Christmas Giving in Mukbo, China December 2010

Since I will not be able to be at home in Colorado this year for Christmas, I decided that giving a gift that will benefit a whole family in need is the best way of celebrating family.    I decided to buy a Yak for a family  in need (detailed below) through the Pentok Institute from the Staffords, Andersons and Hills.

Lhapal and his family are nomadic herders, living on grassland quite a long way from any major towns. Lhapal is 30 years old and he and his wife have two children, a preschool boy and a school-aged girl. The girl is not attending school because the family cannot cover the expenses and the school is so far away.  Additionally, the girl has to help with household chores because the mother is always sick with an undiagnosed illness. The family has no money to send her to a hospital.

Lhapal and his wife started their herd with 5 yaks from Lhapal’s parents. Over the last 10 years he and his wife have worked really hard and have raised 15 more yaks.  Lhapal also helps other families to graze their yaks and sheep for additional income of around 1,000—2000 RMB a year. His wife makes around 500—1,000 RMB a year from selling surplus butter and cheese. They now have enough money to buy food and clothes but no surplus to save for their children’s education or pay for medical help for his wife. Their primary desire is to have enough money to raise some more yaks and be able to send their two children to school.

Pentok means “to benefit and positively impact others.” The Pentok Institute, founded in 2007, is a not-for-profit, grass-roots initiative based in Qinghai Province. It aims to empower women from rural areas to take the lead in improving the quality of life in their communities. Projects include education, women’s leadership development, cultural preservation and community development. To date, 100% of the money Pentok has received has gone directly to projects benefiting local communities.

How does the yak-loan system work?

Pentok formed the Yak Loan Project Committee consisting of a local highly respected Lama named Samdan, the village leader Darbum, and a respected elder man named Uncle Drolby. Fifty low- income families from the Mukbo region were identified using the criteria of the number of livestock they own, additional caterpillar fungus income resource potential, the amount of debt they have as well as the number of school-aged children in each family. (Caterpillar fungus grows in the ground and is widely used as a traditional Chinese medicine)

The poorest six of these families were identified and interviewed. These are families who are barely able to meet their basic needs, let alone repay debts or educate their children. The Pentok Yak Loan Project Committee aims to provide 10 milking yaks for each family. The families can keep their loaned yaks for five years during which time the families will keep all by-products, such as off-spring, milk, meat, wool, butter and cheese. Most of this will be sold to generate cash income; some will be kept for their own families’ use. They will repay half of their loan in Year 3 (5 yaks or equivalent funds) and the other half of the loan in Year 5 (5 yaks or equivalent funds). By Year 3 of the project The Yak-Loan Project Committee will therefore be able to distribute milking yaks to another very poor household in the village so the project can be self-sustaining.