Project Name: Sustainable Rural Development
Code: GROUP
Project Type: Social; Agriculture; Culture
Project Dates: April 13th to 20th, 2018
Number of Participants: 1 leader and 14 workcampers
Location: Xian Niang Xi Natural Village, Chang Liu Administrative Village, Liang Kou Town, Conghua District, Guangzhou
Closest Airport: Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN)

Project Needs:

China is developing rapidly in the past decades, but as urbanization kicks in, the income gap between the rich and the poor increases. In China, adults, especially male from rural villages,often work in factories in cities to earn more income, leaving many elderly, women, and children alone in the villages. Surrounded by lakes, waterfalls, and mountains, the villagers living in Xian Niang Xi Natural Village is an example. They have little and limited access to the convenience of large city and are having lower incomes.

Meanwhile, with the fast paced and high demands of city life, Chinese living in the city often forgets or gets disconnected from the simplicity of nature. High demands and quick access for food can result in non-ecological and sometime unsafe or unhealthy manufacturing of food. Promoting organic farming and reminding people about the importance of nature itself is
crucial.

Project Aims:

 • Aid in the sustainable development of the rural Chinese village
• Assist the development of Women Mutual Aid Group so that women can provide support for each other and benefit the whole village
• Promote and conserve the traditional culture and heritage of the village
• Enrich villagers' cultural living, provide them learning opportunities and strengthen community recognition
• Enhance the interaction between city & village and strengthen community vitality
• Encourage people to reunite with nature, physically and spiritually
• Increase awareness of safe and ecological farming and their impact on health
• Spread the principles of environmental sustainability and raise active citizenship committed with a fairer society
• Inspire future changemakers who are impactful towards sustainable rural developmental issues

(Changemakers are individuals who gain skills and resources they need to collaborate on solving complex social problems)

Meals and Accommodation:

Grocery shopping and meals are prepared by the workcampers. A cooking and cleaning schedule will be arranged at the beginning of the workcamp, and workcampers will take turns with cooking and cleaning chores. Groceries will be shop from the local markets and directly from the villagers.

Accommodation is in the rural village hostel and is basic. Mattresses or beds are provided in the hostel. There is no need to bring your own sleeping bag.

Work/Activities:

• Harvest grain (summer)/ Harvest sugar mandarin and sweet potatoes (winter)
• Renovate village roads
• Learn cultural craftwork such as bamboo chair
• Learn to make traditional village dessert/food
• Participating in the Cook 4 Climate Action
• Participate in discussion on changemaking stories or ideas on rural development issues whether they are from your country or from others
• Visit the Ancestral Shrines Culture Exhibition Centre and the Temple of Wu
• Other duties assigned by Social Work Station or Women Mutual Aid Group

Local Partner Description:

Previously called Sun Yat-sen University – Hong Kong Polytechnic University Lu Geng Urban and Rural Mutual Aid Society, the Guangdong Lv Geng Social Work Development Centre (Lv Geng) is the only province level professional social work and service organization in Guangdong. Registered under and approved by the Bureau of Civil Affairs in Guangdong, Lv Geng is the social work institution and organization that spent the longest time in developing urban & rural community work, rural village social work, and disaster relief social work in China. Their work began in 2001, when the trailblazers of the society started social work development in rural ethnic minority village in Yunnan. Then in 2008 and 2009, the organization expanded their work areas and started their projects in Sichuan and Guangdong,respectively.

The practicing value of Lv Geng is "Urban & rural cooperation and fair trade to co-create ecological civilization and sustainable livelihood & culture". By means of community-based and integrated social work strategies, Lv Geng engages through community's economy,constructs community supporting network, and make use of professional methods of social work, to promote positive change microscopically at the personal, family, or community level,and macroscopically in terms of social policy and global ecological politics.