Editor’s note:

This year is the tenth anniversary for supporting Tibet and poverty alleviation of Sinochem Group. In the past ten years, Sinochem adhered to the targeted aid policy of “The combination of changing ideas and material assistance, and the combination of intelligence investment and project investment”, greatly carried out the works of infrastructure construction and occupational training benefiting farmers and herdsmen and so on, and achieved remarkable results, it plays important role in the aspects of the local infrastructure construction, production development, medical treatment, health, education and so on.

Up to September of 2012, the company has dispatched 16 cadres including Li Keyu, Lv Haitao, Shi Jianbo, Peng Yanlin, Li Guangmin, Miao Ping, Sun Fuyi, Yang Zhongmin, Ji Kangli, Tao Weiguo, Hu yanxiang, Hu Caizhi, Yang Hong, Sun Guodong, Zhao Qing, Zhang Qiang to Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai and other regions, accumulatively the investment is over 100 million RMB, which greatly promoted the development of the local economy, society and culture.

In the north of the Himalaya Mountains, and at the foot of the Mount Everest, snow mountains surround a small town with population of no more than 10000 people - Gangba County. In this remote land of resounding terrain with snow for all seasons, the natural disasters of wind and sand, drought, hail, frost, snow disaster and so on often happen one after another, farmers and herdsmen rely on grazing cattle and sheep and cultivating highland barley for their livelihood from generation to generation.

However, in the land of this very cold plateau, several years ago, under the help of our company, dozens of vegetable greenhouses were erected and planted vegetables, green peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and so on, and even you could find out the watermelon with thin skin and sweet flesh there! The local Tibetan people learned to use greenhouse to plant vegetables and are now walking on the road of plenty.

The vegetable greenhouse of the plateau is only a very small microcosm for Sinochem people’s work of supporting Tibet and poverty alleviation. Since 2002 when the company began to aid Tibet Gangba County, and Inner Mongolia’s Helingeer County and Qingshui River County, the company adhered to the principle of “teaching the people fishing rather than giving them fish”, innovated support model, took the idea of leading farmers and herdsmen to increase income and become well off as the final goal, and made all efforts to maximize the effectiveness of aid funds and improve living conditions of the local famers and herdsmen. Ten years’ trials and hardships, the company composed a song of hope for local farmers and herdsmen with its love and responsibility.

The smile with great joy of harvest on Tibetan farmer's face

Sow the Seeds of Hope

At the beginning of the work for supporting Tibet and poverty alleviation, how to improve the local production and living conditions, and help the farmers and herdsmen to become well-off as soon as possible, became the most urgent task for the company’s work to support Tibet and alleviate poverty. Sinochem soon established the working principles as “intellectual support”, namely cultivating the farmers and herdsmen the working skills and gradually realize the transformation from “blood transfusion” to “create the blood on its own ”.

The couple of farmers Ping Cuo and La Ba live in Xuechun, Gangba Town. In the past days the three persons of the family only relied on planting 2 to 3 Mu of highland barley to make their ends meet. they were impoverished. After Sinochem helped the buildup of the vegetable greenhouse, we invited technicians from Shandong to teach them how to plant vegetables. Under the help of the technicians, La Ba learned to plant pumpkin, cucumber, Chinese cabbage and so on in greenhouse.

“The greenhouse has brought our family new house, new furniture and two TV sets, a tractor for transportation, and we also opened a canteen in the county. This year watermelon grows very well, after the watermelon is sold, we are going to build a house of 2 stories.”  Ping Cuo happily said.

Master a skill, which makes a family rich and affects people around them. The rich-getting seeds sowed by our company in Gangba County are just coming to take root, blossom and bear fruit in the vast land at the foot of the snow mountain.

In Inner Mongolia Helingeer County, our company raised the idea of “changing people’s mind before change their life”, and invested more than 4 million RMB to build education project, so the county’s education infrastructure was well improved, and school’s teaching quality was promoted. Today, Helingeer County’s college admission rate ranked the first place among all the five agricultural counties of Hohhot for 7 consecutive years.

The school sponsored by Sinochem in Inner Mongolia

Sinochem also introduced its own fine vegetable and grain seeds of into Tibet and Inner Mongolia for trial planting. Of which the trial for vegetable seed succeeded, the quality and output both were obviously improved, and it has bright future of promotion .

