Village Poverty Elimination Leader Balances His Work with Pandemic Control

"Secretary Yu, could you help me sell hundreds of eggs?" asked Sun Yiliang, a resident in poverty, of Yu Jingcheng, Party secretary of the little village of Changposhan.

The remote village is located between two  mountains and belongs to Mayang Miao ethnic autonomous county, Huaihua city, Central China's Hunan province. Its economy has been lagging and the village is on the list of national precise poverty alleviation targets.

Yu was appointed in 2018 as the village's Party secretary and poverty alleviation team leader by State Grid Huaihua Power Supply Company, which belongs to State Grid Corporation of China. 

Sun’s egg business would have run smoothly had it not been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. All markets in the town closed so he could sell hardly more than 300 eggs. Sun was anxious about the loss of income and no solution occurred to him except to ask Yu for help. 

Yu finally found buyers for Sun after many tries and sold the eggs in a single day, which increased his income by 600 yuan ($84.82). 

"We are soldiers in the COVID-19 battle and also soldiers in the poverty alleviation battle," said Yu. In his opinion, the two things are both important and deserve equal attention.

As soon as the outbreak of the virus occurred Yu started working with the village's committee to form a COVID-19 prevention and control team on which he served as leader. They visited 388 local households with 1,658 residents in one day to identify those who needed to quarantine.

With his guidance, villagers have acquired proper individual protection methods and set up a temperature check station at the village entrance with volunteers on 24-hour duty.

Yu keeps in close contact with those in quarantine, buying living materials for them and encouraging them to face the special time actively. 

The pandemic has also affected the households in poverty to work outside. Yu has taken steps to recover local industries and continue poverty elimination efforts which already have helped 15 residences in six household get rid of poverty. 

As the village's team leader for poverty elimination for three years, Yu has helped the remote place increase income by over 200,000 yuan. He has written five thick work logs and knows all the difficulties of households in poverty. 

Villagers say they are relieved when Yu is on their side. 

With China's goal being to eliminate poverty within its borders by 2020, State Grid has taken up its responsibility by sending 1,293 teams with 4,371 people to villages stricken by poverty and appointing 977 people as villages' Party secretaries. Their efforts have supported 1,952 precise poverty alleviation targets nationwide.

(Executive editor: Zhang Tianyuan)