In the past few years, when people talked about impoverished villages, Xuezhuang Village was always one of the topics. No factory, no investment and no fixed asset, these “nos” marked Xuezhuang Village as its labels and people there were in extreme poverty. “However, it is due to the help from mass work team, the municipal Land and Resources Bureau and the City Association of Industry and Commerce, that we get rid of the label of poverty.” Exclaimed QiuJianzhong, secretary of the general party branch of the village.
October 17of each year is theInternational Day for poverty eradication and the 4thNational poverty alleviation day of China. On the cause of “take targeted measures to help people lift themselves out of poverty”, Jiangsu Party Representatives working on the front-line of poverty alleviation couldn’t help having a lot of thoughts.
Local officials: help the village upgrade and increase income
Zhang Yulin, the delegate of 19thCPC National Congress and Secretary of Taizhou Municipal Party Committee was once on the project of Poverty Alleviation. He had the feeling that after rounds of Poverty AlleviationPrograms, those capable villages and individuals would grab the opportunity to get out of the impoverished situation. However, those left behind become the problems really hard to tackle.
Zhang said that if we’re going to fight against poverty and to win, we have to make our target, remain focused and call on everybody to help. In fulfilling the work, they’re expected to have the profile of every impoverished village, make clear what has led to their situations and then practice different measures accordingly. In Huangqiao Village of Taixing, the target measures have been implemented as a top priorityandcarried out in accordance with different situations.
To “take targeted measures to help people lift themselves out of poverty”, local officials of Taixingoffer aid and help to counties and county-level units in need, enterprises and counties offer aid to villages in need, while communist party members to individuals in need.
In the process to carry out the program, every participating unit has to be clear who is to receive the aid, what specific way to carry out the project and who is in charge of the whole program. Since 2016, 96 participating units have invested 11,644,700 RMB into the project of Poverty Alleviation, which brought about 76 income-increasing projects, 58 infrastructure constructions. Enterprises, meanwhile, had an investment of 746,000 RMB.
Building investment-inviting teams, preparing to build factories, launching e-commerce businesses and logistics, livestock breeding, etc., a variety of measures have been taken in Yexiao Village, Xinjie County, Taixing City since the beginning of this year. Yettrapped with the problem of traffic, this village has been striving for development. Before the project of Poverty Alleviation reached this village, the total income for the whole village was under 20,000 RMB.
However, after this project has been smoothly taken underway, Yexiao Village is striding toward a better-off situation. The municipal supply and marketing cooperative has invested more manpower and capital to help the villagers reach that goal. “People in poor villages cannot get happiness and well-off if they just wait and rely on others, they have to fight for themselves”. Xiao Jianlin, secretary of the general party branch of the village, said. They grab every chance to have construction projects, to increase income, to get rid of poverty.
The project of Poverty Alleviationkindles the hope buried in the people from poverty, and invokes their enthusiasm to get away from poverty. In Yanwang County,Yuanda Furniture had 190 peasants from 18 villages as their employees to process vines. In return, these peasants could have an annual income of 10,000 per capita.As a very successful case, their experience is made a model and promoted.
Village postman: creative ideas to increase income
Almost every August and September, every time he sees “Assistance” stamped on the packages, GuSongxue knows these are apples mailed from Shaanxi. Gu is a delegate of the 19thCPC National Congress, and a postman with Hangji Branch, Yangzhou, China Post. In his 32 years of career, Gu has devoted almost all his time delivering packages to people, he has been always on the way. These several years, their branch has also embraced changes to help those in need.
Gusaid that in recent years，they help deliver and sell the produce like apples, oranges, and kiwifruits from the poverty-stricken areas in Shaanxi and Hubei. Those areas are renowned for juicy and fresh fruits but find it very hard to transport them and sell them for a good price. Offering aid to deliver those fruits to Yangzhou, Yangzhou branch of China post find their unique way to help the people in poverty. Approximately, over 4,000 crates of fruits will arrive Yangzhou in a comparatively short time of delivery, satisfying the need of local market with fresh fruits at a decent price.
