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Bayer lends helping hand to impoverished villages [China Daily: Hong Kong Edition](China Daily: Hong Kong Edition Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) A three-year poverty-relief project funded with foreign capital has helped transform Longtou village in Chongqing's Wanzhou district, according to a local government official. The joint effort by Germany's Bayer Group and the State Council's Foreign Capital Project Management Center began in 2012. It focused on rural development in four villages in Wanzhou, giving support to some 1,200 rural families, most of them living below the poverty line. Young volunteers together with pupils in a donated primary school after a paper-folding class in the Bayer program. Photos Provided to China Daily A volunteer plays basketball with students, who now have new sports facilities. "The Bayer rural development project is the first of its kind in Chongqing, and is a bold experiment in building a sustainable development approach to mitigating poverty," said Jiang Zuqing, deputy director of the Chongqing poverty alleviation office. "In four months the project will conclude, but we'll continue to work with Bayer to develop an innovative model and help rural residents become better off," Jiang said. The project has produced positive results over the past two years due to the support from various parties. "Bayer and the poverty alleviation office in Wanzhou have raised health awareness and the quality of life through improving road conditions and the drinking water system as well as protecting the environment and distributing medical equipment and loans," said Chen Changfei, deputy director of the China poverty alleviation department. The recent project also increased incomes of local residents, according to Chen. Bayer has invested nearly 5 million yuan ($814,000), part of it going to education, including improved classrooms, updated curricula and training for teachers. The company helped set up a new green computer classroom for Longtou Primary School, which is tucked away in a mountainous area nearly seven hours' drive from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport. "We opened the school for first and second grade students who live far away from other primary schools," said Wu Jiu'an, who is in charge of the school. Bayer not only provided chairs, desks, basketball stands, soccer and table tennis facilities, but also donated more than 20 computers, Wu said. In addition, Bayer sent volunteers to teach children and improve the learning environment. The company has also improved dorm conditions for teachers. "I used to live in very cramped space and could barely turn over in bed," said a teacher who has worked at the school for the past seven years. Now he's living in a modern apartment including a living room and a bedroom, along with Internet access and TV cable due to Bayer's support. In addition to giving support to education, the company helped villagers build water pipes to channel clean water into the school and rural households so they no longer need to trek long distances to get water. "It took nearly two hours for some villagers to fetch water for daily use before the Bayer project, but now they have tap water at home," said Xiang Cunqiong, deputy head of Wanzhou's Lishu township. More than 1,000 rural families have benefited from the water project, according to Xiang. Medical clinics were also upgraded in the Longtou, Hema, Yudu and Shiping villages to provide basic medical services for villagers. "We have donated medicine and diagnosis equipment and held health training sessions to increase their awareness of common diseases and public health topics," said Yuan Boyong, corporate social responsibility manager at Bayer. "We also funded road construction to improve transportation, which helps boost local agricultural production," Yuan said. The company also held more than 200 training sessions in the four villages to pass along knowledge about vegetable plantations, paddy and cornfield management, as well as pest control, according to Yuan. "The training helped to ensure good harvests and increase incomes while strengthening awareness of environmental protection and the negative impacts from pesticide and fertilizer use," said Feng Chunshou, a technical expert in Wanzhou. Bayer's project supported farmers' husbandry business plans of those very poor families and imparted breeding technologies to them, according to Feng. "Corporate social responsibility is a vital part of Bayer's overall strategy in China," said Johannes Dietsch, former president of the Bayer Greater China Group and now a member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG. "As an innovative company, we firmly believe that long-term success can only be achieved when treating economic, ecological and social commitments with equal importance," he said. First arriving in China in 1882, Bayer now considers the country as its largest single market in Asia, which generated more than 3.7 billion euros ($4.8 billion) in sales last year. The company has more than 13,000 employees in the country, which is also among the major focuses of the company's global investment. It has Bayer HealthCare, Bayer CropScience and Bayer MaterialScience subgroups and the service company Bayer Technology Services, and operates several production facilities in China. Bayer is positioned to remain a key partner in China's development and will continue efforts to boost the country's sustainable development, it said in a statement. [email protected] (China Daily 09/12/2014 page22) (c) 2014 China Daily Information Company. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |