Kang Yongwei: Lifting Second Home out of Poverty

Kang Yongwei, an employee of Power Construction Corporation of China sent to Jihei village in Yading county, Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Sichuan province, has been devoted to local poverty alleviation for more than two years.

With limited natural resources and a severe environment, people in the region lived a poor life with undeveloped economic foundation. Although they bred livestock, their custom of no-killing limited their income from the industry.

Most of them made a living by digging wild herbs like Dongchongxiacao, or Chinese caterpillar fungus, a precious ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine.

For Kang, working in Jihei of Yading, located in the southeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is no difference from working in his hometown – the Loess Plateau – as both regions are at a high altitude with extremely impoverished areas.

The village is like another hometown for him.

To better learn villagers' living conditions, Kang visited all households in Jihei and recorded their basic information as soon as he arrived.

"Only by understanding villagers' conditions and learning about the issues they are concerned about can we solve the poverty problem from the root," he said.

According to Kang, there were 63 targeted poverty-alleviation households in the village. Most of the inhabitants lived on selling livestock and were less educated.

Many children there were not able to go to school and some of the villagers even had problems with food and clothes. Kang organized donation activities and encouraged his colleagues to donate clothes, toys and funds; 100,000 yuan ($14,950) was collected for local people.

Kang also helped the region develop industries and opened training courses on motorcar driving and planting. Infrastructure for medical care, housing, drinking water and power has also been constructed.

In addition, he made full use of local resources and promoted sale of safe and high-quality agricultural products to other regions.

2020 is a crucial year of winning the battle against poverty and the COVID-19 epidemic early this year was a great shock.

As Jihei is remote and would likely receive very little information on epidemic prevention and control, Kang rushed back to the village immediately and started a health check of migrant workers as they returned to the village following local government's deployment.

In the meantime, he publicized epidemic prevention and control information, organized visitors to quarantine and gave out masks. Purchase and delivery of daily use for each household were also part of Kang's everyday work.

Thanks to Kang's devotion, Jihei passed the poverty-alleviation inspection and was de-listed from poverty in 2019.

Kang visits a local family to learn about its living condition and demands in Jihei. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

Kang and his colleagues at work on epidemic prevention and control [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)