FAR IN DISTANCE, CLOSE AT HEART

By Hou Weili

Chinese carmaker FAW Group assists in poverty reduction work 3,400 km away in Fengshan County

Luo Guomin is a thirtysomething native of the Yao ethnic group from a remote mountainous village in Fengshan County in southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. In 2003, he ventured to the international manufacturing center for leather products in Guangzhou in southeastern coastal Guangdong Province and was hired to work on the production line. Over a span of 15 years,he only returned to his hometown three times for the Spring Festival reunion with his father and four siblings.

“The living conditions were so poor that you never wanted to go back,”Luo told China Report ASEAN. In his memory, home was a humble two-story bamboo structure. The seven-member family squeezed into a 50-squaremeter space on the second floor, leaving the bread earners, three cows, on the ground floor. This arrangement made the house a fertile habitat for flies and mosquitoes. During the rainy seasons every June to September, the roof leaked, leaving the room a mess and insanitary due to a mixture of cows’manure and mud. “I could barely sleep in such conditions,” Luo recalled.

However, Luo, with a wife and two children in tow, made a decision two years ago that surprised many. He quit the migrant worker life to settle down in his hometown. “Earthshaking changes have taken place,” Luo said. In 2015, the family moved into a new twostory house with an area of 200 square meters. The ground floor is no longer the shelter for livestock but instead a spacious living room with full set of modern amenities including a TV, Wi-Fi and a refrigerator. The livestock areaccommodated in a separate shed.“Thanks to FAW Group, our living standards were improved dramatically,”Luo smiled.

Children of FAW Group employees visit Fengshan County during a summer camp jointly hosted by local education authority and FAW Group in July 2017.

His experience is typical in areas bene fiting from joint efforts on poverty alleviation undertaken by the local government and the Changchun-based automaker FAW Group. Located at the southern edge of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Fengshan County’s development was constrained by poor infrastructure and a lack of industrial foundation,which resulted in poverty incidence of 25.7 percent. Poverty had long remained a daunting challenge for the area. Things began to change when FAW Group made Luo’s village the pilot project in 2013 to address regional poverty.

Since then, the company has dispatched two senior staffers to the county to assist its poverty reduction efforts by improving infrastructure and boosting agricultural businesses and education. Over the past five years,it has pumped 58.95 million yuan(US$8.57 million) into 150 projects in the county.

Rural Facelift

Luo Guomin illustrated that it used to be hard to get out of his village,Yaozhaitun, even to attend primary school. Home to 135 residents in 30 households, Yaozhaitun Village could only offer Pre-K through 2nd Grade classes. Children had to walk miles to attend third grade at the nearest school. “I never went back to school until I was 14 because I didn’t have any older brothers or sisters to walk me there,” Luo sighed. “It was a meter-wide zigzagging path. It took more than an hour to get to school.”

Poor transport also restricted productivity. Local farmers were subsisting by planting rice, corn and walnuts and raising livestock like cows,sheep and horses. But it was difficult for them to sell agricultural products to the outside market. “We didn’t have any mode of transport other than our own feet. Any earnings could never cover the monumental amount of labor it all took.”

Fengshan County also ran short of underground drinking water because of the karst landform. Local people built water tanks to collect mountain water and rain for themselves and livestock.“Our previous water tanks could only hold water of some 60 cubic meters,” he revealed. “During dry seasons, we rarely had reserves.”

Looking to deliver help where it was most needed, FAW Group contributed 23.88 million yuan (US$3.47 million) to renovate houses and public facilities.All villages, no matter how remote or small it is, are now connected by 13 modern roads recently paved with help from the company.

“I felt happy and con fident when the living conditions improved and transportation and clear water became available like this,” Luo beamed.

Booming Businesses

In the eyes of Fu Qiang, a FAW Group staffer stationed in Fengshan County,addressing regional poverty plaguing the county demands efforts far beyond assisting with infrastructure. “There should be supporting measures to boost agriculture-related businesses so that farmers can earn sustainable income so they don’t fall back into poverty,” Fu said. “We have less than two years before the deadline to raise all Chinese out of poverty set by the Central Government, and the remaining issues are the hardest to address. The key is introducing well-established businesses that can lead the poverty alleviation campaign.”

Fu took over from his predecessor on June 23, 2016, and has since worked as deputy county chief of Fengshan to plan and carry out measures in poverty reduction and oversee allocation of funds earmarked for this project.

With Fu’s oversight, FAW Group contributed 5 million yuan(US$727,200) to supplement 73 million yuan (US$10.62 million) mobilized by the local government to help farmers raise broiler chicken. In Poxin Village,former Party chief Yang Tongfu led 20 impoverished households in establishing a cooperative for chicken breeding. According to local policies,poor households can be granted a special loan of 50,000 yuan (US$7,300)for poverty alleviation with interest subsidized by the government. They can then buy shares of the cooperative with credit and receive dividends based on the shares.

The first 12,000 chickens were sold in late July, generating revenue of 200,000 yuan (US$29,089). “Every poor household was paid a dividend of 4,982 yuan (US$724.61). The chicken raising business has helped us shake off poverty in real sense,” said Yang as he sterilized henhouses in preparation for another batch of chickens in the second half of 2018, which will earn shareholders another estimated 5,000-yuan (US$727) dividend.

The 4,982 yuan meant a lot to the only left-behind poor family in Poxin Village. Wei Caiqing, matron of the family, bought a tricycle cart with the money and started ferrying passengers around the county seat, which enabled her to take care of two children attending school there.

Supporting Education

Like many of her generation, Wei and her husband left their two kids behind to become migrant workers in a banana plantation far away from home.While seeing the outside world, she realized that her family would never escape poverty if they and their children remained illiterate. So, she decided to return home and take her kids to better schools in Fengshan County.

“Education is a fundamental solution for poverty,” declared Fu Qiang.Empowering local youth with education has been a focus of FAW Group’s poverty alleviation efforts. It granted financial aid to 791 college freshmen and 250 high school students from Fengshan County during the academic year of 2016-17. The company also donated 54 computers, 330 sets of desks and chairs,11 sets of digital teaching equipment and some sports equipment.

“We now have large and clean classrooms equipped with computers and digital blackboards,” revealed Li Wenting, a teacher at a primary school in Poxin Village. “The facilities are on par with urban classrooms, but teacher shortages have persisted and that is now the most glaring issue.” According to her, only six teachers serve more than 130 students at the school. As a result,every teacher has a heavy class load.

Luo saw hope for the village’s future.“Bamboo abounds in the mountains,and villagers, young and old, excel at weaving,” he declared. “If we develop the craft into a business and explore sales channels, we can get prosperous.”Luo is looking to sell bamboo baskets,crates and hats they made.

Luo’s idea is similar to Fu Qiang’s plan to foster agriculture-related businesses based on the area’s strengths. “We should not ignore their real demands and think about whether they fit market needs when helping them develop businesses,” Fu said. He is supportive of Luo’s idea. “Traditional handicrafts are treasures that carry the culture of the nation, so it’s great to see them earn money,” Fu added.