 200 kilometres to the north of Guilin and the project township Dongshan is remote and borders Hunan Province and has a population of 32,000 of whom 80% are of the Yao ethnic group. The main farming income is from rice and men leave the villages to look for work in the cities and women are left to farm the family plot and look after children and grandparents. The average farming income is less than 800RMB (NZ$153), below the poverty level set by the Chinese Government.

Women have a low level of education and villages are remote. The infrastructure such as roads and transport are poor and the climate and land make farming difficult.

The Women's Federation use a system of training where women pass on skills used to their neighbours so that more people can be reached. They have consulted with the women of Dongshan to develop the plan using modern development practices to ensure the local community is fully engaged in the project.

The outcomes the WF seek in their own words are: 'By the training, poor rural women can use the skill they master for production, enlarge their views, increase income, improve living conditions, enhance their economic and social status, decrease the incidence of women diseases; it embodies fully the harmonious idea of "people oriented'.

This is the first project to be developed in the Guilin area as the previous ones have been in other parts of Guangxi. NZCFS members Dave Bromwich and Sally Russell have previously worked with the Quanzhou Women's Federation and have found them to be enthusiastic and professional in their work.

2007 Update
Sunflower Seed Training in Shanglin County
NZCFS supported a project to provide training in sunflower production as a way to increase poor rural people's income in Shanglin County, Guangxi.

Sunflowers are grown in the winter between rice crops. The seed is sold for either eating or oil production, and the stalk is used as organic fertilizer, or as feed for water buffalo or in fish farming.

Before the project started the Shanglin Women's Federation (SWF) had discussions in several villages where sunflowers are already growing to ask what were the problems and how best to help. A programme of training was planned to improve management skills based on the farmers' needs. In total 1750 women received training in different aspects of sunflower management and marketing, as well as in mulberry and silkworm raising, pig husbandry, winter vegetables, and sugar cane production. This took place in the first half of 2007.

In Bugu village all the women were able to increase their production from 400 to 450 jin per mu, (approx 3200-3600 kg/ha), their oil production by 30 jin per mu and their income by 25%. In addition sunflowers are promoted as an ecological tourism venture and this flower season 4000 people visited the project to view the fields spending more than 6000 yuan (NZ$1200). An entrance fee went to the Bugu Village Association and local people opened farm restaurants and sold oil.

The SWF report states, 'We used the women's festival to organize women's committees at County level and in the Agriculture Bureau and Science & Technology and Animal Husbandry Departments to make eighteen display boards. These focussed on the sunflower training project showing rural women's good work and used the sunflower as background picture, so were attractive to look at. A lot of women came to have a look and after reading those boards, they knew in their hearts with a strong understanding that they will always lead others with these new ideas, new knowledge and new technology'.

This project was supported with a 4:1 subsidy from NZAID.

The rice is still harvested using traditional methods

After the rice is harvested sunflowers are planted in the paddy.

2006 Update
Micro credit projects operate by providing small loans with no interest or at low rates to people who have no assets and find it difficult to borrow money. The Guangxi Women's Federation (GWF) has a long term project to introduce micro-credit for women farmers. They have found that when they provide small loans in conjunction with training, the success of the project is greatly increased.

In 2005 NZCFS supported a micro credit project in Shangling County. 1100 women received training in pig production, cultivating silkworms and planting mulberry trees, sugar-cane production, how to increase the production of aniseed, raising mushrooms and cultivating frogs. In addition training is given on women's rights and the important role in development that women have.

These women are available in their communities to assist their neighbours and in this way approximately 8000 households were assisted. The GWF reports that the average household income increased by 1000 Yuan (approx $200) through this project. This is a significant amount for poor rural families.

Ms. ZhuoYonglan is from Mingliang town. She enlarged her frog cultivation farm from 400 square meters to 1000 square meters and now has 37 cultivation ponds. More than 50 women nearby have learnt from her and bought her frogs to start their own ponds. Each household will increase their income by 4000 yuan every year.

In the village of Maan the villagers have established a fish farming society, which buys the young fish and the feed and sells the finished product. The farmers have their own pens in the river and by working together collectively they are able to increase their returns.

October 2003 update
Click here for photos
The agricultural training project in Sanzhiyang village was completed earlier in the year. Overall 200 women attended a week long course in chicken production and another 200 in growing vegetables, organized by the County Women's Federation with agronomists and a vet from the local Agriculture Ministry taking the courses.

The Women's Federation in the final report list achievements from the project.

• Skill mastery - The topics covered included prevention and management of disease, reproduction, and feed management for chickens and for vegetables organic production, fertilizer use, and out of season planting for higher market prices.
• Increased income - Overall 70% of the women who attended had an average income increase of 250Yuan, with some large individual increases. The average annual income is 1000 Yuan (NZ$208) so this extra income is significant for the families. In Keli Hamlet in January Shi Meiqiu said, "we raised chook every year, but the survival rate is low. We can only get about 100 chooks if we raised 200 chooks and only get a little money. That means nearly 50 percent of them died. But I knew how to cure the pestilence of the chook after I was trained, and I raised 250 chooks, only 2 percent of them died. I sold all of the chooks, and our income increased 771Yuan than that of 2001.
• Effect on local government - usually training is for men, but after local government saw the motivation of these women they have strengthened skill training of poor women in other local villages.

Current project activities
Last year the Guangxi Women's Federation asked for support to increase their staff capacity in project management. We have already done this in several ways: Miss Wu Xiufang, Development Officer, attended a workshop at Massey University on participatory project monitoring and evaluation in December, 2002; and some training resources have been sent.

Recently, NZCFS has successfully applied for NZAID VASS money (which gives $4 for every $1 donated to the Dr Don Fund) to support the design of project management materials suitable for use in Guangxi, and for the training of 45 staff in project management and computer use.

After the SARS problem the Women's Federation have been approached by international organizations wanting to support public health and sanitation projects, and they say that project design and management skills for the people working in the poorest county offices have become even more important.

Future project activities
People living on the poverty line find it very difficult to make capital purchases which can make a major difference in their lives, for example buying a pig, building a rabbit hutch or starting a cottage industry. Micro credit projects work by lending small amounts of money to groups of people to get them started, with ongoing support through the loan repayment period. People have control and commitment to decisions affecting their livelihood with this type of project. A micro credit project is planned as the next area we will support.

November 2002 update

The first project in Sanzhiyang village is well underway.
The aim is to increase the income of women farmers by improving their technical skills in vegetable production and chicken raising.This is being done by holding five week long training sessions for 40 people at a time in the small villages of Longying and Shangyang. A total of 400 women will attend over a six month period.The Women’s Federation inform us that the training programme has started, and is going well.

Miss Wu Xiufang from the Women’s Federation will visit New Zealand in November/December this year. She will attend a three day Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation workshop, and the DevNet Conference at Massey University, and will also travel to several centres (including Hawkes Bay!) to meet with women’s organisations as well as to talk to us about the workthe Women’s Federation, do in Guangxi.

Planning for our next project is already in the early stages
The Women’s Federation have a very important role to play in poverty reduction in Guangxi. They feel they could better run their field programmes if they have more skills in computer use, both for efficiency of administion and getting information from the Internet, and have asked us for assistance to achieve this objective. Our next proposal is capacity building through staff training in computer operations specific to project management. The budget required for this training project is expected to be approximately $8000.

We would like to offer a very big thank you to all those who made donations for the last Memorial Fund appeal, and especially to those who have continued donations to the fund for future proposals.