Poverty alleviation efforts in ethnic minority region reap rewards

I was appointed as the "first secretary" in Maijiaping village, Dacao township, Yanyuan county, in Southwest China's Sichuan province from November 2015 to May 2019. After I arrived in the village in 2015, I regarded the village as home, treated the villagers as relatives, and devoted myself to the continuous innovation of our working manners.

Poverty alleviation and volunteer work were my primary aim, and we had widely sought public advice from the villagers. The production and living conditions of the villagers have been greatly improved. One of our primary duties is to liberate the people from poverty, and we have achieved it. Having worked as a photojournalist for 23 years, I did not put down my camera during my tenure as the first secretary there.

While carrying out poverty alleviation work, I had been recording the gratifying changes in the life of the villagers and the improvement of the village facilities in the past few years. Their faces are radiant with beautiful smiles after the poverty alleviation efforts fulfilled their hope. By and large, my hard work and achievements have won the villagers' praise, and my recorded images have become a testimony of the Yi ethnic people's escape from poverty. The experience has taught me a lifetime.

Maijiaping village had no cement roads in the past, no running water, no communication network, and its infrastructure construction was seriously lagging behind. In face of the poor production and living conditions, I felt at that time that "to fight poverty alleviation, we must start with what the masses are most eager for and most looking forward to, and focus on the village's weaknesses and make up for the shortcomings". Through in-depth investigation and research, I understand that the lack of infrastructure is the biggest weakness of Maijiaping village, and it is a problem that is crucial for the people there to be lifted out of poverty. For the infrastructure projects, I went to the construction site every two days to check on the construction progress and the construction quality to ensure that the construction project would be completed on time without sacrificing quality. In the construction of the Yi ethnic new town, I was personally involved in the measurement of each household's buildup area.

The infrastructure construction has improved the production and living conditions of the villagers, and one could easily see their joy on their faces. "The cement road is paved even inside the village. We don't have to spend three days traveling to the farmers market. We can sell the cattle and sheep at our doorstep.""Tap water is available at home. We no longer need transfer water in pots. We can also grow vegetables and fruit, and we now have a richer choice of food." I have seen the change in the village, and I am extremely glad that I was part of that change.

It is better to teach people how to fish than to give them fish. I know that the fight against poverty is not just to build a road and a few houses, but to create a sustainable economic model. However, in view of the actual condition in Maijiaping village, we need to keep a good grip on reality in this job. The average altitude is above 2,800 meters, and the temperature here varies greatly between day and night. The barren land was only suitable for the plantation of traditional crops such as buckwheat, oats and potatoes. How to adjust the agricultural structure and appropriately formulate and develop industries that enrich the villagers is a question I have been thinking about constantly. In-depth investigations and researches had been undertaken, and I was not sticking to conventions, not following the old ways, and constantly pushing out the horizon of our knowledge.

I had been spending time with them, pouring my life into them, be they of weddings or funerals. I spent time together with the villagers during festivals such as the Torch Festival and the Yi Ethnic New Year. In addition to capturing with my camera the remarkable moments of life in the village, I also took photos of the villagers' ID card and family portraits from house to house during my leisure time to have some heart-to-heart talk with them. I approached them honestly and directly, and try to work out a solution, and that certainly has boosted the strength of our mutual understanding.

The photographer's narrative is translated by Zhang Lei.