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Development
During 2005, FOC was involved in several rural community development, rural education, and poverty alleviation projects in Qinghai, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Yunnan, and Xinjiang. A variety of volunteers and foreign experts were recruited to assist resident FOC foreign experts in these projects. Of course, none of this work would have been possible without extensive cooperation and assistance from many provincial and local government officials.
Qinghai Province
In 2005, desks, chairs and cisterns were donated by FOC to 3 schools in several Hualong County villages. The cisterns will also help facilitate the teacher’s efforts to keep good health and hygiene standards as this was introduced to the villages during our health and hygiene training for the teachers in these schools.
In 2005 the model house (in Gong He County, (共和) by QingHai Lake) was finished. Construction was completed and visitors were able to view the house. Training materials for visitors and information on how they can copy different parts of this house were completed and made available.
The well drilling team drilled four successful wells in 2005, all were in ZeKu County.
In 2005, the wool project (involving approximately 50 Tibetan grasslands women) has produced a variety of products for sale and received money from the sale of these products. A manager joined the wool project and has been managing production at the three sites and also in Xining, supervising sales and stock storage. New products are often being trialed.
In 2005 the agricultural project in Jianzha trialed 3 kinds of tomatoes, one from the southern US, one from Canada, and one from Russia. The healthiest tomato plants were from Russia. Broccoli was also trialed, and had mixed success. Corn was also trialed, however, marmots ate the cobs of corn just before they were to be harvested. A variety of snow peas, (荷兰豆) were trialed and had good success. Thirty different families from the first village north of Jianzha (尖扎) came to the trial plot of land and observed the trial plots and vegetable plants.
A short term team of five people helped construct a model latrine in Gong He county.
FOC QingHai was able to assist in the purchase of 30 female sheep (value over 6,000 RMB) and assist with the cost of their immunizations. These sheep were part of the follow up for ill patients who had received money for treatment while suffering from serious illness in GongHe County. The head of the family who received the sheep was a recovering cancer victim.
A basic health and sanitation training in Kargong (卡岗) for four days in April 2005, effecting 90 students and 2 teachers.
A basic health training was provided in December, in the FOC office , Xining, training 7 workers.
A more in-depth health and sanitation training was done for the engineering staff, training two members of the engineering team, in Daotang He (倒淌河镇) and surrounding villages.
In 2005, FOC funded the medical attention given to the main income earners of 47 families who required hospital attention after attending a clinic. The patients were seen as in-patients in Qinghai and Xining hospitals. The total expenditure for direct patient care for the year 2005 has been over 175,000RMB.
Two, 3 day clinics were offered in the Tongde (同德) County. The first was in October, the second in November. In these clinics over l64 patients were examined and given medicine and/or medical treatment by doctors.
Funding has been provided for the purchase of medical equipment costing 5,500 RMB and other funding has paid for training and the stipends for 2 national workers. Beside being trained in basic health assessments, these two workers were also trained in English and Chinese language, with one developing her computer skills. These trainings took place in various places in Tongren and in Xining.
Sichuan Province
FOC cooperated with the Sichuan-American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) to supply rehabilitation and physiotherapy equipment to the Chengdu Number 1 Retirement and Rehabilitation Center. The Home had previously refurbished a room for the use in rehabilitation and physiotherapy but had been unable to find the funds for a full range of equipment.
There are 370 or so residents in the Home of which about 70% can benefit from treatment in the rehabilitation room which AmCham and FOC have helped to equip. About 10 % of residents are fully fit with the rest being disabled to a greater or lesser extent. Many have suffered strokes and are in need of help to regain the use of their limbs.Shaanxi Province
Support for orphans in Hanzhong
In cooperation with the English Language Association (ELA), FOC has two medical professionals working in the ELA operated orphanage in Hanzhong.
Henan Province
Children-at-Risk Training Project at Henan Qisehua Welfare Kindergarten (河南七色花福利幼儿园)
In September 2005, FOC-Henan launched a one-year training project at Henan Qisehua Welfare Kindergarten. The kindergarten provides inclusive education for 150 normally developing children and 12 disabled children. The objectives of the training project are:
- to develop individual educational plans for each disabled child,
- to provide training in special education for the kindergarten teachers,
- to support the parents of the disabled children,
- to purchase some significant educational resources for the kindergarten, and
- to set up a model that can be replicated in other kindergartens.
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
In 2005, FOC was able to donate desks, chairs and blackboards to smaller less financially-able schools in Turpan county and give individual gifts to the students of three schools. This donation amounted to over 100 000RMB. Approximately 500 desks & chairs, 50 blackboards and 900 backpacks were donated.
Support was given to an Urumqi Orphanage in form of a donation 25 high chairs (approximate value 4700RMB), clothes, toys and individual gifts and shared motivation activities with the orphanage.
In co-operation with Operation Mercy and Yopurgha county, we have continued agricultural training of village leaders in Yupurgha. This project seeks to facilitate training and to establish improvements in methods and techniques to support the arable and pastoral agriculture in this underdeveloped area. In 2005, the project was involved in artificial insemination of cattle for village farmers.
FOC plans to continue expanding its development and educational programs in all of these provinces over the next year. These successful programs have come from much hard work on the part of FOC associates, government departments at all levels and the local people themselves.
