Am I doomed to poverty?


An account of one beneficiary of Amity's micro-finance program in Gansu Province, written by Wang Baocheng


Wu Guang Qin, a woman in her early forties, embodies the typical woman from China's northwestern countryside-- industrious, simple and strong spirited. I met Ms. Wu for the first time in 1999. On that day she wore a gray shirt, dark blue pants and a pair of black cotton shoes, with her hair pulled back showing a weathered but kind face, evidence of a life wrought from many years of hard work in the fields. Her clothes are not very modern, but she maintains a very clean appearance.

Wu Guangqin binds wheat for the grinding yard.

Wu Guang Qin was born to a very poor family in a mountainous region of China's northwest province of Gansu. Her hard life has made her cherish every opportunity to study, and she was an excellent student when she attended school. Upon graduating from junior high school, she dreamed of a promising future. However, her dream was soon shattered when her family realized that they had no way to afford the expensive tuition costs in order for her to continue with her education.

Like thousands of other Chinese girls who drop out, Wu Guang Qin left school to help her parents with the housework and heavy labor needed in the fields. In her spare time she learned to sew with her mother and the other village women. In the 1980s, she married another poor peasant farmer after a matchmaker's persuasion. Wu Guang Qin hoped that the new environment might give her the chance to change her station in life. Unfortunately, she found herself staying at home, confined to doing the same as always due to the limitations of poverty. The only obvious change was that she soon had more work to do, bringing up their newborn baby. The heavy labor in the fields, in addition to the monotony of daily housework, took their toll on her over the months and years, and she was left feeling drained of any enthusiasm for life. She often quarrelled severely with her husband and mother-in-law, even over trivial matters. She had no opportunity to earn money for herself and her family, and her husband and mother-in-law regarded her as incapable. Hence, in the home, Wu Guang Qin felt she did not receive any respect. Their living arrangement meant that she was expected to attentively serve and care for her mother-in-law. If the food she cooked did not satisfy her mother-in-law's appetite, the old woman would be angry with her. Her family was so poor that they couldn't even afford salt and ate very few vegetables. Only once a year, during the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) would her family be able to buy meat. Because of the family's poverty and inharmonious relations, others in the surrounding village disparaged her. In her own words about this time in her life, "Life was dull yet very hard."

In the early summer of 1999, a group of people came to her village and explained a micro-finance program. These people were from the county seat and promised to help women interested in starting their own businesses. Wu Guang Qin learned that women could get loans without any mortgage and would be allowed to freely conduct their own businesses. Furthermore, the project staff offered to teach them how to run a business and explain some of the gender issues involved before releasing loans, in addition to providing technical assistance after the loans had been made. In the beginning, Wu Guang Qin doubted that such a program were really true and assumed it was a fraud. "Why would an institution want to give loans to poor farmers without a mortgage, let alone the women," she thought. Longing to emerge from her lowly position as soon as possible, she squeezed the micro-finance training into about 20 days during the wheat harvest time, devotedly attending class every day. After training, Ms. Wu felt that she could not continue to lead her life in darkness. She remembers telling herself, "I am not inferior to my husband, I too can earn money to support my family." Wu Guang Qin had found a renewed confidence in herself and decided then and there that she would take a leap of faith.

During the loan application period, she applied for the maximum loan of RMB 600 (= USD 73). When Wu Guang Qin held the money for the first time in her hands she felt strangely afraid. In her own words, "I was 36 years old and had never before held more than RMB 40 (= USD 5 approx.) in my hands." Although she had made a very practical and detailed business plan before receiving the loan, she still had no way of knowing if it was realistic. Wu Guang Qin returned home to her husband and asked him what he thought she should do. Her husband responded, "You've studied these things but I have not, what use am I to help you? If you lose your business, I am here, don't worry."

Wu Guang Qin wanted to be certain her business would be a success, so she chose to raise pigs. The investment for such a business was low and she had experience from when she was a young girl. Summoning up her courage, she went to the market together with her husband and bought two feeder pigs. To help reduce costs, she formulated the feed with her own grain just as she had learned from the training. She was able to spend only a minimal amount on the minerals and bone powder she added to the feed. With what was left of her loan, she bought a pregnant sheep from her relatives. After careful feeding, the two pigs grew up and she sold them about three months later, making a net profit of RMB 200 (= USD 24). In comparison with traditional feeding methods, the raising period had been shortened by two months. Her sheep also bore one lamb three months later.

