First Secretary Wang Qingfang: Bringing Responsibility to Truly Alleviate Poverty
"These past two days, Weinan Preschool Normal School came to the village to give a presentation, and quite a few villagers are very interested in the training courses for preschool teachers, e-commerce and so on." Wang Qingfang, "First Secretary" of Qingmuchuan Village, Qingmuchuan Town, Ningqiang County, Shaanxi Province, was arranging the presentation while explaining to the villagers the benefits of learning skills.
Qingmuchuan Village has beautiful scenery and honest, warm-hearted people, but it is remote and its infrastructure is backward, and quite a few villagers still live below the poverty line.
?Poverty Alleviation Through Education
In 2012, the Shaanxi Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office designated Qingmuchuan Village as the poverty alleviation contact point of the Shaanxi Provincial Women's Federation. In 2015, to further implement the concept of "targeted poverty alleviation," the Shaanxi Provincial Women's Federation selected 46-year-old Wang Qingfang to serve as "First Secretary" in Qingmuchuan Village. As soon as she arrived in the village, Wang Qingfang began visiting and conducting research; by going door to door and holding group discussions, she gained a deep understanding of the village's conditions and customs and gathered a large amount of information.
"The young people here have all gone out to work, and those who remain in the village are not well educated and have no awareness of escaping poverty and becoming prosperous. Many families rely on government subsidies to make ends meet." Wang Qingfang was deeply worried. "Developing industries, helping the villagers master a skill, and awakening their awareness of becoming prosperous are urgent priorities."
Teachers in Qingmuchuan Village kept leaving, causing the quality of education to decline and students to drop out. Wang Qingfang sought funding from various sources and invested more than 200,000 yuan in activities to visit and support rural teachers in remote mountain areas, and provided charitable educational assistance to poor students to help them complete their schooling... With the support of the Shaanxi Provincial Women's Federation, she also secured 60,000 yuan in funding to create a "Children's Growth Home" so that left-behind children could grow up happily.
To achieve long-term, stable poverty alleviation, the villagers must have a stable source of income. Wang Qingfang contacted Weinan Preschool Normal School to come to the village to give presentations and carry out customized training and education. By participating in training for preschool teachers, e-commerce and so on, the village's young people ultimately achieved stable employment.
????Poverty Alleviation Through Projects
"Transportation in Qingmuchuan is inconvenient. The journey from Ningqiang county town to the village is less than 100 km but takes 4 hours, so it is very hard to attract investment." Wang Qingfang said. Last December, she invited Zhang Xiaolin, chairman of Shaanxi Houde Agricultural Group, who was inspecting Ningqiang County, to take a look at Qingmuchuan. Zhang Xiaolin readily agreed, and the two set a time, but Zhang Xiaolin and her party still had not arrived after more than half a day.
"It was my first visit, I was unfamiliar with the route and there was a traffic jam. By the time I finally reached Qingmuchuan after all that trouble, it was already 2 a.m. the next day, but when I saw Secretary Wang waiting in the cold wind for five or six hours, her lips purple from the cold, I felt there was no problem investing here." Zhang Xiaolin said, moved.
In August this year, Zhang Xiaolin came to Qingmuchuan again to prepare to establish a company, planning to use a model of "cultural economy + internet economy + rural civilization development + ecological green planting" to advance targeted poverty alleviation toward industrialization and intensive development, and to absorb the village's poor households into the enterprise as workers.
"Now the annual net profit can reach more than 200,000 yuan. Making Qiang embroidery can definitely make you prosperous." On the commercial street of Qingmuchuan, 34-year-old He Yanping runs the only shop in the ancient town selling Qiang embroidery, and has become a leader in becoming prosperous.
A few years ago, He Yanping, who had been working in Shenzhen, returned to her hometown and opened this Qiang embroidery shop, gathering the village women to make embroidered products together. But once the products were made, finding a market became a problem.
When Wang Qingfang, who had just taken up her post, learned of this, she helped her find sales channels while training the village women to build a village-enterprise paired charitable assistance platform, and also established the Qingmuchuan Village Qiang Embroidery Cooperative to carry out Qiang embroidery technical training and sales exhibitions. At present, Qiang embroidery training in Qingmuchuan Village has been held for 3 sessions, with more than 600 person-times receiving training, benefiting a total of 150 women in the village by increasing their income.
Wang Qingfang took out a piece of Qiang embroidery she had with her and did the math for the reporter: "Take a 20-yuan product. You can embroider one piece in 3 days, so 10 pieces in a month, and you can earn 200 yuan." Today, He Yanping's small shop is doing brisk business, and the income of the village women has also risen markedly.
?Dedicated to Poverty Alleviation
When she first received the appointment, her friends advised Wang Qingfang: "Your job is stable now, why go looking for hardship?" "Rural work is endless and tangled; just endure one year and come back."...
Wang Qingfang did not beat a retreat. Instead, with the loyalty and sense of duty of a Communist Party member, she treated the villagers of Qingmuchuan Village as her own family and threw herself wholeheartedly into the arduous work. She traveled to and from Qingmuchuan more than 20 times, contacted more than 600 experts, entrepreneurs and caring individuals, and secured more than 2 million yuan in poverty alleviation funds.
"She visits and surveys people's homes, and treats Qingmuchuan's poor households as family in helping them." said Du Xiaoyan, Party branch secretary of Qingmuchuan Village.
Over the past year and more, Wang Qingfang strengthened the building of grassroots Party organizations, set up a WeChat group for Party members, and kept in close contact with Party members working away from home. She led the members of the village "two committees," focusing on the 65 registered poor households, to intensify targeted poverty alleviation, and successively organized assistance projects such as "intellectual poverty alleviation," "educational poverty alleviation," "hardship relief and donations," "project poverty alleviation," "industrial poverty alleviation" and "Party building poverty alleviation."
In August this year, Wang Qingfang's one-year term of office came to an end. The villagers and the Shaanxi Provincial Women's Federation both hoped she would stay on, and Wang Qingfang agreed without a second thought. And so, having just finished the presentation activity at the normal school, Wang Qingfang began organizing the village women to work overtime to rush out Qiang embroidery products, preparing to take part in the Yangling Agricultural High-tech Fair in early November, striving to increase the villagers' income during the agricultural slack season.