Catering to the Tibet and Inner Mongolia’s tradition of animal husbandry, Sinochem actively helped and supported the local specialty of “Gangba Sheep” and “Mongolian Sheep” to be promoted to the bigger markets. In November, 2011, the brand of “Gangba Sheep” became the first Tibetan agricultural product with geographical indication awarded by Minstry of Agriculture. In Sinochem’s Beijing Eastern Garden Hotel, the “Entire Sheep Feast” with the Mongolian Sheep from Helingeer has become the signature dish of banquet.

The executive vice president of Tibet Autonomous Region Luosang Jiangchun praised Sinochem’s practical and effective poverty relief model. He said Sinochem’s work is not only beneficial to the broad farmers and herdsmen of the whole Gangba County, greatly promoted local economical development and social stability, but also effectively inspired the  poverty relief work for the other regions in Tibet.

The vegetable greenhouse constructed by Sinochem on the plateau

Ten Years’ Support Bearing Great Achievements

Ten years’ incessant work bears a great deal of fruits. In the period of ten years from 2002 up to now, the fund invested by Sinochem Group to support Tibet, Inner Mongolia and other regions for poverty alleviation is over 100 million RMB, with more than 100 projects including town construction, culture and education and health, water conservancy and transportation, the housing projects for farmers and herdsmen, agricultural science and technology, industrial construction, personnel training, renewal of equipment, science and technology demonstration and so on, which greatly promote local economic and social development.

In Gangba County, the county’s radio and television building, the county CPC committee and county government office building, business and trade building, farmers and herdsmen’s service building, which are built under the aid of Sinochem, have formed the main street scenery of Gangba County; the investment for 13 infrastructure construction projects for cultural, educational, and health promotion , for example the Gangba kindergarten, have improved the medical care and education conditions for farmers and herdsmen; Near Xuechun, Gangba Town, the 1.5 km headrace constructed under the help of Sinochem plays important role for irrigation of local 800 Mu farmland; more than 70 greenhouses and henhouses constructed by Sinochem for each village and town produce nearly a million kg of vegetables and more than 20,000 native hen eggs, which greatly improved local residents’ dietary structure, and meanwhile increased the income of farmers and herdsmen.

Ten years have passed, and the old the urban and rural of Gangba has taken on a new look due to the changes. What we are seeing now is a small modern border town with rich ethnic customs rising in the plateau.

And also the assistance provide by Sinochem has been commonly recognized by Gangba cadres and workers and broad farmers and herdsmen. The secretary of Gangba County’s Party Committee Ciren Dunzhu used to work for five or six counties in Tibet, and also has the experiences in dealing with the aiding Tibet work  in each place. When talking about Sinochem’s aid to Tibet, he had a deep feeling: “Comparatively speaking, though the fund given by Sinochem is not the most, its effect is very far-reaching. Sinochem truly studied the reality of Gangba and the needs of farmers and herdsmen, and made real difference, and its work has been warmly welcomed by Tibetan people.”

In Inner Mongolia, our company’s fund for poverty alleviation is focused on helping the poor in local agriculture and animal husbandry sectors, village immigration, education development, medical care and health development, infrastructure construction and so on. In the past ten years, 33 million RMB for poverty alleviation invested accumulatively is mainly used in two underdeveloped counties for developing their education and healthcare, as well as the agricultural and stock raising projects that can generate more income for farmers. . These projects has great significance for the two counties’ economic and social development, for the income generation of poor families,  and the construction of harmonious socialist society.

Now, Helingeer has got rid of the “poor county” tag, but the word “Sinochem” still has considerable weight in the heart of the local residents.

The county magistrate of Qingshui River County Li Li said that: “As a central government-owned enterprise, Sinochem dispatched cadres to bring management knowhow and new ideas to Qingshui River County, and gave the local people enlightenments.

The new Qingshui River County

In Da Qaidam, Qinghai, the group invested 10 million RMB to support and construct (buy) Da Qaidam regional kindergarten, hospital CT radiation equipment, earthquake emergency planning and equipments and other projects, and the Group supported and helped the local people in the aspects of caring for children, patients hospitalizing, crisis management, the cultural life of retired people and residents and so on. The local leader said that, the fund of Sinochem is really invested in people’s livelihood projects, we are very touched; and the local people said that, “each cent of Sinochem is used for us, we really thank you very much!”

