After having successfully achieved its goals in terms of poverty alleviation within the national deadline of 2020, the village of Longgu, Chayu county, #Tibet Autonomous Region has entered a new phase in China’s initiative of rural revitalization. Launched in the country in 2018, rural revitalization’s goal is to improve rural people’s livelihood and economic conditions through a comprehensive system that includes an improved living environment, support for starting and growing small businesses as well as many other aspects.

In Longgu Village, the improvement of the living environment goes through the separation of humans and livestock for better hygiene. The livestock have now a specific area in the village with a road to easily reach that area. They are kept there during the winter season, and from May to October, the animals are transferred to centralized pasture area. There is also garbage management and new business projects such as raising local Tibetan chickens and livestock in order to improve villagers’ living standards and fruit production which are sold all over the county thanks to the improvement of the roads.

Suonam Wangmu tells us about rural revitalization projects taking place in her hometown of Longgu Village.

Suonam, 29 years old, has always been an outstanding student and went away from the village to study her junior high school in a boarding school. She missed her family so much that she decided she would come back to hometown after college graduation. After graduating from high school, she moved to Beijing and studied at the Minzu University of China. To her, going to university in Beijing was not for finding a better job or applying for a civil servant job,  she just believes that education is a game-changer and allows her to look at things in a different way.

Rural revitalization focus on five different topics: culture, environment, industry, organization and talent. An important part of her job now consists in translating. Since a lot of staff come from other parts of Tibet, they can speak Tibetan but not the dialect spoken by the locals. Being a local and speaking fluent Tibetan and Mandarin, it is a job she can easily do and enjoys, making her happy when helping others.

She specifically takes charge of two business projects: One is growing a specific type of mushrooms called morel which is very suitable to the local climate and environment, and the other is raising Tibetan black fragment pigs, which is a traditional activity in the village. The pig breeding already diversified with other breeds, driven by the market needs.

When it comes to professional training, she holds a class every Thursday in Tibetan and Mandarin languages, with a will to improve the education level in the village. Additionally, most villages now need special staff for rural revitalization including science and technology talents, as well as doctors and other specific professionals. They hope they can attract young graduates to come to work in the village.

In the past, locals worried about their food, house, clothes, education and health. Thanks to the recent upturns, villagers already witnessed important improvement in all the respects. Being a special staff for rural revitalization, Suonam hopes that in the future the program will bring further benefits to the village and further better their life on the basis of their already increased income. She also wish she can learn from others to improve herself.

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY CECILE ZEHNACKER

Source: China Pictorial