Quick Access

• New Amity website
• MAKE A DONATION
• Video about Amity
• Book about Amity
• Teach with us in China
• Summer English Program
• Calling Young Adult Volunteers
• Service Learning
• Amity Printing Press
• Amity Art Center

Integrated Development: Report 2006

The Integrated Development Division represents the combination and streamlining of what have been two distinct divisions at the Amity Nanjing headquarters: Rural Development and Medical/Health. In 2006, overall management strategy was adapted to meet changing needs in our growing project work. The new categories of projects under this new umbrella include:

• Environmental protection
• Medical and health care
• Education
• Church-run community development
• Disaster relief and rehabilitation

Three management teams oversee the various aspects of the work in integrated development:

1) project operational management team
(Four subteams focus on four geographic divisions of the country: southwest, northwest, central west and central east. A fifth subteam handles the education-related rural project work for school-age children nationwide.)

2) project research and development team

3) resource management/partnership maintenance team

The principles we always aim to balance in our project work are: integrated, people-centered, participatory development; sustainability; environmental concern; gender issues, and respect for traditional culture and indigenous knowledge. We facilitate projects with three-party participation: the local government, the project experts and most importantly, the beneficiary community themselves.

In 2006 we received the help of experts and professors from Southeastern University as well as Action by Churches Together (ACT), to have external evaluations made on Amity village health worker training and disaster relief/rehabilitation projects.

Community development

With the vision of improving production and living conditions, and enhancing the mechanisms of management and decision-making in the communities, ongoing efforts were given to the development of community-based autonomous organizations related to micro-credit, tree and crop planting, animal husbandry, environmental protection and tourism development. We worked toward providing poorer communities with facilities for agricultural production, especially irrigation and water conservation equipment. All these activities helped a total of 1.2 million beneficiaries in 2006.

Vegetable farming technology

Qin Zhongde is a villager from Wengshui Village (Shangri-la, Yunnan). Last November, when Mr. Qin heard that Amity would hold a vegetable farming technology training class, he enrolled without hesitation. He soaked up every word from the teachers and read the training material contributed by Amity Project Office again and again. His wife joked, "In his youth he wouldn't touch a book! Now he is a very dutiful old student."

Due to his careful attention to the techniques he had received, the following autumn his field was filled with over ten varieties of vegetables, including tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, cauliflower, onions and parsley. He shared the joyful harvest with his family and neighbors, and also sold around 2,500 kg of his vegetables. Qin has now become a celebrity in the village. The villagers say the vegetables from his field are a good color and also delicious. Most importantly, Qin was able to really increase his income through vegetable production. Qin said, "Our previous training was just a kind of formality, but Amity's training really benefited me a lot."

Development for women

In Puding County, the Village Development Fund for Women was established in 1999. The first micro-credit loans were 600 yuan per household. From the beginning, 41-year-old Zhang Chengfen has been actively participating, faithfully attending training sessions and Amity's monthly meetings. Ms. Zhang has successfully paid and re-applied for loans for seven years.

Zhang Chengfen's family of five used to squeeze into a cottage of 20 sq. m that was given to them by her parents, and lived off of 0.1 hectare (1/4 acre) of land. Food and clothing were insufficient. She said, "I wanted to go out to work, but with all my children, it would not be easy; if I wanted to start a business by myself, without capital, without technology, without connections, how would it be possible?"

Zhang describes her first venture with a 600 yuan loan: "I spent more than 300 yuan to buy the first two piglets. I adopted the old-fashioned feeding method, using food scraps chopped together with grass cuttings and cooked thoroughly. One year later I was able to apply for a loan again, because I cleared 1,000 yuan! I suddenly found my life so rewarding. " That second year, she bought another five piglets.

Zhang Chengfen continues to gain from the Amity staff's training, learning how to manage family finances, along with how to raise pigs and chicken. She has now adopted a new regular immunization schedule and a short-period feeding method to raise her pigs. Her net profit has expanded to more than 3,000 yuan. In 2003 they built a concrete house of over 80 sq. m.

In order to further expand and develop her work, this year Ms. Zhang has applied again for a 2,000 yuan loan. She plants two acres of ryegrass, alfalfa and chicory. She said, "This saves us time and money. It saves us from the trouble of collecting pig grass in the fields, and also helps the pigs grow faster." Currently her family is raising two heads of buffalo, two big pigs, four medium-sized pigs, and six piglets, with a total value of around 10,000 yuan. She said to Amity staff, "Without the micro-credit project for women, we simply could not enjoy such a life today."