Annual apdate on the YongShun Environmental project

Underneath follows a brief description of the activities of the YongShun project this year:

This years project activities started with our local partner learning the local needs and working out a draft plan at the end of June. Then, Amity Foundation discussed and revised the plan together with the local partner in YongShun. In the year of 2011, we planned to help 100 rural households to build biogas systems as well as renovation of their toilet and animal pens.

The staff of Amity local project office and professionals from Energy
Bureau made field visits to local townships and villages, learning the
suggestions and needs of local farmers, checking the name list of biogas
construction candidate one by one, giving guidance to preparation work for
biogas system construction.

The construction of 100 biogas system started in
August. During the construction of the biogas systems, the local project office
paid continuous follow up visits to different villages, talking with beneficiaries
and solving difficulties they encountered. The 100 biogas systems will be
completed at the beginning of December.

For the exciting evaluation of this project next week, we have invited qualified experts from Changsha Environmental Protection College

to do the evaluation work with us as well as an external evaluator from Laos.

In other words, the project in Yongshun has progressed smoothly according to our plan. We look
forward to the coming evaluation which will help us to summarize what we have
achieved and what we need to improve in the future. Thank you for supporting
this project!

Even more can be helped!!

Just as you read this, farmers in YoungShun are starting the construction of biogas household digesters. This year, we had planned to build 600 biogas installations, train 100 biogas technicians and train 3000 biogas users in how to keep up their biogas installations and ensure good health and hygiene practices. However, due to very efficient use of funds, it turns out that we will be able to help almost 700 needy families build biogas installations, train almost 120 biogas technicians and more than 3000 farmers will be trained!

There is a great deal of joy in YongShun about this expansion as there is a great need in these poor mountainous villages. These biogas installations that turn poo into energy makes a very real difference in people’s lives as it makes their homes cleaner, improves their health and saves money and time that they used to spend on picking straw, wood and buying coal. Getting free high quality fertilizer is another welcome benefit for these farmers. It’s also really nice that these installations save the environment too!

The training of biogas technicians is also very welcome as there now are many households in YongtShun with biogas digesters, but very few technicians who can fix them when these digesters break. Being able to train normal villagers to be able to repair these digesters are therefore extremely important in order to ensure that people can benefit from these digesters many years after

We are very excited about this expansion and how this project has a positive impact on people’s lives. However, at the same time, we’re not quite on target when it comes to fundraising for this project.

So, perhaps you or someone you know would consider giving a donation to the YongShun project? If you’re interested, please send us an e-mail and I will advice you on how you best can channel funds from your country.

We can help even more people!

We're really excited about the fact that even more farmers than planned are able to get biogas digesters in YongShun.

Right now, 680 households are building their biogas digesters in YongShun! This improves people's lives not only in terms of more funds for food, education etc. (as they don't need to buy coal), but also cleaner smoke free kitchens, more hygenic bathrooms and animal pens, and even more free time!

In the autumn, we're able to train 110 biogas village technicians and train 3000 farmers in how to keep up the biogas digesters and improve health and hygiene. This is a crucial way of ensuring the sustainability of these biogas digesters!

This project which is not only improves the environment but also improves people’s quality of life is warmly welcome in Hunan as the province was severely hit by recent floods.

The reason for this expansion, is that our local partner, Amity Foundation has used the funds very efficiently which allows about 80 more families to get a biogas digester as well as en expansion of the people trained as biogas technicians.

Clean water in YongShun!

A lot has happened in the YongShun project:

1. The Construction of YaDong Reservoir is now complete and is making a big difference in people’s lives!

2. 400 people have received training about agricultural production and animal husbandry.

3. Drinking Water Project in LaoSiCheng is now completed.

The aggregation channel (1) is of immense importance to the farmers because the channel means more water to the fields, which again means more crops when the autumn comes around. I was amazed by how grateful they were for the aggregation channel, the drinking water and the training. We couldn’t have been better welcomed! We were met by the village leader, five men playing various drums and fireworks. They took us to see the newly built irrigation channel and then they gave us lunch. Each family in the village had prepared one dish each for us! In a way it seems bizarre that they are so grateful for something as basic as water for their fields...