When delivering packages from one household to another, GuSongxue and his colleagues always pay attention to who else would be in need. There is one grocery farmer in Xinlian Village who plants fragrant-flowered garlic. Every summer, this farmer would have a harvest of his plants but has no buyer lined up. To help him solve the problem, Gu tries to find a buyer for this farmer—Hangji Primary School. Gu delivers the fragrant-flowered garlic and other groceries planted by that farmer to the primary school and sell them at a lower price. Either for the farmer or the primary school, Gu finds them a win-win situation.
ZhongBaijun: to root out poverty requires solid work
ZhongBaijun is the CPC party secretary of Jidang Village in Lianyungang city. He has been working in the village for over 20 years and has led the village to richness.During the 19th CPC National Congress, he was also elected as a delegate and has joined other delegates to share his experience on poverty alleviation.
Zhong quoted President Xi’s thoughts on “targeted poverty alleviation”. Xi once emphasized that the key to successful poverty alleviation is to ensure it helps those that need to be helped. “A successful poverty alleviation means that it must not bounce back to poverty,” said Zhong. “And that requires not only policy support, but also a long-term mechanism.”
Zhong introduced some explorations of his village, like dividing those impoverished into different categories, and offering job opportunities. “To those who can start businesses, we will help them to get bank loans more easily,” said him. “To those who don’t have any skills to work, we offer them job opportunities that are funded by the government. To the most impoverished people, we call on the wealthier households to support them.” Zhongbaijun helps three himself, two of whom are orphans. The help means Zhong will pay for their tuitions from primary school to college.
“The collective economy of the village must be enlarged if we want to root out poverty.” Zhong said a man surnamed Chen died of liver cancer, leaving his wife and two children. The family didn’t even have a proper house to live in. And the village offers them money to build a house. “To offer all impoverished families proper houses to live in, that’s my biggest dream,” said Zhong. “The house is built by the whole community. The family will pay by installment once they have the ability.”
“How will the targeted poverty alleviation be pushed in the rural areas in the next phase? How will we guarantee the low-income families to become rich since we said that not a single one shall be left out on the road to build China into a moderately prosperous society. These are my deepest concerns”, said Zhong. He wished the 19th CPC National Congress will bring more good policies. He hoped the income of farmers will continue to increase in the next 5 years; the rate of medical reimbursement for farmers will be higher; the pension for senior citizens will be increased; educational resources will be more balanced. Poverty will be completely alleviated if we solve the problems of medical insurance, support for the senior citizens and education.
Entrepreneurs: to alleviate poverty with industry
Hodo Group has won the title of Advanced Private Enterprise in Target Poverty Alleviation a week ago. The honor was set for those enterprises that have done great contribution to poverty-stricken villages. The president of Hodo group, Zhou Haijiang, who’s also one of the delegates of the 19th CPC National Congress this year, said that Hodo Group has always been actively participated in the act of poverty alleviation. “When the enterprises are developing rapidly, we also need to shoulder some social responsibilities, inspiring more private enterprises to participate in target poverty alleviation,” said Zhou.
The honor that was presented to Hodo Group was focused on “targeted” this time. Zhou said that Hodo has always tried its best to make the poverty alleviation work targeted. The public welfare project – Hodo Village was started in 2014. It was aimed to develop industries in those impoverished mountainous areas that located in western China. “We worked with local enterprises and used cultural innovation to help Hodo village to develop. It not only helped boost the tourism industry, but also made local enterprises share the fruit of development,” said Zhou.
Industry is key for enterprises to help alleviate poverty. Founded in 2015, Xinjiang Hodo Clothing Co. Ltd. was located in Khorgas. As a key project of Jiangsu Province’s assistance to Xinjiang, Xinjiang Hodo has offered more than 500 job opportunities. “Poverty alleviation with industry can use the labor forces there, activate more job opportunities by industrial shift. Thus, it boosts the development of both the enterprise and the society,” said Zhou.
“Now the 19th CPC National Congress is open. The poverty alleviation work of Hodo Group has also embraced a new start. We will continue to put effort into developing enterprises and serving the society. Moreover, we will contribute more in fighting against poverty and building moderately prosperous society,” said Zhou.
