Gansu Xiahe disabled cattle herder gives back to his hometown, helping disabled people find employment and escape poverty

In Xiahe County, Gansu, there is a special cattle breeding and farming base. Since 2012, it has provided jobs for disabled people in the surrounding area, helping them escape poverty and improve their lives. As the head of the base, Pang Gaping is himself a disabled person.

Pang Gaping was born into a poor farming family and dropped out of school after finishing primary school to support his family. At the age of 15, he boarded a train south to work and earn a living for his family.

In 1996, an accident left him with a permanent disability in his right hand. No factory was willing to hire him, so he had no choice but to return home. Wanting to make a living, he took out all his savings from working away and bought a few cattle, starting to graze them at home.

In 2012, through his own efforts, Pang Gaping's life gradually improved, but there were still several disabled households in the village just like him. Seeing their families living in poverty and facing hardship, a thought took root in Pang Gaping's mind: he was determined to lead his poor fellow villagers out of poverty and toward prosperity.

He seized the opportunity and traveled to many places inside and outside the province to study greenhouse farming. In May 2012, the Gayinshan Cattle Breeding Cooperative was officially established, covering 4 mu, with registered capital of 1.88 million yuan, and half of its members being disabled households.

At the beginning of the cooperative's founding, because most members were disabled, and compounded by a lack of management and sales experience, it remained in a state of loss.

Pang Gaping, struggling to keep it going, also had thoughts of giving up, but seeing the effort and dedication his disabled friends poured into the cooperative, he gritted his teeth and persevered.

During that period, Pang Gaping was both purchasing agent and salesman; he had to manage the warehouse and also help with moving goods. He got up at around 3 a.m. every day to prepare feed for the cattle and stayed busy until around 10 p.m.

Just then, the Damai Township government extended a helping hand to the cooperative, coordinating support from various departments, and gradually the business turned from loss to profit. After more than a year of development, the cooperative gradually got on track.

In 2013, the local government also gave priority to arranging a 1 million yuan "Shuanglian" agricultural benefit loan, enabling the cooperative to expand its farming scale.

Today, the cooperative has become a leading enterprise in Damai Township and a poverty alleviation employment base for disabled people in Xiahe County, achieving an annual output value of more than 1.5 million yuan.

"When you drink water, do not forget those who dug the well." After becoming wealthy, Pang Gaping did not forget the elders and fellow villagers around him. He absorbed as many disabled people from the surrounding area as possible as members and distributed a considerable dividend to them every year.

Under Pang Gaping's leadership, the cooperative signed long-term forage planting and purchasing contracts with more than 60 farming and herding households in surrounding villages, providing stable income for more than 90 farming and herding households, and gradually forming a "herding households + cooperative + enterprise" business model.