Party branch secretary Zhu Yuguo's experience in financial poverty alleviation

"Old Zhu won the National Award for Endeavor in Poverty Alleviation, only 10 people nationwide, and he was the only one from Ningxia!" In Yanchi County, Ningxia, an old revolutionary base area and impoverished county, Zhu Yuguo, Party branch secretary of Zengjipan Village in Wanglejing Township, has become a "celebrity."

When reporters met 54-year-old Zhu Yuguo on the 20th, he was busy in a meeting with township and village-stationed officials discussing village affairs; he had been going back and forth for most of the day and had not even had time for lunch. Some villagers said: "Zhu Yuguo being busy is the norm; not being busy would be abnormal."

A native son, Zhu Yuguo knows well that lifting the whole village out of poverty is "tremendous pressure." Zengjipan Village is located 25 km west of Yanchi County seat, with average annual rainfall of about 200 mm, a typical impoverished village that "relies on the heavens for food"; among 2,058 people in 6 villager groups, 588 are poor.

In 2007, this "hollow-shell village" with annual per capita income of less than 1,500 yuan was designated by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development as a pilot impoverished village for mutual-aid funds, and Zhu Yuguo served as chairman of the mutual-aid association. With capital funds injected free of charge by the government at the initial stage, farming households paid a certain mutual-aid contribution to become members, and each household could enjoy loan support ranging from 1,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan.

This gave Zhu Yuguo hope for escaping poverty. "For a long time, poverty alleviation meant 'before the tree is planted, first give the fruit,' making poor households think 'the money is free; two drinking parties, one round of mahjong, a new outfit, and even if it's all spent there's no heartache.' But mutual-aid funds turned money given for free into interest-bearing loans; only when poor households feel pressure will they use money to pursue development," he said.

Villager Niu Shenghu of Zengjipan Village was once a poor household so broke there was nothing left. In 2007 he paid 1,000 yuan in mutual-aid funds, borrowed 2,000 yuan from the village mutual-aid association, and bought 4 breeding ewes. For 5 consecutive years he borrowed and repaid, Niu Shenghu's number of ewes gradually increased, and his credit standing was established. But both he and Zhu Yuguo realized that a 2,000-yuan limit could no longer meet the development needs of poor households.

Therefore, Zhu Yuguo decided that the mutual-aid association should recommend members with good credit and development capacity to the credit union through a five-household joint guarantee, and the credit union would issue more loans.

But no one was willing to provide joint guarantees with poor households, so what could be done? Zhu Yuguo took the lead, with members of the village two committees providing guarantees first for 26 poor households; loans of a few thousand yuan quickly became loans of more than 10,000 yuan.

"Over ten years, our village has cultivated a group of trustworthy farmers, and we have never defaulted on a single coin to the credit union," Zhu Yuguo said with full confidence. In 2012, the autonomous region began implementing the "Thousand Villages Credit - Mutual-Aid Funds" financial innovation poverty alleviation project, and their village took the lead in participating. On the basis of the mutual-aid fund borrowing limit, poor households could obtain credit union loans amplified by up to 10 times. Subsequently, the Agricultural Bank and Postal Savings Bank also began lending one after another, and currently the loan amount for farmers in the whole village has reached 54.2 million yuan.

Returning again to Niu Shenghu's home, Zhu Yuguo pointed to the sheep pen and said: "Without financial poverty alleviation, where would this pen full of sheep come from!"

Seeing Zhu Yuguo, Niu Shenghu said excitedly that his breeding shed now has 90 breeding ewes on hand, produces more than a hundred lambs each year, and can earn more than 60,000 yuan a year, "and I'm still providing guarantees for 4 people now."

Financial poverty alleviation fundamentally changed the face of the village. Zhu Yuguo said that the village's annual per capita net income increased from 1,500 yuan previously to 5,795 yuan last year, village collective income went from zero to 186,000 yuan, and poor households decreased from 385 in the past to 196.

Facing a village once marked by accumulated poverty and weakness, Zhu Yuguo has three dreams: first, for the mutual-aid fund amount to reach 3 million yuan, from which 100,000 yuan in usage fees can be taken out to buy medical insurance for villagers, avoiding "returning to poverty due to illness" or being unable to afford medical care; second, for the fund amount to reach 6 million yuan, and then take out 150,000 yuan to solve the old-age insurance problem; third, for the fund amount to reach 8 million yuan, and give each poor student admitted to university a reward of 5,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan.

"My first dream was realized last year, and fulfilling the second dream is already close at hand," Zhu Yuguo said. Making ordinary people's pockets fuller and letting them live the beautiful life they long for is his goal of endeavor.

Xinhua News Agency reporter Zou Xinyuan