China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Officers make a stand to arrest poverty
Members of the People’s Armed Police Force are helping to raise poor villagers’ incomes and improve lives. Li Hongyang reports from Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, Sichuan.
Until recently, residents of Suosuolada, a village nestled about 2,000 meters above sea level in the mountains of Southwest China, lived old-fashioned, poverty-stricken lives.
They are all members of the Yi ethnic group, and most of those who manage to leave the village in Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture and get a taste of the modern, richer world outside don’t return.
However, Buha, who was born and raised in the area, offered to stay with the villagers and lift them out of poverty after he graduated from Chengdu University of Technology in the provincial capital.
Buha, who like many Yi people only uses one name, is one of several officers appointed by the People’s Armed Police Force in Sichuan to act as poverty alleviation leaders in impoverished villages.
The officers work to develop businesses and improve people’s lives, while the force provides financial and policy support.
In 2017, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China tasked the Sichuan PAP with alleviating poverty in Suosuolada, which means “valley full of cedars” in the Yi language.
Buha signed up for the job because he wanted to help the people and his knowledge of the language gave him an advantage over other officers. His division leader spoke to Buha seven times to assess his determination to complete the task.
“He stressed that I would need to stay in the village, a tough place, for at least three years. He was concerned that my application was just a whim and I hadn’t taken all the difficulties into account,” Buha said.
At first, life in the village was far from enjoyable — as a local saying goes, “Mud walls and thatched roofs build shabby houses, where people live with their flocks and herds.”
Tough times
Recalling his arrival in 2018, Buha said: “The villagers trekked across dirt roads dotted with animal manure. When rainstorms hit, floodwater came down from the mountains, inundating the land.”
Of the 522 households, 151 were officially classified as impoverished. Most children dropped out of school due to poverty and the young men left to do odd jobs in cities, leaving the elderly, women and children behind.
Now, the residents have all been lifted out of poverty. Each adult earns an average 6,200 yuan ($896) annually after Buha introduced activities such as Yi embroidery, beekeeping, chicken raising and vegetable greenhouses with the support of the PAP.
During the process, the toughest thing for Buha was not the fact that he only saw his family twice a year, but the difficulty he had uniting the villagers, who lacked a spirit of cooperation.
“When we spoke about introducing businesses and renovating roads and houses, they tended to only consider themselves and how much profit they could make,” he said.
For example, during the construction of a road, one family asked for compensation, saying the work had damaged their stone doorstep. Some villagers approached Buha to get first bite at projects such as raising chickens and pigs, but he refused to be swayed.
“My principle is to treat everyone equally and gain respect by showing impartiality,” he said.
“The people were ‘like a tray of loose sand’ and never followed their village head, who had debts and drank to forget about them. Since I knew little about the village, I initially turned to local officials.”
He persuaded more than 20 leading residents to help him, and listened to their suggestions. He divided them into three groups to oversee the villagers.
After learning about the people’s needs and skills, Buha obtained 30 million yuan from the PAP. The money was used to build a kindergarten, bases for chicken breeding and beekeeping, greenhouses, a Yi embroidery workshop and other projects.
“It was much easier to build the infrastructure than to develop businesses in the village, which lacked talent and technology,” he said.
“For example, if one chicken got sick, it would infect others, so we needed to consult experts and find the cause before more birds died.”
Nearly all the women knew some basic Yi embroidery skills, so Buha traveled to nearby Zhaojue county to find experts and companies who could help.
Last year, more than 100 women joined the embroidery workshop, each earning an extra 2,000 yuan.
Mabiburi, a member of a beekeeping cooperative, works at home and also in a vegetable greenhouse.
Last year, he earned about 50,000 yuan. His wife, who has a back condition that prevents her from working on farmland, is a part-time embroiderer at the workshop.
When Mabiburi was 11, his father died. A year later he dropped out of school to work on a farm.
The 38-year-old speaks little Mandarin. Until 2016, he made a living by traveling around the country and working on the construction of high-voltage power lines. His monthly salary could reach 10,000 yuan, but only for two or three months each year.
“I was stressed because my wife was alone and unable to care for my sick mother and our four children. I had to travel frequently between home and work. Now, I am happy because I am working near home with my family,” he said.
Thirst for knowledge
While the villagers have reunited with their families, Buha is away from his wife, who teaches in Liangshan’s Ganluo county and takes care of their baby son. Their older son attends boarding school in Xichang, the prefectural capital.
Buha, 35, was born and raised in a village in Ganluo. His mother died when he was 12, and his father owed money for her medical treatment.
Influenced by his uncle, a primary school teacher, Buha wanted an education so he could decide his own destiny.
He was one of just two children in his village who regularly trekked several kilometers over the mountains to attend primary school.
When he was admitted by Chengdu University of Technology, his father went from door to door to borrow money for his tuition fee.
“Thanks to preferential policies for students from ethnic groups and my relatives and neighbors, I completed my studies. I don’t take it for granted, though, and will repay my home village and pass on the kindness shown to me,” Buha said.
His experience tells him that boosting people’s dignity is the most important thing in changing their destinies, especially those living in poor villages.
“If people have a sense of dignity and want to be respected, they will be more motivated and struggle out of poverty whatever difficulties they encounter,” he said.
To motivate the villagers, Buha organizes occasional appraisals, rating them for things such as work ethic, cleanliness, cooperation and observance of the law.
“People can’t reap without sowing. Those who wait for favorable policies and financial aid will lose their dignity,” he said.
“I am not satisfied with the current situation. I will only have achieved my goal when the villagers can earn stable incomes unaided and can even support others in need.”