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Five More Greenhouses Built at Litang Rural Schools

By Wu Bangfu

December, 2009

Thanks to the "Ride for Green", an epic long distance bicycle journey across Kham completed by seven intrepid cyclists in the summer of 2006, Kham Aid Foundation raised nearly US$50,000 to build greenhouses for schools on the high grasslands of Kham.

In 2007 we selected the county where our project would take place and hired the contractor, Luozha.  He built the first five greenhouses at five primary schools of Xiongba, Gawa, Lamaya, Juewu and Labo Townships in Litang County. Since then, the harvests from the greenhouses have provided nutrition for the students and teachers of the schools of these remote rural outposts, places where the climate is otherwise inhospitable to growing vegetables.

After studying the outcome of the first five greenhouses we planned to construct five more greenhouses in 2008. We had already purchased and transported the steel framework and other construction materials to Litang when we were told that we must stop the construction work.  The reason for the halt was heightened political sensitivity in all Tibetan areas of China following demonstrations that had taken place in March.  We decided to store all of the materials at a facility owned by the Education Bureau of Litang County while we waited for permission to restart the program.  A year later, in spring of 2009, we received permission to go forward with the construction.

In June 2009 we sent the same contractor, Luozha, to the five schools to complete the greenhouse construction. We had planned to construct greenhouses of 320 square meters each, but we had to reduce the construction area to 200 square meters because of the combined effects of inflation and the cost of withdrawing, then re-sending, the workers to the construction sites. Additionally, some of the materials were damaged while in storage and had to be replaced.         

The construction work started in early June and was completed by month’s end.  As with our earlier five greenhouses, the second group of five were built with steel framework and the roofs covered by good quality weather-resistant plastic imported from Italy. The five greenhouses cost 144,000 yuan in total.

In accordance with our contract, both the Litang County Education Bureau and the individual schools contributed a portion of the cost as they had done for the five greenhouses we built two year ago. Each school also provided accommodation for builders. The Education Bureau appointed one staff member to work with Kham Aid as well. No sooner had the greenhouses been constructed completely than each school assigned a teacher to take charge of the greenhouses, including making preparations for planting.

Approximately one and half months later after the construction was finished, a total of 583 young school children in these five schools enjoyed the fresh taste of cabbage, radish, green onion, celery, and other vegetables from the greenhouses’ first harvest. The availability of fresh vegetables not only makes a difference in the students’ health, they are an additional incentive for parents to send their children to school, for fresh vegetables are not normally available to Tibetan herdsmen and are rarely found even in Tibetan farmers’ diets. With the last five greenhouses now up and running, our greenhouse project in Litang is providing fresh, nutritious vegetables to about 1200 students -- and dozens of teachers as well.

In 2008 political sensitivity badly affected our greenhouse construction, but since then the local government officials have gradually changed their attitude towards our program. In September 2009, the deputy county chief of Litang County took a group of education officials to the greenhouse in Juewu Central Primary School to show them Kham Aid Foundation’s work. The deputy county chief and the education officials gave high appraise to our greenhouse program. 

Many thanks to sponsors who supported the Ride for Green. While the bike trip is but a distant memory now, your contribution has made a great and lasting difference for students in Litang.