China

Historias reales

Seed money changes rural women's life in China

© UNICEF/China/Zeng Huang

A farmer woman

El contenido de esta página estará disponible en español en los próximos días.

About once in a week since last August, Yuan Guixiu, a rural woman of the ethnic Yao minority in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, would meet five other women in the village to discuss their plans for household development.

The 48-year-old woman says she has never found her life so full and meaningful since she became involved in such social associations last August, when women of her township grouped themselves of their own accord into small teams of five or six and began to meet regularly.

The meetings of Yuan's group often take place at her house in the evening, after the participants have finished their day's toil in the fields. On chilly winter days, they sit around a fireplace, drinking oil tea made with peanuts, parched rice, ginger, garlic, green onion and salt, and talk. The topics would center on how to best use the money they are to acquire through micro credit to be offered by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

For many of these minority rural women, access to such credit, 1,000 yuan (US$120) a year as the first loan and a maximum 2,500 yuan (about US$301) as subsequent loans, was unheard of in a male-dominated society.

When her man got a bank loan, says Yuan, who lives in a mountainous area still lacking electricity, the money was not for the woman to use. "The bank does not trust us women, assuming that we are not capable to pay the loan back," she says. The bank loan is "for something they call 'big business'," Yuan imitates the high-sounding tone of the man folks.

© UNICEF/China/Zeng Huang

Yuan and her group are now in the pre-loan training session for the programme of Local Planning and Action for Children (LPAC) launched by UNICEF-China early last year. The programme, featuring micro credits for mothers in need, is designed to make credit easy to access for impoverished women in selected communities, and through them, their children, while integrating money loans with life skills training and high-quality basic services.

The project, deemed by UNICEF as a strategic intervention for addressing the needs of China's most vulnerable groups of women and children, offers rural women an annual credit for them to engage in economic activities.

Although the credit is yet to be distributed, Yuan is already drawing a picture in her mind. "I'll use the money to plant radish and other cash vegetables, and then buy breeding pigs," she says.

The credit, tiny as it seems to city dwellers, means a lot to women in Baoliang Village, Dongjing Township of Guanyang County, an area 3,500 meters above sea level. The average per capita income there is around 900 yuan (about US$108) annually, much less than the average monthly income for Beijingers.

"(With the credit,) I can do things of my own wish. The more money I get, the bigger things I can do," says Deng Weilian, 33, from the village.

50-year-old Liu Mamei has even made up her mind that she will not let her husband meddle with her business, for "he has no plans and can't do things right."

However, the micro credit is handed out with conditions. As Lin Fei, national programme officer, indicates, every loan should be paid back within a year at a monthly interest of 0.8%, which serves as risk funds and salary for the staff managing the fund. The interest is also used to support social development, training and other activities.

To guarantee the repayment of the loan, every woman in the small group must put at least 100 yuan (US$12) in the group's fixed saving account as deposit. Members will have to share the risk in case any one of them fails to pay back the credit.

Risks there may be, but the strong-willed women are not frightened away.

"I'll try my utmost to pay back the money," says a skinny Dai Tingyue whose two children, a boy and a girl, are now studying at a township secondary school and need 3,000 yuan (about US$361) a year just to cover their school expenses.

When all the groups of around 200 women throughout the township meet, which happens once a month, Dai would trek over the mountain trail for an hour to attend. She would listen attentively and take notes of what the lecturers talk about at the meetings, the subjects ranging from the rights of children and women, disease prevention, hygiene and sanitation, safe motherhood, early childcare to farming and production skills.

"I have a poor memory. But when I get home I can go over what is said," says the 39-year-old Dai, who has to shoulder all the burdens of the family due to her husband's poor health. She adds that these classes and training are a great help in growing vegetables and "getting my family rich."

At present, there are still millions of children in China whose basic needs are unmet. Gnilane Senghor, senior programme and planning officer for UNICEF-China, points out that rather high infant mortality rates, high prevalence of malnutrition and stunting, and lower educational opportunities for children are still witnessed in some poor and minority areas in the interior and the mountainous regions.

Poverty among women is also a serious concern, says Senghor from Senegal. "Many women from poor and minority areas are unable to adapt to China's rapidly changing economic and social situation due to their lower levels of literacy, limited access to information and technologies, and the burden of shouldering the bulk of labour in agricultural production, family care and community work."

Although it is new to women like Yuan Guixiu in Guangxi, micro credit from UNICEF was introduced to China as early as 1996 when it was under another programme name. In the five years to 2000, UNICEF invested US$9 million in support of programme activities in the form of technical support, training, micro-credit funds, and supplies and equipment. The Chinese government also provided personnel and counterpart funds totalling about US$7 million. Some 51,430 poor women from 25 counties in Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi and Xinjiang have benefited.

Zhang Yinfang, 35, from Tianzhu County in northwest China's Gansu Province, has increased her annual income from 600 yuan (US$72) in 1996 to around 1,000 yuan (US$120) now thanks to the credit in favour of poor women. She even puts away 480 yuan (US$58) in her small group as a loan for others.

"We used to grow purely grain crops and depend on natural elements for harvest. Now we plant vegetables in scientific methods," she says, listing lots of changes in her life since her participation in the micro-credit project, such as washing hands after using the toilet and before meals, and letting her girl child go to school.

"In our area, it is inconvenient to see the doctor. We've learned some basic knowledge of healthcare at the training classes," says Zhang, who also won the first prize in a photo competition on the theme of "rural women combating hunger and poverty," which was sponsored by United Nations Development Program last October.

Cao Wenyao, chief of the office for foreign-aided projects in Tianzhu County, has witnessed the profound changes in women involved in the micro-credit funds. He notes that economic poverty is only the outside manifestation of the natural and social environment, while poverty in knowledge and values is the core of the problem.

"The credit is just a means offering women opportunities and resources to demonstrate their abilities and get rid of poverty. It's an attraction. But the attraction that keeps them going is the training, with the contents ever-changing," says Cao, who speaks highly of the training which emphasizes more on women's self-development and fulfillment as human beings and brings their initiatives into full play.

According to Cao, a total of 2,053 women are the direct beneficiaries of the funds in Tianzhu County. But taking into account their immediate families, the impact snowballs to over 8,000 people. What's more important, he adds, women's self-confidence and self-provision can greatly improve their status in the family and in society.

Echoing Cao's words, Zhang Xiaoling, deputy chief of Guanyang County in Guangxi, says, "We are very cautious when selecting the community for this programme. Frankly speaking, the project's social significance far outshines its economic benefits."

All the Guangxi women applying for the micro credit have already saved the required 100 yuan (US$12) in their bank account. They can't wait to put their plan into practice.

Inspired by their enthusiasm, Guanyang County government is making plans for a second township to join the project.