With a woman at the helm, there is hope on the road to prosperity

At 15, she left home to work as a migrant worker; at 30, she chose to return to her hometown to start a business; at 39, she was elected by the villagers as the village Party branch secretary, leading the people out of poverty toward prosperity. On September 13, the reporter interviewed the story of Zhang Changying, the "woman at the helm" of Dingzishan Village, Wangjia Town, Nanbu County.

Poverty spurs change: a farmer's daughter ventures out

In 1974, Zhang Changying was born into an ordinary farming family in Dingzishan Village. At the age of 15, due to family poverty, she had to give up her studies after graduating from junior high school and went to work at a garment factory in Shenzhen. She worked 14 hours a day and earned about 800 yuan a month.

While working in Shenzhen, Zhang Changying squeezed out time to study planting and breeding techniques at a vocational secondary school at her own expense, and obtained a correspondence secondary school diploma.

In 1996, Zhang Changying returned home to get married and have children. "With a family and children, I originally did not want to go out to work again, but at that time it was really too hard to earn money at home," Zhang Changying said. Helpless, she continued to return to Shenzhen to work.

As her children grew day by day and her parents grew older day by day, Zhang Changying's desire to return home and start a business grew stronger and stronger. At the end of 2003, Zhang Changying resolutely decided to return home to start a business.

Returning home to start a business: a strong woman earns a fortune

After returning to her hometown, Zhang Changying decided to use her professional expertise to develop the breeding industry, and successively went to several large-scale farms in the county and to places such as Leshan to learn breeding techniques.

In March 2004, Zhang Changying used her years of savings and 50,000 yuan borrowed from relatives and friends to set up a laying hen farm.

"Raising laying hens was a decision I made after thorough investigation," Zhang Changying said. However, because she had never engaged in large-scale breeding before, her relatives and friends all opposed her raising laying hens, but she still insisted on her decision. In June of that year, the 1,000 laying hens raised by Zhang Changying began to lay eggs, with an average daily output of 100 kg. Raising laying hens brought her family an income of more than 100,000 yuan.

Later, Zhang Changying continuously expanded the scale of breeding. At present, her family's farm has 20,000 laying hens, with an annual output value of more than 4 million yuan.

Taking on a mission in a time of crisis: the "woman at the helm" bravely shoulders the burden

Zhang Changying won the praise of her fellow villagers by becoming prosperous through hard work. In 2004, she joined the Party organization and became a Communist Party member. In December 2013, during the reelection of the village "two committees," 39-year-old Zhang Changying was elected by a unanimous vote as the village Party branch secretary.

"If you want to get rich, first build roads." As soon as she took office, Zhang Changying actively led the people into the work of poverty alleviation, and made building the village road the top priority. In March 2014, after obtaining the consent of the vast majority of villagers, Zhang Changying, by striving for project funds and collecting funds from villagers, took 3 months to build 2.85 km of cement village road and 1.5 km of mud-bound gravel road, initially solving the problem of villagers' difficulty in traveling and also laying the foundation for villagers to escape poverty and become prosperous.

As an ordinary poverty-stricken village, as of the end of 2015, the village had a total of 35 poor households and 119 people. With poor natural conditions and no pillar industry, how to help the poor people escape poverty and become prosperous became the biggest problem troubling Zhang Changying and the village "two committees" team.

Innovating the model: a strong woman leads the masses out of poverty

In June of this year, after obtaining the support of her family and the consent of the poor people, she decided to rely on her own farm to establish the Juyuan Breeding Professional Cooperative, leading poor households to become prosperous by raising chickens.

Afterward, Zhang Changying divided the village's poor households into two categories: for those with labor capacity, Zhang Changying provided chick seedlings, technology and assistance with daily management in a unified way, letting them raise the chickens, and the chickens and eggs produced were sold uniformly by the cooperative; for those without labor capacity, she had them invest 10,000 yuan of industrial turnover funds as shares in the cooperative and participate in the cooperative's profit dividends.

"In order to guarantee the rights and interests of the poor households that bought shares, we signed a share dividend agreement." According to Zhang Changying, under the agreement, poor households began to receive profit dividends from the farm starting in the second month after buying shares, with the monthly dividend amount being 10‰ to 15‰ of the share principal. If a poor household withdraws midway, the farm will fully refund the principal.

"I never expected that without doing anything, I could receive more than 100 yuan in dividends every month, enough for my daily expenses." The village's elderly Cai Hongshu, over 70 years old, lost his labor capacity due to poor eyesight and lived in extreme poverty. In June of this year, after he invested his industrial turnover funds as shares in the cooperative, starting from the end of July, he received about 120 yuan in dividends from the cooperative every month.

Because his 90-year-old mother was paralyzed in bed and he still had 3 children in school, Cai Guoqiang, over 50 years old in the village, was once overwhelmed by poverty. In April of this year, with Zhang Changying's encouragement and support, Cai Guoqiang bought 400 chick seedlings and built a coop. "The raising cycle for chickens is generally 4 months. At the beginning of this month, the first batch of 400 chickens had all been sold. Calculating a profit of 20 yuan per chicken, I can make a profit of 8,000 yuan," Cai Guoqiang said. At present, he is preparing to expand the scale of breeding.

It is understood that at present, the village has not only mobilized 35 poor households to develop the breeding industry, but also, by introducing business owners, encouraged the people to plant 250 mu of citrus. "With this 'woman at the helm,' we have hope for escaping poverty and becoming prosperous." During the interview, the villagers' trust in Zhang Changying was evident in their words.