Poverty
Alleviation Projects in Guangxi
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Poverty
Alleviation Projects in Guangxi
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Dr Don McKenzie Memorial Fund for Poverty Alleviation Projects in Guangxi The Dr Don McKenzie Memorial Fund honours the memory of the late Dr Don by funding poverty alleviation projects in Guangxi. The first project took place in 2002 in Sanzhiyang village and provided agricultural training for women farmers, working with the local Women' s Federation and Guangxi Institute of Botany advisers. This Fund strengthens links between the people of Hastings and Guilin, and has support from groups in both cities. We invite you to make a donation. Please make your cheque out to Hawke's Bay Branch New Zealand China Friendship Society and post to: The Treasurer, Jackie Peacock, 31/905 Gordon Road Hastings. |
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2008 Update 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. |
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2007 Update 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.
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2006 Update 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. |
Fish
farming in Maan    |
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October 2003 update The Women's Federation in the final report list achievements from the project.
Current project activities 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
November 2002 update The first project
in Sanzhiyang village is well underway. 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 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. |
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Background
to our projects - who was Dr McKenzie? A fruit scientist with the former DSIR (now Hort Research), Dr Don McKenzie visited Guilin in 1977 and established professional contacts with the Guangxi Institute of Botany. He was hailed as an innovator and a leader in New Zealand within the pipfruit industry and by international colleagues for his research, knowledge and methods. He played a key role in establishing early scientific relationships with China which paved the way for new kiwifruit plant material to be introduced to the New Zealand breeding programme. Dr McKenzie first proposed a Hastings-Guilin link in 1978 and was generous, energetic and creative in developing a range of contacts between the two cities, both before and after the sister city protocol was signed in 1981. He was also instrumental in re-establishing the Hawke's Bay Branch of the New Zealand China Friendship Society (NZCFS) in 1985. What is the fund
for? The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has an area of 236,700 square kilometers with a population of 47.13 million made up of 12 nationalities. The region has 28 national level poor counties where the annual income per person is less than RMB 1000 (NZ$290). 1.5 million people live in poverty in Guangxi. The Guangxi Institute of Botany has responsibility for a programme to improve the lives of villagers in the limestone hill areas of Guangxi. In November, 2000, the Institute asked NZCFS and Hastings people for assistance with such projects. The limestone hill areas are tough places to live. The land is rocky, the soil poor and the climate extreme. When it rains the land floods for several hours and then the water drains away leaving extremely dry conditions. Families generally have 0.9 Mu (15mu/hectare) of land to grow corn, chilli peppers, vegetables and fruit. After a feasibility visit to rural Guangxi by Dave Bromwich (National Vice-President) and Sally Russell in November 2001, NZCFS established a relationship with the Guangxi Women's Federation to work in the rural village of Sanzhiyang. Women are the main farmers as many men have gone to the cities looking for work. The Women's Federation has designed and will implement a project to train 400 women in agricultural methods, particually chicken raising and vegetable production. The people in Sanzhiyang Village are from the Yao and Maonan minorities. The income range is 400-800 RMB (NZ$116-232) per person. The average education level is to primary level and 40% of children do not attend school. The agricultural training project aims to assist subsistance farmers to increase their income so that they can afford to send their children to school. The Guilin-Hastings Sister-City Board of Directors supports this project as another opportunity for links between the two districts. In September 2001, Mayor Jeremy Dwyer wrote that the Board is
We invite you to make a donation to the Dr Don McKenzie Memorial Fund and directly help rural villagers in Guangxi improve their living conditions. For more information email Sally Russell
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