[Annual Report 2011-2012] Focus Countries
Review of 2011 to 2012
The setting up of farmers’ cooperatives in Gansu last year was an important achievement of our ministry in China. The transformation of farmers from being voiceless and helpless to participating actively, and even initiating organisation, is one main indicator of community development. In Sichuan, we have contacted many churches serving the communities actively. In Yunnan, we also have developed close partnership with the Yunnan Provincial Christian Council and been mobilising and supporting local churches to be concerned with responses to their community needs. We are happy to see that local churches are willing to go out and serve their communities and the achievement they got in past few years.
Prospect in the Coming Year
Hubei was the first province where we started community development in China with the most experienced team. Last year, our Hubei team started an organic farm project run as social enterprise. This year, they have just started a new project on labour empowerment, aiming to build up the awareness of labour rights and supporting network among villagers who are going to leave their homeland for work.
CEDAR has been implementing development projects in China over ten years. It is time for us to gather past experience on project implementation, church mobilization, community development and to put these experiences together to develop a set of teaching materials to strengthen church education and training works in Sichuan and Yunnan as well as to support local churches to better respond to needs of impoverished communities by walking with the poor and disadvantaged.
Pui Si’s Sharing
‘China is changing. Two decades ago, she was still one of the main countries helped by the international society. But now she has developed as an economic giant and has accumulated rich knowledge and experience in the field of poverty alleviation. Even though there are still many poverty issues have yet to be settled in China, I believe it is time to conclude the community development work in China and share the experience on alleviating poverty with other resource poor nations.’
After the exposure monitoring trips and discussions in the past two years, according to a series of measurement, such as the human development index (HDI), Gini coefficient, political and social stability, uniqueness and the possibility of monitoring project, we have finally chosen Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, India, Nepal, Myanmar and China to be the focus countries for our projects.