Work in the Second Hometown

In 2002, before the first group of cadres left for Tibet, the president of Sinochem Group Liu Deshu told them: “Go blending with the masses, and learn modestly; work  humbly and make real difference for local people”.

In the past ten years, four groups of cadres sent to Tibet  have lived up to Mr. Liu’s entrustment by their action. In hard environment, they overcame a great deal of difficulties, rooted in grass roots and made selfless dedication, so they are highly appreciated by local government, cadres and the masses.

In order to fulfilled their responsibility, the devotions made by the dispatched cadres and their family members  are hard to imagine by common people: for many of them, they have old parents with diseases, and have little children needing their care, they could go home only for one or two times each year, and all heavy burdens are shouldered by their wives; some of them encountered serious car accident, after simple treatment they kept on working with injuries; because they worked too hard in the plateau, so some cadres’ health were greatly damaged that could not be recovered again; many of them gave up the opportunity of job promotion in the company; in order to get the first hand information of zoonotic infectious diseases, they took the risk to be infected and worked in the  forefront of epidemic prevention treatment together with farmers, herdsmen and healthcare workers…

Hu Yanxiang is the one of the third group of cadres dispatched to Tibet, and in 2011 he was named  Modal Worker for the national poverty alleviation.  Every time when poverty alleviation work is brought about, his eyes will be lit up with this enthusiasm and his thoughts will be inspired by all kinds of new ideas. From 2009 to now, he has been to all poor villages in Helingeer County, and written investigation reports for nearly 100,000 words. He coordinated and organized all walks of the society to make donations, and in Yangqungou Town he carried out the project for village immigration and relocation, so that totally 19 natural villages and 845 poor farmers in remote poverty-stricken mountainous areas solved the difficulties of water, transportation, electricity and healthcare lasting long time, and he made  meaningful exploration and demonstration for the plan of Helingeer County to transfer and relocate 154 poor villages in coming three years.

In order to promote the immigration project, Hu Yanxiang kept on working in the frontier  of project management day and night despite the fact that he has already been as old as 50, “I simply can not leave the mountains and waters here, and fellows here, and here is just my home.”

There are other 7 persons among the fourth group of cadres, and they also took their targeted aid areas as their homes.  Their action honors the their slogan as “work diligently and serve humbly to the locals; hypoxia and hardship cannot make us tumble” , and they won the respect and trust of the people of all ethnic groups in the whole area.

“Secretary’s home is just like the Beijing office of our Gangba County”. Renci Yuzhen, the director of women’s federation of Gangba County said excitedly when talked about Ji Kangli of the third group of cadres that, “Thanks to Secretary Ji and his wife to take care of people of our county  coming to Beijing to work and see doctors.” Under the support of his wife, Ji Kangli donated his subsidies paid by the State for compensating his aid work to Tibet , and used the money to assist the living of 5 Tibetan children and help them to complete their study from primary school to university, and he also persuaded his family members to raise fund of 550,000 RMB to build the Hope School covering land of 400 square meters for the children of Zhike Town, Gangba County…and this love was passed on through the hands of Yang Hong and Sun Guodong, the fourth group of cadres to support Tibet.

Because of long time’s living in the high altitude  area, after returned to Beijing Ji Kangli received radiofrequency catheter ablation of cardiac operation for two times. But he was very calm: “When I see the increasing changes of Gangba, see the life of ‘my family members”’gets better and better, and my efforts are not in vain, so my effort is worth it.”

"Sinochem Village" in Gangba County

In the course of my duty, I gained spiritual wealth, it is the wealth of my lifetime, and I will cherish it forever.” So said by Zhao Qing, he is one of the first group of cadres to support Qinghai, and he went to Qinghai with backpack when he was at the age of 31 years old.

There are still many, many such similar voices. But perhaps the words of the second group of cadres to support Tibet Li Guangmin and Lv Haitao could represent the common voice of the 16 cadres dispatched by the company in the past ten years: We are dispatched by the group company to work here, what we mostly feel every day is our serious responsibilities, we hope through our devotion and efforts we could practically conduct our work, could make real difference for the masses, and make some contributions to the local development, and live up to the trust of the company, which is just our greatest wish.”

And this is also the common wish of more than 40,000 Sinochem’s people!

By Guo Fenglin  Zhang Weidong