Village Development – Life changing through learning

Captivating’s village development project (in partnership with Heifer International China) has had a busy past few months. New villagers from stage 2 of the Daxi Village implementation plan (village # 1) received their gift animals from Captivating and along with it have been working hard to bend their minds around the new breeding methods. Breaking old traditions is not easy. Being accustomed to traditional farming methods (such as cooking all food before giving to the animals), having to pay/invest more money for better-quality feed for the animals, and trusting the new breeding cycle will make it all worth while is a big challenge. This is where training kicks in and is so important. The farmers/villagers were eager for all of this to make more sense and to learn the “scientific” breeding method. So, immediately following the supply of animals by Captivating, the Project Sunshine Training program began.

On December 10^th, 2012, a warm and lovely morning, Project Sunshine Training held an opening ceremony for the new family recipients at Daxi Village. For the next 4 days 60 villagers from the second stage of the Captivating/Heifer Program came to learn. The training included how to feed, manage and sire the livestock, as well as the prevention and control of animal diseases. Project Sunshine Training follows the needs of market, how to adjust the type and quantities of farmed animals, and will increase it’s impact with more families year by year as the project continues to grow and expand. All of this will help each family increase the yearly income and bring a hasty end to an impoverished life. As the villagers say, “Captivating, Heifer, and the local government are helping us see the hope of a better tomorrow”. We are thrilled to know that their children will benefit from all of this.