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Ansi Elementary School

UPM-KYMMENE/Phelex Reforestation Research Program

Facts about school:

Tuition and fees per year	RMB 180 ($22)	Per capita annual income	RMB 970 ($118)
Number of teachers	8	Number of students	154 (15% poor pupils)
Location	Approx.355 km from Xi'an, provincial capital of Shaanxi (Click for Map)
Remarks	One of the most severe soil erosion areas, at the speed of 8000~10000 tons/square kilometer per year, in Shaanxi Province

School and project photos:


Sponsors from UPM come to project site.		The sapling nursery of this project school.

Project developments:

At the end of 1999, the Phelex Foundation agreed to establish a nursery and reforestation project to help Ansi Elementary School sustain the tuition aid program.
Volunteer Li Tingrui, the forest stationmaster of Yan'an visited the project several times and provided a very specific layout of ditches and hills. He drew a detailed map to illustrate what to plant and where to plant from an expert point of view. His expert support led the school project to a confident start.
UPM-Kymmene Corporation of Finland adopted the project. The total funding of RMB 224,000 was set to develop a 3.3 acre tree sapling nursery, and 115.3 acres of forestland, creating a perennial, educational, natural environment.
Community Council held a meeting to decide about the land assigned to the school.
There were a lot of debates on who should yield the land, and for the first time participants experienced joint a decision-making process.
In 2000, the project made a profit of RMB18, 200 as the result of a production of 14 million sapling locust and apricots trees.
In Nov. 2002, antiseasonal vegetable greenhouse were setting up near the sapling nursery, 400 grape trees were planted to increase the program proceeds.
In the spring of 2003, 100 kg black locust seeds were sowed in the nursery. In the autumn the nursery produced 60, 000 qualified black locust saplings, 13, 000 of them were replanted in 700 mu forest farm, 47, 000 of them were sold out.
On 8 – 10 Oct, 2003, 4 of 7 cave dwellings collapsed, other 3 rooms were damaged and big cracks emerged on some walls because of rare heavy rain in 2 consecutive days. Antiseasonal vegetable greenhouse built in the end of 2002 also collapsed in this rare heavy rain.
Mr. Yacun Li, a Shanghai donor, funded 2004 annual tuition fees to Bing Xu, a needy child.
On 10 – 11 May, 2004, Ms. Yisu Lan, Chinese representative of UPM-KYMMENE, visited the school, inspected the tuition aid field, interviewed needy children's families, attended community council's meeting and donated RMB 35, 000 for reconstructing the collapsed school buildings and stationery worth RMB 5, 000 .
In 2004, the program gained RMB 4, 131.72 proceeds, spent RMB 3, 706 in funding 125 needy pupils.