Far from home, volunteers fight povert
Yunnan Province in southwestern China has 3.3 million people registered as poor. That is the challenge for Minhang District. For years, Shanghai has been paired with Yunnan as part of national efforts to get wealthy areas of China to help poorer regions. Shanghai districts are involved in development work, with Minhang assigned to help Shangrila, a county-level city in Yunnan, and several villages in the province.
To date, Minhang has spent about 120 million yuan (US$16 million) on poverty programs in Yunnan.
A volunteer team from the Minhang Agriculture Committee has just returned from Yunnan. Five of the 20-strong team have stayed on for longer-term work.
Agriculture has long been the cornerstone of Shangri-la’s economy. So, in 2016, Minhang set up a plan to industrialize agriculture and raise the incomes of local farmers.
In the Yunnan city of Baoshan, Minhang volunteers introduced cash crops, worked on improving livestock herds and set up processing facilities. The quality of tea leaves and saffron, both local specialties, has been raised. Meetings were also set up to help farmers who wanted to migrate to other areas of China.
Medical services and education are beyond the means of many farmers. Minhang has signed contracts to promote shared resources involving 22 hospitals and 32 schools in Minhang and Yunnan. The Minhang Chamber of Commerce plans to establish partnership-assistance models with poor villages in Shangri-la.
“Minhang will work on personnel training to make sure Yunnan develops more talent,” said district Party Secretary Zhu Zhisong. “We will do our best to help alleviate poverty.”
But all these efforts really boil down to people-to-people contact on the ground. Two volunteers who have spent time in Yunnan tell us their stories.