Excited by her initial success, Wu Guang Qin thought of a bigger plan. During the second loan application period, she applied again for the maximum loan of RMB 1,000 (= USD 122). In addition to continuing with her pig raising business, she also sought out a more lucrative venture. Farmers in her village had to make a trip to the nearest town in order to buy pesticides. If she could buy certified pesticides in bulk and bring them back to the village to sell to other farmers, she could make some profit while saving them a trip into town. She then contacted project staff and asked them to help her receive consultation on what pesticides would be best for her to buy. After receiving the information she needed from the County's Agricultural Technical Center about wheat disease, she made her purchase on credit from them.

When Wu Guang Qin took these pesticides home, she was apprehensive about how she would actually market them. Early that next morning after breakfast, she rode her bicycle to the neighboring village with the pesticides. This was the first time for her to do business this way and she felt unsure of how to hawk her supplies. Silently, she rode around the village until someone stopped her and asked what she was doing. She blushed and told the villager, showing him the certification that proved her pesticides were licensed and came from a reliable source. Wu Guang Qin was finally learning to do business on her own. She paid close attention to any new business opportunities that might arise. For example, some women came over to her wanting to buy pesticide, but they did not have the money to do so. They asked her whether they could give her their empty beer bottles in exchange for pesticide. At first, Wu Guang Qin did not agree because she did not know the price she could get for recycling the bottles. After visiting the local recycling center, she found that bottle collection was also a profitable business, and she then began collecting empty beer bottles as well. She even discovered that a large beer company agreed not only to reimburse her, but would also come to pick up the beer bottles for recycling, saving her the trouble of transporting the over 2,000 bottles she at one time had collected. Within the first month, she had made a profit of over RMB 500 (= USD 61). Now it was much easier to make money in comparison with the hard labor she once did before.

In order to expand her business, she prompted her husband to work with her. Even when he did such exhausting work as brick laying in the nearby city, it was still uncertain that he would receive his wages at all by the end of the year, since construction bosses often tell their workers they will only be paid when the money is available. When the couple had saved enough money they decided to build a two-room shop along their village's main street. Wu Guang Qin was interested in selling daily commodities. When she noticed that villagers had to go to the nearest town to process noodles, she borrowed RMB 2,000 (= USD 244) from a relative and bought a noodle machine. The people in her village could now buy freshly made noodles from her and did not have to go so far for them. She became quite busy with this new and profitable business. She also observed that children in the village went to the shop next door to buy candy. She again borrowed RMB 200 (= USD 24) from a relative and bought a few more household items to sell in her store. At the time of our interview with her, she told us excitedly that her family was earning a net profit of about RMB 20 (almost USD 2.5) a day, and that her husband now did not need to find outside work but could also help her in the fields.

Now, there is no more quarrelling in their family. The once stern face of Wu Guang Qin's mother-in-law has softened into a smile, and she now proudly tells other villagers what a good daughter-in-law she has. She too is happy that the family can now afford to buy better food and nicer clothes. Today, Wu Guang Qin's mother-in-law helps the family by preparing meals regularly. When Ms. Wu recalls her past, one can hear the emotion welling up in her voice, "I myself don't know how I survived back then, but now I know what life is supposed to feel like." The present Ms. Wu is not the same person she once was, not only has she gained the respect of her family but also the respect of her fellow villagers and neighbors.

Wu Guangqin (left, wearing blue shirt) meeting with members of the Village Center Management Committee. Wu's husband is sitting on the steps of the shop

I went to the project site recently, and met with Wu Guang Qin in her shop. She told me she was managing a group of villagers to plant and raise lilies for sale through a separate business located in Gansu's capital city of Lanzhou. Not long ago, a man visiting from Lanzhou came to her store and Wu Guang Qin asked him why he had travelled to their village. The man told her he was interested in renting a piece of land to plant lilies and had a relative who lived in the village he planned to ask for help. Upon hearing this, Wu Guang Qin offered to arrange a business deal for the man and later arranged for a plot of land for him to rent. Because of the willingness and aptitude she demonstrated, the businessman from Lanzhou decided to hire Wu Guang Qin as a supervisor of his lily plantation. She has overseen the hiring of several fellow villagers to work at planting lilies and pulling weeds. Now, the women she hired are able to earn a decent wage close to home. Also, thanks to Wu Guang Qin's persistence, she negotiated with their employer so that the women may earn RMB 7 a day instead of RMB 5.

Ms. Wu is only one example out of 2,000 clients who have received assistance though the micro-finance program. Many women like her have not only emerged from the darkness cast over them by the shadow of poverty but have also achieved a new and higher status among family and society. Most importantly, their successes, such as those of Wu Guang Qin, help build confidence in the women themselves and empower other women around them.