Shibadong Village, the “first place for targeted poverty alleviation”, has boldly explored and embarked on the journey of striving for development and poverty alleviation.
Changes in thinking
In 2014, the targeted poverty alleviation working group selected by Huayuan County Committee of the CPC came to the village. This is the first targeted poverty alleviation working group in the history of China. When they entered the village, the first thing they did was to tell the villagers that they would work together to develop the village and lift it out of poverty.
Around the goal of “transforming villagers’ thinking and stimulating the endogenous power of poverty alleviation”, the working group together with the new village Party branch committee and villagers’ committee launched a series of combined measures. Efforts have been made in various forms, like ideological and moral star-level management, moral lecture hall, new mechanism of Party building to guide grassroots governance as well as numerous cultural activities. The villagers have changed the backward thought of “waiting and depending on others” that they had been accustomed to for many years.
The villagers have changed from skepticism, hesitation and opposition to the active participation in the construction and development of the village, even at the expense of their own interests.
They have adopted a new vision to recognize and change themselves.
Actions for development
The core change brought by being the “first place for targeted poverty alleviation” is the establishment of more contact with the outside world.
Making connections is an opportunity for development.
The “enclave economy” has been developed in Shibadong Village. With only a little of arable land per person, the village’s first pillar industry is located in Huayuan Town, which is more than 30 kilometers away. They transferred 1,000 mu (about 66.67 hectares) of land. The villagers jointly participated in the development of the kiwifruit industry in cooperation with Miaohanzi Fruit Industry Co., Ltd.. In 2017, the per capita annual dividends of kiwifruit sales for documented households reached 1,000 yuan, increasing to 1,600 yuan in 2019.
The cooperation with enterprises and universities has enabled the “old craft” to develop into a new industry. In 2014, Shibadong Village Miao Embroidery Specialty Farmers’ Professional Cooperative was established, training more than 50 skilled embroiderers. The monthly income per person was nearly 2,000 yuan when the orders were stable. With the cooperation of many parties, the Miao embroidery of Shibadong Village has been sold farther and farther. It has also been used as a high-end business gift of CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co.,Ltd., and has gone around the world with the high-speed railway.
Taking advantage of the entrepreneur representatives’ visit to the village, the village cadres took the initiative in recommending the mountain spring water, and eventually facilitated the cooperation with Better Life Group, one of China’s top 500 enterprises. In October 2017, a modern water plant was put into operation. The village collective took 15% of the shares with resources and brand, with a guaranteed annual dividend of 500,000 yuan. As the rural tourism in Shibadong Village is gaining in popularity, homestay inns and farmhouses have become important sources of income for villagers.
Today, the number of village’s farmhouses and homestay inns has grown to more than 20, with each earning an average annual income of 300,000 yuan. In 2019, the village received 600,000 tourists, generating a tourism revenue of 3.54 million yuan.
In February 2017, 533 poor people in 136 households in Shibadong Village were lifted out of poverty. The per capita net income of the village increased from 1,668 yuan in 2013 to 14,668 yuan in 2019. The collective economic income of the village amounted to 1.264 million yuan.
After gaining opportunities and development, Shibadong Village has not forgotten to share them. The village has taken the initiative in pairing up with neighboring villages to construct the “Shibadong Village Collective Economy Demonstration Base”, helping neighboring villages develop their collective economy. Now, all the villages in the area have gained stable collective economic income, showing remarkable driving effect.
Efforts towards future
Now, not only the people who went out to work have come back, but also the new generation with higher education, who have taken over the baton to build their hometown.
Shi Xiang returned to the village after graduating from college in 2018. She is the first docent of college student in the village. Her father, Shi Jinlan, is the follower of the village’s first docent Long Xiulin, shouldering the task of training local docents.
When Shi Xiang returned to the village, there were only two docents. But now there are 16 in total. They are all beautiful and young Miao girls who have received professional training and are familiar with the situation of the village as well as the background and stories of targeted poverty alleviation.
At the beginning of this year, Shi Kang also returned to the village and formed a team called “Three Little Shi” with Shi Zhichun and Shi Linjiao to shoot short videos in the village and promote Shibadong Village on the online platforms.
When the agricultural products of neighboring villages were dull of sale due to the epidemic, they actively helped to solve the pressing problems. It is difficult for Shi Jinlan to understand the new field of promoting the village and selling products on the Internet, but he still unconditionally supports his son and partners, who are among the first generation of college students to start their own business in the village.
Shi Jinlan firmly believes that these knowledgeable and insightful young people will take over the baton of rural revitalization and make Shibadong Village integrate into the tide of world development for a better future.
